How to Beat Both Missions in Intravenous 3: Borderline's Free Prologue

Explosive Squat Games released Intravenous 3: Borderline as a completely free standalone prologue on October 2, bringing two full missions built to show off everything the solo-developed stealth series is adding in the mainline sequel. Players step into the boots of Gideon, a mercenary who lost everything after a confrontation with Steve, the protagonist of the original Intravenous 2, and now wants payback on everyone who set him up. Borderline is free to keep on Steam and was built specifically to showcase the stealth and combat systems coming to the full Intravenous 3, so the habits you build here carry straight into the full game when it arrives.

The prologue is built around a single idea: every encounter can be solved quietly or loudly, and the game never punishes you for switching mid-mission. That makes it a genuinely useful testing ground before the full release, since both of Borderline's levels are short enough to replay two or three times in one sitting while you figure out which approach suits you.

Two Missions, Two Completely Different Problems

Borderline ships with exactly two story missions: an infiltration of Boldi's Hideout and an assault on an Abandoned Prison. The first is built for stealth, with patrol routes, darkness, and sound serving as your main tools; the second is a much more open firefight where ammunition and positioning matter more than staying hidden. Treat them as two separate lessons rather than two versions of the same level. Boldi's Hideout rewards patience and planning, while the Abandoned Prison rewards reading a room fast and picking a defensible position before the first shot is fired.

Because there's no mid-mission save outside of checkpoints, it's worth clearing a short practice loop on normal difficulty first so you understand enemy sightlines before committing to a full stealth run. Dying to a patrol you hadn't scouted yet is the single most common way a quiet run falls apart in the opening minutes.

Ghosting Boldi's Hideout

Darkness is your primary resource in the hideout mission, and the game gives you a direct way to create more of it: knives can be used to silently smash light bulbs, collapsing a guard's patrol route into blind spots you can exploit. Clear bulbs along a patrol's edge rather than its center, since guards tend to notice a fully dark room faster than a dim one. Thrown objects like bricks work as a distraction tool, pulling a guard's attention toward a sound away from their patrol line, which opens a short window to slip past or move in for a takedown.

Watch for how enemies respond once they find something out of place. Explosive Squat Games has built Borderline's AI to coordinate once an alarm is triggered, meaning nearby guards actively search in groups rather than wandering back to their original routes individually. If a body is found or a light goes out unexpectedly, the safest move is usually to reposition entirely rather than wait out the search in the same room. The old approach of hiding in a corner until things calm down is far riskier here than it was in the earlier games.

Dragging unconscious or dead guards out of sightlines is still the single best habit to build early. A body left in an open corridor is the fastest way to turn a clean run into a three-guard search party, and Borderline's smaller, denser level layouts mean there are fewer places to stash evidence than in a full Intravenous level.

Surviving the Abandoned Prison the Loud Way

The second mission flips the formula: subtlety is optional, and the moment-to-moment combat is where Borderline's "brutal tactical gunplay" actually shows up. Positioning before the first shot matters more than reflexes once bullets start flying, since enemies use cover and call for backup rather than rushing blindly. Pick fights in corridors and doorways where only one or two guards can engage you at once, rather than open rooms where you can be flanked.

Ammunition is limited enough that spraying at the first guard you see will leave you short later in the mission, so prioritize headshots on isolated targets and save automatic weapons for moments when multiple enemies are already converging on your position. Extensive weapon customization returns from Intravenous 2, so take a moment in any safe area to attach what you've picked up: a suppressor keeps your position hidden for another few seconds even once you've committed to a loud approach, which can be enough time to reposition before the rest of the floor responds.

Gear Choices That Carry Into Intravenous 3

Because Borderline exists specifically to preview systems for the full game, the equipment and gadget choices you experiment with here are worth paying attention to beyond just finishing the prologue. The expanded tactical options mentioned in the game's own feature list show up as small decisions: whether to spend a gadget on a distraction early to skip a tough patrol, or save it for the mission's final, more heavily guarded objective. Neither mission punishes hoarding, but using tools early tends to open up more stealth options later rather than fewer.

Playing on a Controller

Borderline ships with full controller support on Steam, including DualSense and DualShock input, which is worth knowing going in since the original Intravenous games were built primarily around mouse-and-keyboard aiming. If you're coming from a pad, lean harder into the stealth mission first: slower, deliberate movement translates better to a controller than the fast flick-aiming the Abandoned Prison's firefights reward. Spend a few minutes in a quiet stretch of the hideout getting a feel for the lean and peek controls before engaging any patrol, since repositioning quickly with a stick is a different skill than doing it with a mouse.

What Borderline Sets Up for the Full Game

Intravenous 3 is currently targeting a Q2 2027 release and will put players in control of two protagonists, Steve and Sean, as they're forced to survive a relentless manhunt. Borderline's single-protagonist structure won't carry over directly, but the stealth-or-combat framework, the coordinated alarm responses, and the expanded gunplay all will. Spending an hour with Gideon now is the clearest look at that direction anyone outside the studio has had so far, and since the prologue costs nothing, there's no reason to wait for reviews of the full game to see how the systems actually feel.