Skin Deep guide: Keep it stealthy and silly with these 11 tips

Our Skin Deep guide will help you keep it stealthy, learn how to master your environment, and kill space pirates in increasingly embarrassing ways—without killing yourself in the process. Remember: The cats you're rescuing might have nine lives, but you've only got one. Here's what you need to know.

 

The power of Pepper

Listen: You're going to find a lot of cool stuff when playing Skin Deep. A lot of that stuff is pretty useful, too. The thing is, you're never going to find anything as strong as plain old Pepper.

That's right. Pepper is one of the strongest and most broadly useful items in Skin Deep. It sounds improbable, but in Skin Deep, the most improbable strategies tend to be the strongest.

Pepper's offensive capabilities are unmatched. You can stun enemies by throwing a pinch of pepper in their face, then pounce on their back and slam them into items for big damage. You can also use Pepper to create flammable clouds that can be ignited with a lighter or metallic spark, completely obliterating a roomful of space pirates in seconds.

Of course, Pepper can also make you sneeze, and Nina Pasadena's nostrils have enough power to launch you upward so you can reach ledges and hidden items. Pepper can be found everywhere in Skin Deep, and there are even vending machines that dispense as many as you need.

 

Your body is a weapon

Your own body is a weapon in Skin Deep, and you can get out of some sticky situations without any weapons. Holding the 'Tab' key will bring up the context menu, letting you heal wounds or perform various actions that don't require any items.

Nina can spit, threaten, snap her fingers, or lie down from the context menu. Spitting at an enemy's feet will get their attention, snapping your fingers will alert pirates in the general vicinity, and threatening will attract basically everyone in the room.

Getting down on the ground allows you to roll, which is perfect for quickly moving across the ground without being seen. This is especially useful for avoiding turret fire during combat alerts. Just remember that some actions—like reloading guns—can't be performed until you stand back up.

 

The Third Lung

All MIOACorp Insurance Commandos are equipped with a Third Lung, letting them breathe in the vacuum of space. While the space pirates have Skullsavers (which can regenerate their body from just the head) they don't have that Third Lung. Use that to your advantage.

Use airlocks to take shortcuts to different parts of spaceships or to dispose of Skullsavers from defeated pirates. Better yet, throw items or trigger explosions to break open windows and depressurize entire rooms, completely clearing them of space pirates in an instant. More experienced pirates in later levels will lock down the windows, so make the fusebox your first priority when assessing the situation.

Pressure regulators can also be found near airlocks, and tampering with them will open up the doors and suck any nearby pirates into outer space. You can take the valve after tampering with them, giving you another tool to lure unsuspecting pirates into your traps.

 

Info Stations

Having trouble getting around? Just find an Information Station! Even though a ship is certainly in a crisis scenario if the silent alarm has been tripped and you've been defrosted, the usual facilities still work.

The stakes may be a little higher than normal, but you can still take a breather and check out one of the many blue Info Stations aboard each ship for directions. These kiosks highlight the locations of all cats, humans, fuseboxes, and more. They also show the locations of trash chutes and toilets, which are perfect for disposing of pirate Skullsavers.

 

Count your bullets

Getting your first gun in Skin Deep is an exciting moment, but you'll soon realize that guns aren't that much stronger than the everyday items you can find aboard each ship. Guns still have their uses, though, and they're much more versatile than you'd think.

Yes, you can shoot bullets from a gun, but there are other uses for those bullets. You can rack pistols and other guns to eject rounds from the chamber. You can throw the bullets to create sparks and trigger explosions, lure enemies away from patrol paths, and more. If the gun is empty, you can throw that too!

Spent rounds can also be collected from the ground after firing, and it's a good idea to keep a few in your pocket in case you need to break something (or spark an explosion).

 

Long-distance reading

Space pirates leave a lot of notes in Skin Deep—probably more than they should—and all sorts of useful info can be found scribbled on the walls of occupied spaceships. You don't even have to get close to them thanks to your handy Zoom Lens, either.

Don't forget about the Zoom Lens. You'll die so many unnecessary deaths trying to track down passwords or hints when you can just use the Zoom Lens to safely read them from afar. It's a simple tool, but it'll save your life.

 

Save those Swordfish

Swordfish drones are common security measures on the spaceships you infiltrate. They're super annoying at first, but you can actually use them to your advantage. When they detect a target, Swordfish launch themselves straight at it. Their blade lodges in the target, and attempting to remove them launches the Swordfish backwards and results in an explosion.

You can use that explosion to blow up windows, destroy objects, or even kill pirates. Just get a Swordfish stuck in you, open the healing menu to treat the wound, and watch it fly like a bottle rocket. It can be tricky to aim, but the explosion is so big that precision doesn't really matter.

 

Don't be afraid to die!

Death is a part of Skin Deep, so embrace it! That doesn't mean that death is an expected part of the experience and that you'll have to try again and again until you succeed. It means that death is literally a tool in your arsenal.

When your health falls to zero, you can use an Auto-Defib to revive yourself and zap every space pirate in the vicinity. Because of this, there's nothing stopping you from running into a crowded room, getting loaded with bullets, and then reviving with a shocktastic Auto-Defib explosion.

 

Lost and Found

If you're running in circles looking for that Cat Key that was definitely somewhere in that room before, it's probably in the Lost and Found.

Each ship has a Lost and Found that automatically collects any items that you forget to collect. The despawn timer is pretty short in Skin Deep, so it's easy to ignore (or set down) an important item, go exploring for a few seconds, and return to find it gone. If you don't pick up the valves from the airlock pressure regulators, for example, they'll end up in the Lost and Found. Always check the Lost and Found to see what you've missed when combing through a ship.

 

Prepping for pirates

Pirates will send reinforcements at the end of a level once all cats have been rescued, and your final objective will be to clear the ship of pirates or escape with their boarding pod. You're usually given a gun or two, but you don't need to waste any bullets when dealing with reinforcements.

You have time to prepare before pirate reinforcements arrive, so set a trap and clear them all in one fell swoop. Lure them into a room with windows and then break one to depressurize the area, sucking them all into space and instantly completing the mission once their Skullsavers are ejected.

 

Break the rules

You'll come across several safety signs as you explore new ships, and these rules are meant to be broken. They're hidden tutorials that teach you the best ways to use the mundane items you can find in each room.

If you see a sign warning against throwing food, then it's probably a good idea to toss some snacks at the next pirates you see. If an object has a flammable label on it, treat it as less of a warning and more of an inspiration. Each item has several possible environmental interactions, so don't get too comfortable with one or two strategies. Look around and learn.

Following these 11 tips will make you one of the best insurance commandos MIAOCorp has ever seen. There are more advanced strategies to discover in Skin Deep though, so keep an eye out for new items (and ways to combine them).

Skin Deep is available now on the Epic Games Store.