To give gamers more power in the game, the developers have added tendrils. Radical has stated that the powers will be more meaningful, appearing as mutations and upgrades that let players decide how they want to play as Heller. The sonar includes a new pulse ability that highlights the key features of an environment to make it easier for the player to find someone, instead of looking in a large crowd for a person with an icon above their head.
Heller also has superhuman strength and agility, near-invulnerability to harm, near-flight leaping and gliding, infinite stamina, increased speed, and has a sonar sense. Heller can also sneak up on unsuspecting human enemies, inject them with the Blacklight virus turning them into 'BioBomb' to blow up spectacularly. Heller will be able to use weapons in the game, such as ripping the Gatling cannon off a tank and using it against enemies. To make sure that enemies do not overwhelm the player, Radical has created a dodging system and new, more realistic AI. Due to Blackwatch's actions in the Yellow Zone, if the player assumes the role of a soldier, people will react to him in a way that shows that they want nothing to do with him. Taking people's identities and shapeshifting into them has become more tactical. James Heller can shapeshift and assume other people's identities and memories by consuming them.
