Unlocking the Power of Giga Ace: A Complete Guide to Maximizing Performance

When I first started playing Heist 2, I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by those ability-locked submarine areas. You know the ones—those frustrating zones blocked until you get specific equipment upgrades. It took me about three days of trial and error before I truly understood how the reputation system worked, and let me tell you, once I cracked the code, my gameplay transformed completely. The key lies in strategically building your local reputation—that's the magic number that determines when you can cash in for new submarine gear.

Here's what I wish someone had told me when I started: reputation isn't just about completing missions, it's about smart completion. From my experience, you typically need between 15-25 reputation points per area to unlock most submarine upgrades, though some late-game zones might require closer to 40. The beautiful part is the game gives you options—you can either perfect 2-3 difficult missions or complete 5-7 easier ones to hit those thresholds. Personally, I prefer mixing both approaches. I'd perfect two missions I'm good at, then breeze through four simpler ones. This approach usually gets me to the required reputation faster than sticking to just one method.

Now here's where most players mess up—they don't realize that resting at inns is actually a strategic decision, not just a healing mechanic. When you rest, you're not just recovering your party members (which is crucial since used robots stay unavailable until you rest), you're also cashing in your reputation for those sweet "bounty" rewards. I learned this the hard way—I once grinded reputation across three areas without resting, only to realize I'd been sitting on unused bounty rewards that could have made those missions easier. My rule of thumb now? I rest every time I accumulate about 20 reputation points, unless I'm specifically saving up for a major equipment unlock.

Building what the game calls "a deep bench of robots" completely changed my efficiency. Early on, I made the mistake of relying on the same 4-5 favorite robots for everything. Big mistake. After hitting multiple walls where I couldn't progress because my best teams were exhausted, I forced myself to develop at least 8 reliable robot squads. This meant occasionally using suboptimal teams for easier missions, but the payoff was enormous—I could complete 10-12 missions between inn visits instead of my previous 5-6. The game subtly teaches you this through the reputation system, but it's easy to miss if you're not paying attention.

The cloud-clearing animation when you uncover new map areas never gets old—there's something deeply satisfying about watching the world open up as your submarine capabilities expand. But what's even more satisfying is understanding how to strategically approach each new zone. My personal method involves scanning for mission clusters as soon as I enter a new area. I look for groups of 3-4 missions close together that vary in difficulty—this lets me chain completions efficiently. I've found that areas typically have around 8-12 total missions, so planning your route matters.

One thing the game doesn't explicitly tell you is that some missions give better reputation-to-time ratios. Through careful tracking (yes, I actually used a spreadsheet for this), I noticed that delivery-style missions often give 3-4 reputation points for about 10 minutes of work, while combat missions might give 5-6 points but take 20 minutes. Unless I specifically need combat practice, I'll prioritize the quicker missions early in my reputation grind. This efficiency mindset is exactly what the developers were pushing toward with this system—they want you thinking tactically about every aspect of your approach.

When it comes to cashing in bounty rewards, I've developed strong preferences. The equipment upgrades are obvious priorities, but don't sleep on the temporary buffs. There's one that increases mission rewards by 25% for your next three missions—if you time this right before tackling higher-difficulty missions, the snowball effect is incredible. I once chained this buff through six missions by carefully planning my rest schedule, effectively getting 1.5 missions worth of rewards for free.

The beauty of Giga Ace's system is how everything connects—your reputation determines your submarine capabilities, which determines your map access, which determines your mission variety, which circles back to reputation. It's this elegant loop that keeps you engaged without feeling grindy. I've probably put about 80 hours into Heist 2 at this point, and I'm still finding new ways to optimize this cycle. Just last week, I discovered that certain mission types in volcanic regions give bonus reputation if completed with specific robot types—something I wish I'd known 40 hours earlier!

What separates good players from great players in Heist 2 is understanding that unlocking the power of Giga Ace isn't about any single element—it's about how reputation, resting, team management, and mission selection all work together. The system gently guides you toward this realization, but the players who thrive are the ones who actively think about these connections. My biggest breakthrough came when I stopped seeing reputation as just a progression metric and started viewing it as a resource to be managed alongside my robot stamina and equipment needs.

Looking back, I estimate that applying these strategies cut my completion time by about 30% compared to my initial playthrough. Where I once struggled to unlock submarine equipment in 4-5 hour sessions, I can now typically get what I need from a new area in 2-3 hours. That's the real power of understanding Giga Ace's systems—it transforms what could feel like grinding into a satisfying puzzle of efficiency. The game wants you to think strategically about every rest, every mission choice, every team composition, and once you embrace that mindset, you're not just playing Heist 2—you're mastering it.