Taking on Charlie in Condition Detachment is a pivotal point in your time with Deathloop. Not only do you begin to unravel some key threads in the underlying mystery of Blackreef, but you get guaranteed access to easily the most powerful Slab: Shift.

Like the Blink ability in Arkane’s previous game series, Dishonored, Shift lets Colt almost instantaneously teleport to a nearby location, opening up all sorts of new opportunities for exploration and combat.

On top of that, depending on your approach to Deathloop, the assault on Charlie’s Condition Detachment can be one of the most intense combat experiences anywhere in the game - so come prepared.

Lucky players might have already snagged the Shift Slab from Juliana by this point, and that is very helpful if you want to take advantage of a more measured approach. However, we’ll go over methods of how to deal with Charlie both with and without Shift.

How to complete Condition Detachment Without Shift

If you haven’t got the Shift Slab already, then you’re probably going to be in for a pretty big fight.

Charlie’s game opens up in Updaam at noon, and if you haven’t got a decent suite of weapons in your inventory already, you might want to swing past The Library first to hack open a few rare item cases.

Either way, Charlie’s game is across a bridge on the left-hand side of Updaam.

Go there, dealing with the Eternalists on the way, then climb the stairs to the front entrance.

Without Shift, you’re going to have to deal with a lot of enemies the old fashioned way, but luckily, like with a lot of Deathloop, they tend to come in gangs of around 5 if you play your cards right.

Immediately after the first door in the outside area of the game, you’ll face about five Eternalists, but they can be taken unaware for a slight advantage.

Without Shift, not a lot of sneaky side passages are open to you, so it’s probably just best to enter the game through the front door by pressing the button next to it.

Look to the right for a staircase. The game is crawling with Eternalists, and on your first time through this area without Shift, you’re going to have to fight your way to the top on foot.

You’re more than likely going the raise the alarm doing this, by which point, once you reach the top, Charlie will have retreated to his bunker on the roof of the building.

On the top floor where you can see the suspended planets on the ceiling, there’s a side door which leads to a room filled with lasers. Disarm the lasers by shooting the mines they’re attached to from a safe distance, then go out onto the roof.

There are more laser mines to disarm here, and on the other side is Charlie’s bunker.

The front door to the bunker is locked, so climb onto the top of it and clamber over to the other side. This door is open, but have your Hackamijig ready to disable the waiting turrets.

Bear left in this area, and you’ll be in Charlie’s bedroom. Inspect the notes and picture frame by his bedside, then melee the planks across the door to get into a storage office where you can read more clues on a computer terminal.

Now flushed out of his bunker, you can find Charlie shifting around the main game area, shouting.

Stay quiet and keep your gun trained on a particular spot. Eventually Charlie will Shift right in your crosshairs, where you can take him out easily.

With the Shift Slab now in hand, you can join up with the Space Invader quest section below.

How to complete Condition Detachment With Shift

Defeating Charlie the first time if you’ve already got the Shift Slab - and on subsequent runs - is a much simpler task.

As you approach the front of the Containment Detachment. You can Shift up into the window on the right to get a better angle on the Eternalists out front, or avoid them completely.

Then in front of the front door, jump and Shift up on the red rocks on your left, then head forward towards where you can see an Eternalist looking out to sea.

Deal with them, then turn around and look up the cliff face. Climb up as far as you can, then you can jump and Shift up to the green bunker above, effectively skipping the entire game.

Slip through the unlocked back door, then bear left into Charlie’s bedroom. Search the notes and picture frame by his bedside for a new lead, then break the planks across the door to access a storage office.

Here you’ll find more notes and a computer to read with more information.

Since you haven’t raised the alarm by coming this way, Charlie - flanked by a few Eternalists - will either be giving a speech on the top floor, or hiding in a side room on the top floor.

This is the time to go loud and take him out, either by throwing a grenade into the side room or going in swinging a shotgun.

Either way, if you have to retreat from the action back into Charlie’s offices. Once he’s been alarmed, Charlie will Shift constantly around the game looking for you.

When this happens, you can just camp out in one spot with a good sight line of one of the floors and wait for him to blink right into your crosshairs for an easy victory.

With some new resources in hand, you can then move on to the lead you found in Charlie’s bedroom.

How to turn on the rocket engines:

On your first tangle with Charlie, you’ll probably get a piece of intel which says you can take out everyone quickly by setting off the rocket engine the game is connected to.

This method doesn’t actually become feasible until much later in the game, when your attentions turn to Dr Wenjie.

To set off the rocket, you mean to insert charged batteries into all of the sockets in the rocket cockpit on the third floor, then ask Charlie’s computer butler, 2-Bit, to fire the engines.

• The batteries are scattered around the game, with two already in the cockpit.
• One is found in the nearby storage cupboard you come through when you Shift up the side of the building.
• Another is powering a machine on the ground floor.
• Then finally, the last battery is found next to the Class Pass door underneath the house.

Slot all of the batteries, then return to 2-Bit on the third floor and he can set off the rocket - doing all of that without raising the alarm is a big task though.

How to complete the Space Invader quest and find the bunker in Deathloop

Follow the lead from Charlie’s bedroom to Fristad Rock in the afternoon. Based on the picture, you’re looking for the wreckage of a crashed plane and a door marked with the numbers “09”.

Bear left as you exit Colt’s tunnels in Fristad Rock, then take a right turn underneath the sign into the mined area with a few wandering Eternalists.

Look right and out onto the frozen water, and you should see the plane wreckage.

Continue left past it, and around the cliff face then look left. Hidden here you’ll find the 09 door.

Inside the bunker, continue through the corridor then through the door on the right. Interact with the book on the console, and you’ll get another lead.

This time you need to head to Karl’s Bay to collect a cypher which can help get you into this bunker.

Make your way to Karl’s Bay, and The Yerhva that you’re directed to is just a bit in front of you if you turn right out of Colt’s tunnels.

Enter the code to the safe and you’ll get a new lead to go after Fia, as well as an interesting code from the surrounding notes with a code for Wenjie’s lab you can use later.

For more on breaking the cycle of Blackreef, check out our Deathloop guide for Visionary walkthroughs and the best items!

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