Whether you’re a seasoned assassin or just jumping into the World of Assassination for the first time, Hitman 3 has an often overwhelming number of things to do and even more ways to do them. Sure, figuring out how everything works is part of the job, but a little helping hand never hurt anyone. Our Hitman 3 beginner tips collection has some handy points to help you make every mission a success.
Do the Training
Unless you’ve been playing Hitman right up to Hitman 3’s launch, it’s a good idea to play Hitman 3’s prologue training missions. These acquaint you with the game’s basics, of course — controls, guards, mechanics, and so on — but the best part is replaying them for higher scores. Replays encourage you to think outside the box and take out targets in different ways, something vital to getting through Hitman 3’s main campaign.
For the Final Test, just make sure to ignore the story intel at the start the second time through. Killing the target and hiding his body without anyone noticing unlocks a special reward bonus.
Plan Carefully
Hitman 3 offers a chance to plan your mission before starting, letting you decide what gear to start with and, later, where in the mission you begin. It’s worth tinkering with your gear loadout even the first time through a mission though. Having a lockpick on hand, for example, or an extra melee weapon to throw can make a tremendous difference in getting through a tough situation.
Try and Try Again
More than half the fun in Hitman 3 is replaying missions. You won’t achieve anything approaching full completion the first time through, no matter how skilled you are. Completing more challenges and raising both your level and the area’s mastery level unlocks new ways to approach each mission. In some cases, these new paths are vital to pulling off one or two of the stage’s trickier special kills as well.
There’s also no harm using a first playthrough as a recon mission. Hitman 3 boasts detailed and complicated map layouts, especially later on. Getting a better idea of the map and, more importantly, discovering new locations for your map is often a better alternative to charging in and wasting time getting lost.
Follow the Story
Each mission in Hitman 3 offers multiple ways for 47 to assassinate his targets, but if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the choices, following the story intel paths is a good way to start. Most stages have at least one or two special stories to follow, and you don’t (usually) have far to go until one triggers. When you hear a sustained conversation, listen in.
Unless you’re playing on Hard mode, you’ll see a narration tag at the top of the screen and, at the end, can press the intel button to track it; you lose the ability to track it if you don’t press the button, so make sure to do it. Many special kills branch off these story paths anyway, so they’re helpful to follow even aside from the experience bonuses.
Have Mercy
Agent 47 has specified targets to destroy. Killing anyone else is a bad idea, no matter how many toys you pick up along the way, since it actually reduces your mission score. You gain some extra experience if the murdered NPC is a guard, but it’s still not enough to offset what you lose. That’s one of the most important beginner tips to remember for Hitman 3.
In almost every case, you can achieve the same result a death would have if you knock the NPC out. Try and keep plenty of non-lethal melee weapons on hand for sticky situations. Sometimes, the best course of action is throwing a bag of sugar in someone’s face and hiding in a laundry basket.
It should go without saying, but try to hide any unconscious NPCs if you need to go unnoticed. While discovering a body sometimes creates a good distraction, they will recognize you should you cross paths again as you likely will in smaller stages.
Run Away
Speaking of hiding, all is not lost should you blow your cover. Despite knowing a deadly assassin is present, your pursuers will eventually give up if you evade them long enough. There are different threat levels to be aware of as well.
“Searching” means someone is investigating a suspicious accident, and while being seen nearby won’t do you any favors, you can usually get away easily enough.
“Compromised” means someone saw through your disguise, usually if they see 47 commit a crime (hurt someone or break into restricted areas) or see him change his outfit. Always change where no one can see you. Fortunately, “compromised” isn’t the end of the world. Keep out of sight and you’ll be fine.
“Hunted” means combat ensues if your pursuers catch up, and you can’t hide in closets or bins to get away. Engaging in combat usually won’t end well, since 47’s foes tend to gang up. Just run away instead, and if you can get to a different area, they’ll give up and leave you be. In smaller stages, such as Dartmoor, this is naturally less easy to pull off.
Use Your Instincts
Agent 47 has finely honed instincts that let him see everything he can interact with and what type of people are around. Aside from marking out easy-to-miss items, it’s a handy way to keep track of your targets, always marked in red, and see where guards might be lurking. Best of all, it highlights areas you can hide bodies as well.
Take Risks, Save, and Experiment
There’s literally a dozen ways to do the same thing in Hitman 3, so take your time and experiment with them to see what happens and what alternative paths might open up. Even outside the special kills, you’ll be rewarded for almost any method of taking targets down and earn bonus experience for finding new areas, busting locks, and so on.
Unless you’re playing on the highest difficulty, guards are easy to outwit. If they don’t see something directly or it’s not very noisy, you can get away with a surprising amount of mischief.
Frequent saving means you can try again where you left off, should such a risk backfire. Just note you only get one save per mission on the highest difficulty.
Mind the Edge
Agent 47 can scale ledges and climb over almost any wall. Most times, you’ll want to avoid doing this. The goal is blending in, and nothing stands out more than a man with a barcode on his head who’s trying to climb walls. It always blows your cover and never ends well, so mind what buttons you press when you’re near ledges.
Escalations
Like its predecessors, Hitman 3 includes several challenge missions. These revolve around nondescript targets at locations you’ve visited and escalate as you progress — limiting your weapons or specifying specific kill methods, for instance. They’re also fantastic ways to increase your area mastery and character level, nab some special gear, and put your competitive assassin chops to the test with the game’s online leaderboards.
Thus armed with these Hitman 3 beginner tips, it’s time to get 47’s hands dirty. Check out our Hitman 3 special kills guides for all the best ways to eliminate 47’s targets and clear some of the game’s tougher challenges:
- Hitman 3: On Top of the World Special Kills Guide
- Hitman 3: Apex Predator Special Kills Guide
- Hitman 3: Death in the Family Special Kills Guide
