I think that ties into locations being ‘alerted’. If you mess something up and kill the wrong suspect in one location, then when you get to the next location then the syndicate are aware you’re coming and so guards are on alert etc. Like in the video, they’ve completed the 1st location, then moving onto the 2nd location of the campaign it is flagged as an alerted territory.
Also there were a few weapons on the walls that look new or not part of our normal inventory that would probably be good to add the screenshots for here.
Obviously there were the typical guard guns that were there on the wall (including the unsilenced snowy hwk pistol, that will likely need to be bought). I saw the Mendoza sniper up there and I think the outline for the burial dagger as well, for example
However I also saw the concrete bunny pistol on the wall, a new pistol that was accidentally publicly leaked temporarily to Xbox players a while ago along with an “ornamental” SMG, and seems like a completely new pistol we can get in the mode.
I haven’t looked to closely at the rest, but if anybody has screenshots for them there might be some other weapons people might notice.
I’m personally hoping it’s really either the A or B option with what you’ve listed there.
I think it would so much more of a cool concept if Freelancer is taking place after the events of Hitman 3 and this is 47’s way of filling out his time before the events of the next game.
Hopefully IOI will confirm this for us soon enough whether this is during Hitman 3 or after the story has concluded.
I actually looked over the video once more, and I think I got it right (sort of) that each Syndicate file is One Campaign, and they each have “different amounts of missions”, though the amount is dictated by what stage of your “Freelancer Run” you’re on.
It seems that “Freelancer Run” Progress works like this: (WITH SOME SPECULATION)
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You’re given a table of 8 randomly-generated Syndicates, or “Campaigns”, with different locations and objectives.
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One Campaign can have from 3-6 missions in total, depending on the difficulty level of your position in the Freelancer Run. The difficulty increases for your (remaining?) campaigns after every completed Syndicate Showdown mission.
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Each Syndicate counts as one “section” of a Freelancer Run. This means you can choose whether to save Easier or Harder Objective Syndicates in the “easy” 3-mission tier, or “harder” 6-mission tier.
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Each Syndicate has a Leader to assassinate to progress your Freelancer Run progress, and a slate of “Potential Objectives”, probably ‘optional’ objectives that reward you with more (or less) Merces on a completed contract. They are “vulnerabilities” in targets to look out for when preparing for a mission.
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If you fail a mission during progress of one of your Campaigns, that Campaign progress is reset to zero. You lose half your acquired Merces, all of your items and weapons you brought to your latest mission.
BUT, only the progress on your active Campaign is lost. You still retain progress in the overall Freelancer Run.- You only get one chance to do this however. When your campaign is reset, the missions become more difficult. Territories are “alerted” (more enforcers?). If you fail again, your run will end (?)
- You only get one chance to do this however. When your campaign is reset, the missions become more difficult. Territories are “alerted” (more enforcers?). If you fail again, your run will end (?)
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There is also another way to fail a Freelancer Run. This is by failing a Syndicate Showdown Mission – by either dying or letting the Target escape (or something else) – this will completely reset your Freelancer Run progress: ALL of your Merces, ALL of your items and weapons will be taken away from you. (It seems like Mastery Safehouse – and the Suit system it is tied to – will stay with you.)
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To complete a campaign, you must finish the Showdown mission. This is where you will kill the Leader of your chosen Syndicate/Campaign, after which point your progress in the Run will be saved, if you fail a normal mission later – think: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’s Safety Net system.
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After you complete your campaign, you must choose your next campaign – maybe, based on the remaining 7 files on the table?
What intrigues me is the Merces and Mission System.
It looks like to me that each normal mission will have a set amount of Targets – maybe it’s “Kill X from a pool of Y” like Berlin, maybe it’s not and they aren’t revealing the names and identities of the randomly generated NPCs, anyway, this is how it looks: Here you can see a potential 1 or 2-target system
Some Missions (or Syndicate Leaders?) have names like Bone Breaker? (The Investor footage only showed “Pursue The Leader” in the footage, but I don’t know why this footage shows “Bone Breaker” maybe it’s something else?
The Merces, objectives, the “Vulnerabilities” system probably works like this:
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You are given a random 3 objectives (at least in Sick Games contracts) that you may? complete by the end of the contract. These can be special kill conditions or complications that must remain fulfilled.
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Completing these objectives (or keeping them fulfilled) rewards you with more Merces to use to unlock items.
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If you fail a condition, it will subtract that amount from your total Merces earned from the mission. This means that if you fail all of them and end with Zero, you can complete the mission and progress your campaign, but you will receive no Merces from the deal.
(Objectives failed: 2 (-15 Merces total) // completed: 1 (10 Merces Payout) -
But, do not fear. There are ways to acquire money more easily, with some Couriers (Merces Holders) and Safes (I think they hold Merces?) scatterred across the map. They may be random, some missions may not have any/very few, but they are “easier ways” to acquire it. It just needs you to Assasinate an optional NPC, or break into a Safe – with the risk of being spotted and ruining your current disguise, or section of the map you inhabit.
That’s basically what I think on how the system works. I was a bit confused by the addition of Couriers for Merces payout at first, but I think I figured out that they work as a “fallback” if you don’t complete the special objectives of your Syndicate contract. I think they’re optional, but come at a Merces price.
If I got anywhere close to 75% of that right, please invite me to the Tech Test @Travis_IOI haha
It’s interesting to note how the Syndicate Page Info has changed from the January 2021 reveal to Today. There doesn’t seem to be a seciton that states what the Final Payout will be, difficulty, or amount of Targets you will face (or potential objectives), but that might be due to the “Sick Games” type of Syndicate.
That’s very true. Like, they say “don’t shoot the messenger” but I guess that doesn’t apply when 47 kills his courier. It seemed to give XP too when he did so in the video. I hope that the old “drag the target near a crate to identify them” trick doesn’t apply here either, like you mentioned. Would take the fun out of it
haha, if only
Electrocution phone?
They’ve mentioned that you can fail showdowns if the target escapes. Maybe killing one suspect can cause the others flee the level.
Also how are briefcases going to interact with this mode? I didn’t see a spot for them in the basement, so how is that going to interact with what we can do? Do we unlock them just like everything else, do we just start with being able to choose our normal assortment of briefcases (just like our suits) without any effort required?
Also I’m assuming we can horde multiple consumables (like consumed poison, for example). As it would be pretty annoying if we could have only one poison vial in our safehouse inventory at all times.
I look forward to playing early something around Dubai or Mendoza to get suppresed pistols that can be easily replaceable instead risking losing a precious Baller.
Here we can see behind this display - cases for explosives, tools, and poisons.
Off-topic. I still wish they’d streamline the weapon menu. I hope I ever get the inspiration and motivation to present such a topic. All the copy/pasting, cropping…
Thanks for pointing that out, I missed that (probably because of how awesome that intel panel is). That appears to confirm that you can indeed have multiple perishable items at once, thank goodness. Not sure who raised that concern, I couldn’t seem to find the comment, but there we go.
On an unrelated note:
The email I put into the google form was not the same as the one to my IOI account, I really hope that didn’t break something or invalidate my chances. I’d love an opportunity to rinse out betalancer
Another thing we don’t know yet…
“You’ll lose half of your hard-earned Mercers.”
Let’s say I have =M= 500 saved up. But during the mission (in which I’ll fail) I obtain =M= 30 before I’m gunned down.
Would that mean I’d come back with =M= 250 (1/2 of the 500)? ← maybe this. Since that does seem “EXPENSIVE!”
Or would I have 515? 500 from what I had saved up, and 15 (1/2 of 30) from what I obtained from the mission?
Or maybe I’d have to finish a mission/segment before the additional =M= is counted. So if I didn’t finish I wouldn’t get whatever I obtained. So maybe by the 2nd and higher segment?
Kinda hard to explain… I guess we’ll find out.
Or start right in front of the two guards in the Constant’s Office who immediately open if they spot you.
Maybe it’s just half of the amount you earn when starting the campaign, not the amount you have over all. Would make sense in-universe if 47 is getting paid half up front, the rest after completion. Fail, you still get the half the client already put up. Hopefully that’s what they mean.
I didn’t hype this game mode that much before, but the gameplay video really changed that. Love the syndicate leader investigation work, the roguelike elements and the random item crates that many roguelike games also have.
I think its this. Since Clemens also specifies very strongly that you lose your items and weapons you brought, you also lose half your stockpiled Merces.
Freelancer Safehouse in the USA confirmed. Medical Bills taking half his money smh
I’m wondering if “the changes on the maps” will affect certain items that are useful and pre-existing on maps. Like poison, since some maps have poison vials that you can find and use. Obviously the “vendor” nps are there to make you spend your Merces, but if you can get something for free, why spend on it? I know I wouldn’t. But then, in games with currency, I tend to become Scrooge Mcduck.
Also this doesn’t seem like a gamemode that you can just play for a bit and come back later, it seems like a long play session thing. Especially if there’s no saving in missions.
Well, depends on how IO actually conceive the mode. If it´s a semi-canon paralel universe thingy like ETs, then yeah, whatever, let it all be there. It will absolutely feel weird and wrong and I won´t be exactly happy about it, but しょうがない…
If it´s however canonically taking place after the main campaign, then the facility should absolutely be locked off or at the very least repurposed (though I don´t really see them putting the work into that) and the ICA guards and researchers replaced (although they could still pass for a different criminal element I guess). Sure, it would lose the gameplay spice-up as you mention, but it would also focus the gameplay more on the city level areas, which is something in which the main mission was lacking for me. Also, great opportunity to introduce the police models from Kevin´s Noodle Massacre mod
Well it seems as though it’s not taking place after the main campaign, as there are ICA logos in the trailer and we even briefly see Silvio get blown up (so the main targets might still be there too)

Or would I have 515? 500 from what I had saved up, and 15 (1/2 of 30) from what I obtained from the mission?
This is how I interpret it. I didn’t even conceive of another process. You have a home bank, you go into a roguelike mission, you die, hey guess what, you lose your inventory and pickups from this mission, but we’re not going to completely screw you and make you feel you wasted your time, so keep half your earned “Durdurs” (Mercers?), you’re welcome.