i play fairly casually, but i have more time to play around with the Trilogy now, at Overall Master about 102.
I guess i can watch walkthroughs but it spoils the fun, y’know.
You do mastery by doing challenges. Everything else is just drops in the ocean. 
but what if the challenges aren’t fun, does that mean replaying missions is just not worth it in that case?
Well it is like this, anything else will take much longer. You can ask @Count.Rushmore for other ideas, I think he did much leveling with other ways.
i get the idea behind mission stories and challenges, but i wish there was a ‘magic way’ of getting Mastery for simply rushing with a good skillset and decent aim, and getting the F*** out quickly, instead of all this “gee what’s this place, let’s investigate and complete challenges for 300 hours”
TBH and fair, to the franchise, it seems Diana also “magically” knows things, but getting every key card and intel item is interesting, but not to everyone. Especially not all the time.
Seems to me like that’s kind of the point of the game. While other games may be more about just getting to the end with a little bit of exploration to the side, Hitman 1, 2, and 3 are more about the exploration than getting to the end of the level. Hence the challenges for discovering things, doing things that are off the beaten path, and finding different ways to take out the targets. Each of these is meant to reward the player.
Yes, you can gain mastery by simply replaying the level over and over again but the challenges really provide the most rewards. I got to the point in Chongqing where I was at mastery level 18 but there were no challenges left to do. I think it was part of the progress transfer thing right when the game came out, but I had almost two full mastery levels left and it was taking forever so I just did the final level of the Lee Hong escalation over and over (getting 3-500 per time) until I got to level 20. It was grindy, but it’s possible.
Wait, those microscopic xp gains actually count for level mastery?
How is that even possible? Which challenges were bugged?
If you don’t love replaying a bunch of stuff then use the save game feature and don’t forget that once a challenge clicks you don’t have to finish the mission. For example, you can kill the target(s) and save before exiting at a certain exit that gives you a challenge, and then reload and use another exit.
I don’t even remember now. I started playing the game immediately on release day but the progress transfer didn’t actually work until hours later. I think I managed to play for almost a full day before my progress transfer managed to go through. There were a few challenges I completed on that first day in Chongqing that didn’t count when the progress was reset during transfer. Mostly discovery ones I think. That’s the only thing I could figure out.
I’m not sure what this thread/question is about…
Reaching profile level or reaching those new ratings?
To be honest I don’t care about that “Black cat” things.
I’m not fully understand the purpose of those.
If the question about them I can’t help, though I know one thing.
If you do a Wickerman challenge and complete a mission with couple of non-target kills from this benefit, you’ll get Fireman rating
OP wants mastery. Iirc you did a lot of leveling in Patient Zero, so maybe you have a few map-unspecific tips for that.
As far as I understand he’s not much interested in doing challenges.
Without doing challenges raising mission mastery would take ages, because without challenges the mastery scale literally doesn’t move.
Personally I always raise level mastery by completing challenges, so I don’t think I can advise something different
This thread is about being a “hitman,” and whether or not you get SASO is all anyone cares about, and to make matter worse, SASO will only get you 5-10 more Location Mastery, so mission INCOMPLETE. (in the eyes of IOI.)
Wow, this whole time i didn’t know about this. I have gotten achievement challenge pops and figured “well, so far so good, let’s continue.” I do still have a save right near someone’s head with an accident kill waiting to happen, i just haven’t used it (yet.) Great tip, thanks!
I don’t mind doing challenges, it’s just i don’t have the patience to play the same level 15+ different ways (which is really tedious on higher difficulties) and that is 1: the only way to level up Mastery, and 2: the only way to get unique gear and start location unlocks.
I will try the save game, after i infiltrate an area that has multiple challenges (will likely watch YouTube walkthroughs now that the story is older and i won’t be spoiled by them) so that i can save in a certain area that might afford more than one achievement, and reload after i do the first, etc.
Regarding the wording of the topic, i admit it sounds a bit off, i did keep getting caught so i’d have to ‘silence’ the witnesses. I did also mean how do you gain Mastery more quickly if you tend to make mistakes,so i guess it sounded ambiguous, i agree.
Flexible Murderer only happened a few times but it was a niche’ thing i was stuck in for a while, i got black cat and another rating recently, so i guess practice is working. Also, i know the pass codes to most of the main mission story keypads so i don’t have to avoid them, but thank Goodnesss you cannot scan them with the camera, lol.
Thank you for discussing it, brings ideas to the table, and good info people can rely on 
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Not mocking you at all, but repeating the levels to do things in a new way (and unlocking challenges) is the foundation the whole trilogy is built on. From my normal gaming forums I know a lot of people think that’s insane, but obviously a lot of other people love it, and no game is made for everyone.
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But a game made for fans, is a game worth buying… i understand the mission stories,. and am coming to terms with them, due to saves, infiltrate main point of interest and then go from there, but still a bit of a pain in the neck.
I do not think you were mocking me, so no harm, no fould, just wish fans of splinter cell and the like would get more ‘interesting’ gear in the first stages of mastery, we are mostly “one and done.”