Finding the katana
A swashbuckling adventure awaits your ragtag crew in SteamWorld Heist 2! Ridiculous trick-shots may be one of the game's main appeals, but players looking to slice and dice their enemies into neat piles of scrap need look no further - the secret Katana weapon is sure to be a dream come true.
Boasting 7 melee damage, 2 critical hit damage, and +2 bonus movement, the katana is one of the game's most formidable Flanker weapons. Even more impressive is its passive ability - turning the wielder invisible (and therefore immune to all damage for a turn) when they strike a deadly blow.
Where is the katana, anyway?
After emerging victorious from the boss fight in the Sunken Vault mission, Quincy and the crew are chased out of the southern half of the world map when a frankly ridiculous number of navy ships start closing in. The katana can only be unlocked during this part of the game - if you flee north of the wall, you won't be able to get the katana without starting a new game.
Escaping them isn't particularly easy (even with the newly unlocked ability to sink beneath the waves), but the armada can be made slightly more manageable through the game's custom difficulty settings - turning down 'naval combat difficulty' and 'naval enemy density' to reduce their damage and numbers respectively.
With that in mind, you'll need to make your way back to the Flooded Burrow bar and continue past it to find a whirlpool to the south-east. Use it, and the crew will end up in an unfamiliar area; you'll find the katana here in a box, and can then use another whirlpool to get back to the main area and resume your escape.
Trying to use this whirlpool outside of the escape sequence isn't entirely useless - you'll be sent to a lighthouse with some loot, but it's just not as exciting, is it?
What's it good for?
SteamWorld Heist 2 is a game of many synergies, and in my humble opinion, a large part of the fun comes from finding them yourself. In the right hands and circumstances, the katana can be game-breaking - and in the next section, I'll share some of my favourite discoveries.
