HITMAN 2 - Tips and Tricks

Tips and tricks to simplify the game, avoid common mission failures etc.

HITMAN 2 Guides:

Basic Tips

All credit goes to (Im)mortal!

Using Contracts Mode for Challenges

Assassination feats can also be completed in contract mode.

If you’re struggling with targets ignoring toilets (Hold My Hair challenge) or you don’t have an electrocution phone for easy accident – look up a contract in your preferred location and filter by kill condition.

Object Drop Accidents

Specific kill conditions such as chandelier drop or coconut drop. You can get such kills on pacified targets/npcs. This way you avoid having to time your shot. To simplify the challenge – start the map on casual difficulty – you can pacify or eliminate the guards with small risk.

Same goes for oil drum fires. You can drag knocked out NPCs to oil drums and create a fire accident without having to manipulate AI to go there.

Silent Assassin Friendly Accidents

Lethal poison injection / consumed poison kills, gas container explosions (like one in the Haven jetski hut) and falling accidents don’t ruin SA rating when bodies are found as long as no one sees you inject / push / shoot.

Dead men tell no tales

Targets can see you perform illegal actions and you keep your SA rating when you eliminate them.

Target saw 47 trespass but SA indicator is still green.

Note: If a contract has “don’t get spotted” condition, you still fail that even though SA rating is not ruined.

Just doing their job

Dropping a gun on the floor separates guards from targets and helps remove guards from their posts. Multiple guns can clear out several guards at the same time.

Cover Advantage

Entering cover near open doors helps subdue people walking towards you without you being compromised. All you need to do is keep pressing your subdue button and 47 will grab an NPC.

This won’t compromise you. You can also grab people leaning on small obstacles like the one in Colorado basement interrogation room.

Nothing to see here

Briefcase allows carrying illegal items without attracting attention. You can’t pass frisk with an illegal item in a briefcase, so place it on the ground, pass a frisk then pick it up and guards won’t question you or make you pass frisk again.

In case you don’t care about sneaking things in… you can still carry things out without alerting everyone around you (data core in the Bank level).

Note: you can’t climb pipes with your briefcase, so if you’re going for a sniper kill, take your rifle out before you climb. This means you need to make sure no one is looking.

Personal Space Issues

Bumping into guards will separate them and your target, multiple bumps don’t make guards hostile.

Careful Assassin

Always turn electric devices off when you’re setting up electrocution kill. Don’t break an electric socket and then go turn the faucet on or step in the puddle. A wrong move like this will cost you an elusive target.

Can’t Breathe

Don’t walk into a room that has been chloroformed/poisoned without a gas mask disguise. If you don’t have this disguise available, turn off the poisoning device if you can.

Note: emetic gas grenade and emetic device are ok to detonate anywhere. 47 is currently unaffected by these.

Slow and Steady

Detection timer is longer when you’re crouch walking instead of crouch running.

More than I asked for

Turn distractions on and off quickly to avoid distracting more than one person.

Who’s there?

You can distract NPCs and make them go where you want them by simply standing in a trespassing zone. Fill their detection gauge just enough for them to get interested but not enough to catch you. This has a far greater range than a simple coin.

Unusual lockpicks

Propane flasks and fire extinguishers no longer unlock doors.

You should always use a lockpick (or an electronic key hacker, depending on level security). If for some reason you don’t want to do that a breaching charge or an AR/Shotgun can unlock most doors (sliding doors can’t be unlocked with a firearm).

Breaching charge is illegal, so don’t let anyone see you use it. Charge explosion itself is quiet enough that no one should notice it.

Situational Tricks

Using bullet impacts

Krugermeier bullet impact distraction doesn’t compromise your position or SA rating but clears out guards (good for SA/SO in Colorado when you need to get into the house basement). This pistol is very quiet and should be used for breaking cameras, shooting gas canisters, distractions etc.

Accidental Drowning

Shooting NPC’s leg while they are standing in the water results in an accident kill when they fall down. If you see a target standing in shallow water, take a shot from a safe position and you will get an easy accident kill.

Enough with the garbage bins

Coin / audio distraction placed in or near a toilet enables hold my hair challenge completion without the need to poison your target.

Just sleeping

Tranquilizer gun pacification doesn’t break SA when body is found and NPCs drop anything they are carrying (sedative poison breaks SA and it is harder to target a specific NPC).

Sudden Need to Puke

Emetic gun (unlocked by doing Haven level mastery) can easily separate a guard from your target or make your target throw up in the toilet without the need to poison them (you need to find a good location to shoot because they do go to a trash bin if it’s closer). Make sure no one sees you use the gun though.

Heard Something

A bullet impact near the ceiling can sometimes make NPCs go investigate the floor above.

Unlocking doors with coins

You can open locked doors by distracting someone (throw a coin at the base of the door, if it’s close enough the door will open when NPC tries to pick it up, even keycard doors will open).

Remote hacking

EMP device can hack laptops (Sapienza virus control), open doors that require keycards and erase evidence. You can place it or throw it but you need to aim carefully because EMP radius is not huge.

Remote Distraction

Shoot fuse boxes to initiate distraction from a distance.

Electrocution “accident”

If you need to complete an electrocution challenge for multiple targets, knock them out, drag them to a sink, overflow it and drop a taser/battery in the puddle. Surprisingly, no one will question that a pile of bodies and an electronic device means accident (provided of course you knock everyone out silently and no one finds that pile of bodies before you complete the kill). In the screenshot I went for simultaneous 5 target electrocution to complete Haven challenges without regard for SA rating.

Superhuman but not invincible

47 doesn’t get sick when he’s close to an emetic grenade but he gets knocked out by his own concussion devices and fails the mission. This is especially dangerous when you’re on an elusive target mission.

Briefcase Shenanigans

You can put an emetic gas device / flash robot in a briefcase and successfully activate them without being compromised.

You can stash a taser device in a briefcase, overflow a sink, drop your briefcase in the puddle you just made and electrocution will still happen even though your taser never physically touches the water.

Trojan Horse

Concussion duck can be picked up by an npc and that npc becomes a walking pacification machine. You can knock out multiple people at the same time. You won’t lose SA if no one is looking directly at your carrier. Same thing happens when they pick up and stash a flashing device in their pocket but you only have 3 seconds to knock everyone out or run through the area (beats throwing coins trying to distract everyone whenever you need to go fast).

Not Trespassing

Lockdown alarm overrides trespassing detection as long as NPCs are spooked (doesn’t affect guards). You can explode a duck and run through trespassing zones full of non-guard NPCs.

Long Distance Call

Shoot guards from afar (avoid accidental headshot kills) and they will run to the position of your shot leaving their posts without you losing SA rating. When they run to initial shot location they won’t know you made that shot so you can run past them without worrying about being compromised.

Where is it?

Throw a duck / phone / coin, pick it up and throw it again. NPC will go to the location of your last throw. This way you can lead NPCs far away from their original location.

Multi-knockout

Fire extinguishers knock out NPCs upon exploding without breaking your SA unless someone sees you shoot. For example, you can easily separate Ken Morgan and his bodyguard this way (in addition to other various methods, such as tranquilizer gun).

A Magic Trick

Some kills require you impale target on a pen or other sharp object. Most of the time targets have a story that you can follow which will make them lean over it or stand close to it. If for some reason you can’t complete the challenge (broken AI, contract that requires you kill an alternative target) you can knock out your target, drag them towards the object, lure a guard to wake them up, then eliminate / pacify the guard and quickly press X to do a context kill. You won’t get an SA rating but the challenge will be completed. Save point recommended to try multiple times (unless it is a contract, then you have to do it in one go).

This tactic initially created for the Bank level (Athena would not respond to distractions).