Image: Mundfish, Focus Entertainment, 4Divinity via HGG
My name is Gibson Vasela. I am a freelance writer who has been playing video games for almost 20 years now. I play all kinds of games, but I especially love immersive sims and RPGs.
Reviewed by Benjamin Barr
Atomic Heart is here at last, after many years of waiting. The game features beautiful graphics, satisfying gameplay… and a huge host of powers for users to upgrade and play around with! But out of all the five polymer abilities available in Atomic Heart, which ones are the best to use?
We are going to be going over every Polymer Ability and power in Atomic Heart, ranking them all from good to best, and explaining why they are so great. We’ll also be giving you some tips and tricks on how to make the most out of them, and what abilities work best with one another.
Polymer Abilities Overview
Before we begin, let’s first discuss what polymer abilities are exactly and how you can equip/upgrade them in Atomic Heart. Polymer abilities are powers that your character can use in combat, as well as to occasionally solve a puzzle. They are active abilities, meaning that you need to press a button to use them and they are not done passively.
There are a total of five in them in the game. One of them is given to you automatically and cannot be removed, while the rest you need to purchase to unlock. The abilities in the game are as follows:
- Shok
- Frostbite
- Mass Telekinesis
- Polymeric Jet
- Polymeric Shield
In order to purchase these abilities (excluding Shok), you are going to need something called Polymer. This substance acts as a currency, and it is needed to buy and upgrade abilities. It can be gathered by looting containers and enemies in the world. To purchase a polymer ability, you will need to visit NORA. This is a sentient crafting station that is bright red in color and commonly found near save points.
After interacting with her, simply navigate to the respective skill tree to purchase the power that you want. After you buy the power with Polymer, follow the button prompts display to equip it. You can only have two abilities (excluding Shok) equipped at once, so choose wisely.
You can then upgrade the ability from the same menu. Additionally, you can refund the ability to get all of your Polymer back at any time by selecting the ability from NORA in the skill tree and pressing the button shown to the right.
Every Polymer Ability in Atomic Heart, Ranked Good to Best
Without any more delays, let’s jump right into this ranking!
5/5
Shok
Starting off our ranking, we have the ability Shok! Shok is an electro-kinetic ability that should be very familiar to players if they have ever played the game Bioshock. It allows P-3 to send out a quick zap of energy to an opponent. This deals damage to them and stuns them for a bit. It’s a mandatory power that players will have equipped with them at all times throughout their play through of the game.
If we were ranking this ability based on usefulness… then it would HAVE to be number one, as it’s a mandatory power to have for completing certain puzzles to progress the story. Without this ability, you wouldn’t be able to get through the campaign. However, outside of puzzle-solving, it really isn’t that great compared to a lot of the other abilities in the game. In my playtime, it doesn’t seem to deal that much damage even when it is fully upgraded.
One unique feature that this power has is the ability to disable cameras. But I don’t see what the point is in disabling a camera for a few seconds when you can just shoot the camera to destroy it. It’s not like you get detected or anything when you destroy one, so why bother using Shok on it? Thankfully, this ability does not need to be equipped into one of the two ability slots and has its own dedicated button. This means it’s worth using in combat anyway, even if it’s not that strong.
4/5
Polymeric Shield
Now at spot four, we have the Polymeric Shield! This is a very underrated ability in my opinion, and I think that more people should use it in their playthroughs. It’s still not as good as some other abilities, however, hence why it’s at spot number four. Upon activation, your glove will create a strong shield that can not only block damage from enemies but reflect it right back at them!
It’s pretty weak when you first get it, but after some upgrades, it becomes very strong. It can reflect both melee damage as well as ranged damage back at targets, making it great to use in many different circumstances. This power is most effective for people doing melee builds, as it allows you to get much more aggressive with enemies without fear of being knocked over or killed.
Another really great thing about it is that it’s useful for getting out of situations in which you are being cornered or trapped by enemies. Several times in my play through I’ve found myself being swarmed by enemies and in desperate need to relocate. So I activated my shield and managed to slip past enemies that were giving me trouble. This ability does not have a lot of synergy with the other powers, so you can combine it with whatever you want.
3/5
Polymeric Jet
Next up we have the Polymeric Jet! While personally, I’m not a big fan of it, this is not a bad power by any means. In fact, it is actually incredibly strong when you combine it with the right abilities. What this power does is allow users to spray an area with polymer. Once it has been sprayed, players can hit it with some elemental damage, dealing out that damage type to any enemies unfortunate enough to step in it.
This power will amplify the damage dished out by your cartridges and your elemental abilities, making them much more effective at killing targets. The fact that you need other powers and cartridges to use this power makes it weaker in my opinion, but the extra damage dealt is usually worth the effort. This is a pretty strong ability when it has all the upgrades and it’s used with the right powers. If you want to use this power for your build in Atomic Heart, I recommend that you also take the Frostbite Polymer Ability so that you can use it in tandem. Also, make sure you use Shok often as well.
I also recommend that you upgrade your weapons to use cartridges more effectively. It normally takes a few seconds to put one onto your weapon. However, you can speed it up with the right upgrades. This further incentivizes players to use the Polymeric Jet. The best time to use this ability is when facing big groups of enemies, as you can spray the whole area in polymer and then zap it to electrify everyone in sight!
2/5
Frostbite
Coming up next we have the ability Frostbite! This is an elemental power that allows its users to send out a freezing blast of cryo energy. Upon making contact with an enemy for long enough, it will freeze them in place! This leaves them vulnerable to attacks of all kinds. Meaning, it is very good for disabling enemies that are giving you trouble. I found it very useful when going up against the Rotorbots in the open-world segments.
Once you have all the upgrades, this Polymer Ability becomes very good for crowd control. You can get an upgrade that causes cryo to be sent out in a cone shape. This upgrade makes it easier to freeze multiple different enemies at once. There are many instances in the game in which players will be surrounded by enemies and need a chance to breathe. Frostbite is one great ability that makes dealing with these encounters much less of a headache.
I highly recommend that you take this if you are doing a melee build. This is without a doubt the best ability to have for that style of gameplay. It prevents enemies from doing unblockable attacks on you. You can freeze a difficult enemy and then get behind them so that, when they unfreeze, they will have to adjust themselves to face you.. You can later upgrade this ability to deal damage to enemies that are already frozen, which is very good for taking on all types of targets.
1/5
Mass Telekinesis
And lastly, at spot number one on this ranking for every Polymer Ability in Atomic Heart, we have Mass Telekinesis! When you use this ability on enemies, it will cause them to go flying up in the air where they will hover in place. After a few seconds, they will come crashing down to the ground. Before they fall down, they will be vulnerable to your attacks and unable to deal any damage of their own.
This is the BEST crowd control power in Atomic Heart, and it’s so useful for getting groups of enemies to leave you alone. If you are cornered or in desperate need of space, just use it and it will automatically send whole groups of enemies up into the air!
However, I do not recommend getting this ability for melee users, as sometimes they will be carried so high up that you can’t hit them with your melee weapons. This is a power best reserved for ranged playthroughs.
When you first get this Polymer Ability, enemies will not take any damage when this is used on them. You will need to upgrade it so that when they fall down, then they will take some damage. Thankfully Polymer is fairly abundant in Atomic Heart, so it should not take you that long to get enough of it in order to get all the skill upgrades that you need. This is a good ability to combine with Polymer Jet. You can coat enemies that are floating in the air with the stuff, and then zap them for big damage!
Join The High Ground!
We hope that you found this ranking for every Polymer Ability in Atomic Heart informative. What are your favorite Atomic Heart abilities/powers? Be sure to tell us down in the comments below! And make sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more regular content. We offer features on all the best FPS games.
Happy gaming!
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