Elusive Target #34: THE FIXER (Year 5: February 28 - March 9)

It will not be the first ET of Year 5. But it will be the first original ET run of it.
The Fixer is back!

:sunglasses: :point_right: :point_right:


As usual the topic is to post runs, discuss strategies, the target, and anything else related!

The Fixer

Link to the briefing video.

The target is Xander Haverfoek, a dual citizen of Thailand and the Netherlands. He has an extended history as ā€œThe Fixerā€ for Claus Hugo Strandberg, specializing in dealing with issues that the banker does not wish to involve himself in.

The client indicates that Strandberg as acquired a package of conflict diamonds, and he plans to move them out of Marrakesh. Given that he is now unable to travel the streets of Marrakesh on his own, he will have to use his fixer to hand the diamonds over to a courier somewhere in the cityā€™s marketplace. The target is a skilled covert operator and is unlikely to be simply carrying the diamonds himself. The ICA expects, therefore, that he will meet a courier and arrange a covert handoff in the city at some point during the day.

The contract requires both that the diamonds are retrieved and the target eliminated. Make sure to discover the location of the diamonds before moving on to the target.

The last run of the Fixer was in Hitman 2, in December 2019. Six years ago.
It cannot be practised in the Arcade Mode

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The Fixer is the most failed ET in the World of Assassination trilogy.

Here are the obligatory additional informations for such a mission:

  • The target isnā€™t particularly hard.
    It is a typical Hitman 2016 Elusive Target. ie, roaming and with no dedicated elimination opportunity.

  • The mission is hard, uncompromising.
    It possesses multiple automatic fail condition:

    • If you knock out or eliminate the target before he talks to the courier.
    • If you knock out or eliminate the courier before he retrieves the diamonds.
    • If you knock out or eliminate the merchant before he gives the diamonds.
  • In addition:

    • The courier will be spooked and take a longer route to the merchant if you are too close to him. But it will have no other adverse consequences, just a loss of time.
    • Multiple possible merchants exists, the one used in the mission proper is randomly chosen.
    • The diamonds are suspicious/illegal to pick up once dropped by the courier.
  • And some spoilers mission intel:

    • The target starts at the Consulate, will talk to the Courier in the VIP court of the Shisha Cafe, and then go back to the Consulate. His final route is to follow Strandberg around. If Strandberg is eliminated/hidden he will go between the open-space workspace and the cafeteria.

    • The courier starts in the Shisha Cafe, will walk around the streets, longer if 47 is too close, before making the exchange with the Merchants to retrieve the diamond. He will then go to the school. His final route is to roam the school, from the central court to the first floor kitchen.


Good Luck everyone.
It is, after all, the season for it. :wink:

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Just remember: donā€™t do anything to the target until he finishes meeting with the courier at the shisha cafĆ©.

Otherwise you get and instant-fail for your mission.

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I also found the archive of the warning IOI gave last time he ran.

From the Hitman 2 November 2019 roadmap, archived. And nostalgia of the old ioi.dk site.

The Fixer has stumbled back into Marrakesh once more ā€“ and letā€™s be clear about this; heā€™s a contentious man. During HITMAN 1, when he first debuted, this was the Elusive Target with the lowest success rate ā€“ all because of ā€˜the diamondsā€™.

During this contract, 47 must ā€œretrieve diamondsā€ as one of the objectives ā€“ and if you subdue or kill any of the characters involved in the diamond exchange before the exchange can happen, the contract will fail permanently because 47 will then not be able to retrieve them. We strongly advise that you approach this contract with extreme caution and read the briefing and target intel before proceeding.

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Iā€™ve got two other Xbox profiles that Iā€™m gonna use to practice this one, and make sure of the most viable option to proceed. Assuming all goes as it did the last two times up until the moment I fucked up, Iā€™m gonna KO the courier after he picks up the diamonds while he is on his way to the school, because I know one of the places he walks by that can be used for that, and then Iā€™m gonna sneak into the embassy, get a cleaning staff disguise, pick up the briefcase in the office there and the remote emetic gas device, use it on the Fixer, follow him to the bathroom, wait for him to finish puking and turn around, and then stab him in the chest with the concealable knife. And itā€™s gonna feel so fucking good.

The best thing about the target is his name. I think Xander Haverfoek is one of the coolest sounding target names in the whole game.

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"How do you not get to Carnegie Hall? Donā€™t Practice, Donā€™t Practice, Donā€™t Practice.ā€

I doubt highly theyā€™ll rework any instafail conditions.

Maybe make it so the courierā€™s body canā€™t be dumped so heā€™ll have to be found and woken up. Yet, he could still be killed or blasted into an unreachable location.

Getting his disguise wonā€™t work because 47 would need the ā€˜passwordā€™ for the merchant to retrieve the diamonds. And he counts as a normal NPC - so you couldnā€™t take his clothes anyway.

I suppose reworking these conditions undermines the intent of the mission.

Hereā€™s a possibility. Perhaps while heā€™s looking for the right merchant he behaves in a certain way - where he ignores distractions (guards in the highest difficulty do this), or has other NPCs check out any noises. Only after he gets the diamonds will he have a more curious nature. :sweat_smile:

It is a bit disappointing that he wonā€™t be in the ET Arcade.


At the moment Iā€™m thinking :banana: , :nauseated_face: , and fiberwire or :syringe:

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I remember being scared when novice player me did this mission in 2017. And this time, not feeling scared but more prepared! I will not be playing around, just want to get this mission completed and sorted. Iā€™ll take the target out once he talks to the courier and then just wait patiently by the school so I can tranq the courier. 8 minutes, or however long it takes, no care in being quick this time round!

It would be really nice if they reworked the mission to make it fairer for new players but I donā€™t think they will sadly.

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I assume the courier doesnā€™t give the diamonds to the target?

Not to my knowledge. From memory, the way it worked is that the target says a particular line about a football game in the cafe, then the courier gets the memo from him to then start walking to the merchant who has the diamonds (randomised merchant every time the mission is loaded). The courier then walks to the merchant and gets the diamonds and after walking around the stalls makes their way to the school. Iā€™m not actually sure what the main target does in this time because Iā€™ve always taken him out immediately as soon as I was able to before I knew what the rest of his route would be.

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At least the version of The Fixer that we know isnā€™t as bad as it once was.

Thereā€™s some stuff that suggests that once upon a time, before being cut, if you got too close to the courier while tailing him - it was possible to spook him and he would flee the location without collecting the diamonds and the mission would fail. He would also leave the location at some stage after retrieving the diamonds as well (also a mission failure if he left with the diamonds).

His small loop around the school after collecting the diamonds always felt a little weird and out of place. It was just something that got shoved in as he needed to go somewhere.

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Iā€™ve never completed the Fixer because I missed it when it was last here, but Iā€™m absolutely dreading to play it haha :joy::joy:

I hope the title of this roadmap actually brings me luck with this :joy:

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Just remember: if you use the disconnect option to restart ETs that you know youā€™ll fail, you should do that every time you feel the need to start again. You donā€™t want to take the chance on this one that something irrevocable has occurred before doing a regular restart and losing it.

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