How to Survive Dead Space’s Impossible Mode

The Dead Space remake is out and resurrects all the horror and paranoia of the original while adding a few fresh twists of its own. Among the returning features, the remake brings back impossible mode. However, just in case the necromorphs being harder wasn’t enough for you, you only have one chance, one life to make it through the entirety of the game.

If you die that’s it for your run, you either have to downgrade to hard or start from the beginning. To make matters worse, you can’t start impossible on NG+. It has to be a fresh run. So how are you supposed to survive the onslaught of necromorphs in this hardcore experience? Well here are a few tips to survive your trek on the Ishimura. 

Dead Space Weapons to Survive Impossible Mode

Dead Space has a lot of cool, powerful weapons to hack apart the undead crew of the Ishimura with. You’ll likely be tempted to equip as many of them as possible during your impossible run. How can too many weapons be a problem? There are a few reasons you want to limit the number of weapons you carry.

Not all weapons are as strong as some others. There is also the issue of specialization. Take, for example, the ripper, it’s great for individual monsters coming at you, but you can get overwhelmed quickly.

The game also has a mechanic in which only ammo drops for weapons that you have equipped. If you carry too many specialized weapons, you’ll start feeling like you don’t have ammo for the correct weapon often. There’s also the question of upgrading weapons. If you use all four equipment slots, you won’t have enough nodes to upgrade your rig and all the weapons. 

The plasma cutter upgrade tree

The Plasma Cutter

So what’s the answer then? What weapons should you use? The plasma cutter is a must-use. It is a staple of the series for a reason. It is versatile, powerful, and, most importantly, great for taking limbs off. Fully upgraded, it deals heavy damage with additional damage over time, has a massive clip (for its strength), and can even knock certain enemies over with a melee if they get too close, including the massive, terrifying, regenerative Hunter.

Other Weapons

As for other weapons, I would only bring one other weapon. I’d use whatever you’re comfortable with, although I’d recommend something with an area-of-effect attack for the swarmers. The pulse rifle or the force gun are good choices. Using only two weapons will ensure that you’re always getting useful ammo and that you have enough nodes to fully upgrade them. 

Swarmers

Use Stasis

Now, this is a tip that may seem obvious. However, as veterans of the series will tell you, your instinct is to save it until you need it. Then you never end up using it. In impossible mode, it is a life-saver though. It gets stronger after having completed the side quest “Premeditated Malpractice” which rewards an improved stasis module too.

An enemy caught in stasis

The ability to slow enemies to a near halt allows you to quickly dismember them or focus on other enemies coming after you. It can also save you ammo as you can stasis an enemy and use your stomp to finish them. This can be quite risky before obtaining the upgraded module though. Either way, do not be afraid to unload on the necromorphs with stasis as there are recharge stations all over the ship, and the packs you can carry in your inventory drop like candy on Halloween. 

Use Kinesis on Everything

Perhaps the most important tip I can give is to use kinesis. Kinesis is one of the most powerful tools in Dead Space The video below is a perfect example of why. You can see that I clear the entire room without firing a single shot from my plasma cutter.

There are a variety of things you can use kinesis with but the main ones to look for are the thin rods with the light blue shine at the end, the hollow tube with the blue rim on the end seen in the thumbnail of the video, and the necromorphs’ blades. The tube and the rods are one-shots.

The necromorphs’ blades, whether it’s the tails of the leapers or hands of the slashers, are more common being that these are enemies that will threaten you constantly. Those will be two shots for early-game necromorphs and up to sometimes five for the red-eyed ones you’ll see closer to the end of the game. 

Left-Slasher, Right-Leaper

You can also use kinesis to throw bombs or stasis tubes at enemies. Even throwing a crate or other blunt object at an enemy can stagger them and give you an extra second to reload or find something more deadly to throw at them.

Be Prepared for the Hunter

It’s always important to be prepared if you know something is coming in Dead Space. At no time is this more important than in chapter 5 when you first encounter the Hunter. Normally when you enter medical at the beginning of this chapter all the doors get locked forcing you to go straight to the hunter, however, there is a way to slip by into the emergency room on the left.

Entrance to Medical

If you hug the left wall instead of going towards the center of the room the doors won’t lock. This allows you to loot things you didn’t have clearance for before and get the battery back into the wall before the chaos of the Hunter and several necromorphs chasing you get in the way of that. While it doesn’t allow you to kill the necromorphs, with the battery already in the wall by the time you return with the Hunter in tow, you’ll be able to run away without wasting ammo. 

Know When Backtracking is Worth it

Two things added to the remake are a security clearance system and the side quests Obtaining the security clearance happens naturally with the story. However, to open all the doors you’d be required to backtrack. The same goes for the side quests. Keep in mind this is dangerous as the Dead Space remake has random necromorph encounters which can ruin your impossible mode run. 

Side Quests

Only two of the three sidequests are worth doing during your impossible mode run. As mentioned earlier “Premeditated Malpractice” is worth it for the upgraded stasis module alone. The other side quest you should do is “You are not Authorized”. This quest rewards you with the master security clearance. This allows you to gain access to rooms and containers that hold upgrades for your weapons and lots of resources. 

Master Security Crate

Security Doors

Not all security doors are worth going for. Some can end up quite far out of your way and contain minimal loot. While the lower ones can have nodes, clearance level 1 doors are almost never worth it. On the other side, master-level clearance doors and crates, and security level 3 doors are almost always worth it. They usually contain a lot of resources and a weapon upgrade. 

Save Often Throughout Your Impossible Run

While it may seem scary to save often knowing you only have one save slot available, you should save at every single save station you see. This is important to remember because there is no autosave in impossible mode. If for some reason your game crashes or something causes it close, your manual save is all you have. 

Save Station

There is also an interesting workaround to the not-being-allowed-to-die issue. If you see the death coming you can quit before you die. Then you can reload your last save. This may not be for you though if you’re a Dead Space veteran playing impossible mode for the challenge. For those of you achievement hunters, this is definitely a tip for you. 

As long you follow these tips your attempt at impossible mode should go a lot smoother. You may even find that Dead Space‘s impossible mode is actually quite possible earning you an achievement, a new suit, and a secret weapon. KeenGamer also has a list of all the other achievements here. To check out more Dead Space content you can check out EA’s dedicated page.