Hello there! Evil Genius 2 Lead Designer Rich Edwards here, once again blogging for your pleasure. This week, we’ll be looking into Trapping and Capturing enemy Agents – both essential for budding supervillains!

It’s A Trap!

In Evil Genius 2, Traps feed into Lair defense. We’ve previously chatted about how you can defend your base with the help of Guards or other Muscle minions…but what sets traps apart from their fleshy counterparts?

For starters, they don’t talk back and they seem to genuinely enjoy their jobs. Not like some yellow-jumpsuited minions I could care to mention... If your Lair has power, your Traps are usually watching for intruders and when their inbuilt sensors detect someone suspicious then they’ll spring into action.

Now, it’s worth nothing that Traps aren’t a 100% - Agents can disable them, and they do have a cooldown period. Evil never rests, and Traps never sleep.

There’s a few traps I can’t get enough of. For starters, we have the Venus Spy Trap, a great big carnivorous plant that may change your mind about going vegan. But right now, my favorite is the Bubble Cannon. Using an advanced branch of science you and I have never heard of before, it traps Agents in an inescapable prison of soap and water, leaving them floating, completely defenseless, and at your mercy.

Our producer Ash has said that he likes the Freeze Ray because of how pretty the VFX is, in addition to it being ‘classic villain stuff,’ whatever that means.

But, do you know what’s cooler than one Trap by itself? Combining Traps! We’ve touched on Trap Networks before, but let’s dig a little deeper into how they can really help take your Lair Defense to the next level. Your Fan Trap can blows someone in a straight line, have them hit a wall, and take some damage from the experience. But, what if you could subject them to something else mid-blow? Have them pass through a wall of flames, or end their trip with a dunk in a Shark Tank, to create a horrendous chain of events that will leave your enemies spinning.

It’s worth paying attention to the order you place your Traps in – lay out your Lair for maximum damage and pair your Traps to really clean house. Some traps are easier to avoid than others. That fan I mentioned, for instance, might be easily sabotaged by a low level agent, but something more nefarious will catch them out, leaving them vulnerable to the fan.

And let’s look at that flame thrower. If you set fire to someone and then push them into your shark tank, well, that fire is going to be very short lived. Hopefully the same can be said of your victim, but you might be better off letting them burn just a little longer.

Here’s a personal little favourite of mine – a pair of enormous, oversized pinball bumpers, and a single fan positioned to perfectly bounce an agent, time and time again, against the two.

I’m already expecting you all to ask how many Traps you could possibly combine in the creation of your Lair – and I have the answer ready to go. You can combine as many Traps as you want! The two biggest only two limitations; your imagination, and the strength of your enemies.

Oh. And your budget. Terms and conditions apply, I guess, but these traps don’t come cheap, and someone’s got to pay for them. Best find a bank you’re willing to rob.

Which is any of them, right?

But, sometimes you don’t want to kill, and need to consider capturing your enemies…

Gotta Catch ‘Em All

Agents deal in secrets. They steal yours and they have their own. Some of those secrets could very lucrative, if only you could get your greedy hands on them. Problem with this is the Forces of Justice are very good at keeping their lips sealed. They’re the kind of person who has an industrial strength padlock on their diary.

As the old saying goes, we have ways of making people talk. First, you have to capture them.

The process of killing someone is an easy, two-step procedure: Reduce their Vitality to 0. Gloat.

Capturing someone is a bit harder. You need to make sure they’re alive, and that they can’t immediately attempt to escape prison. To do this, you’ll need to reduce their Skill – be it through lowering their confidence on the Casino’s rigged roulette tables, hitting them with Traps, applying Henchmen’s special abilities, or simply beating it out of them with a very large stick.

You’ll also need to reduce their Vitality. Not quite as far as Body Bag levels, but far enough to encourage them not to resist anymore.

Once you’ve captured an agent, it’s up to you to break their resolve. Of course, we have the classic way of demoralizing a do-gooder, and that’s for the Evil Genius to mock their captive, explaining their plan to them in an attempt to drive home the futility of their heroics.

Oh, and those traps I keep going on about? They’re another, excellent way of reducing the Agent’s resolve.

Make sure you get your mockery in quickly, though, as Agent Skill will recover over time, leading to escape attempts.

After that, all you have to do is still them in an Interrogation chair and apply a few polite questions to earn your rewards.

When we talk about rewards, there’s a number of handy things you could get from a successful Interrogation. From Schemes, which are ways to take on the Forces of Justice to resources that advance objectives more quickly.

Of course, if you fancy just making someone yours, you can take an enemy Agent to the brainwasher, and turn them into one of your own minions. The type of Agent you brainwash will determine what kind of minion they become, so experiment with this. For example, brainwash an enemy Soldier and you’ll get a Guard. The better the Agent, the better your minion.

The Interrogation room also has a fancy chair. There’s not much else I can say about it…but it does look nice.

Just be careful how you go about dealing with these agents. The more of them who fail to report for duty, whether that’s because they’re waylaid in a holding cell or going up in smoke, the more likely the Forces of Justice are to send their top of the line Soldiers.

That about does it for this blog post! There are more things you can do with Traps and Interrogations, but sometimes the thrill is in discovery. I personally can’t wait for you to share your best Trap combo videos with us on social, or indeed through the Rebellion Discord (which you should definitely join!)

Until next time,

Rich Edwards

Lead Designer