Many of you have probably heard of Roulette Rivals at this point, you may have played in it or be avid followers of the competitions. But a lot of people are probably still unaware of what this Roulette thing they keep hearing of is all about. Or you might have never come across it before either. The forum did not have any centralised place for discussing it, or a topic actually explaining it.
I’ll cover the basics and provide links to relevant resources, but if you have any questions or just want to chat Roulette, this is the place to do it on the forum. A lot of discussion takes place on the Frote7 Speedrunning Community discord server, so be sure to join that too if you’re interested (link below).
What is Roulette?
Essentially, Roulette revolves around playing through the World of Assassination campaign missions while fulfilling the objectives of a randomised ‘spin’ which will give you a specific disguise and kill condition for each target. This can sometimes include additional complications like No Target Pacification.
Roulette is mainly played competitively in 1v1 matches as part of a tournament (known as Roulette Rivals). There are many specific rules, for instance what counts for a drowning kill (toilets only, not just falling in water). Too many to list out in this post, but you can read through all of the rules here.
If you want to read more about the basics (as well as much, much more on the topic of Roulette) I recommend In4Fun’s Substack.
How Do I Play?
As covered above, Roulette is about completing main missions adhering to randomised disguise/kill conditions. This must be done with a Silent Assassin rating; if you lose SA and cannot recover it, you must restart the mission. You win against your opponent by completing the spin the fastest in real time (not your in-game time), including time spent planning your loadout.
Example Match:
With so many potential variations to the kill conditions, it can be daunting knowing where to even start with how to tackle a spin. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources available from the community (which I will link below). Even if you are a complete beginner, there’s enough to get you started to understand how Roulette works and get an idea how you would approach spins that at first glance might seem impossible.
You can find other people to play against by joining the relevant discord servers. The main competition is Roulette Rivals, which takes place a few times per year in a tournament format - this is based in the F7SC discord.
There is also the Roulette League discord, which hosts 2 competitions: the league itself, which is ongoing and assigns players weekly opponents based on their ELO score (except during Roulette Rivals); then there is Roulette Divisions which is a competition that usually happens before Roulette Rivals, running alongside the league, where players compete to be promoted (or not demoted) to the next ‘division’, of which there are (currently) four.
You can even play casual, unranked games here, making League an excellent place for new players to get started without the pressures of a major tournament.
All you need to begin playing Roulette is the World of Assassination game, access to all of the maps (i.e. New York and Haven as well), and a streaming software of your choice (competitive matches must be streamed live, usually on Twitch, mainly for verification purposes).
Resources
There are tons of resources available created by the community from the Roulette spinners to in-depth guides on strategies. This is a comprehensive but probably not exhaustive list. And I feel it’s worth noting that players can find new ways to achieve something in Hitman all the time, so the ‘meta’ presented in some of these resources may change.
Roulette Resources Youtube Channel
With playlists dedicated to every single map and videos covering every major unique kill, disguise grab, or target isolation this should be a go-to for any Roulette player.
Map Guides
Also on YouTube, you can find deep dive guides by experienced players, the likes of BigMachete, Aphro and PixelPup for example. These are usually promoted and pinned in the F7SC discord so keep an eye out there, though hopefully any future ones can also be shared here.
Hitmaps
Created by MrMike this is the go-to site for item locations, the most commonly used spinner, and even provides the option to have the Roulette spin in-game.
The Roulette Resources Milanote
This is an interactive website that breaks down the vast amounts of information available for each map into a more user-friendly experience with links to Hitmaps and the Roulette Resources videos.
Luke Town
Created by Lukedog this site is great for solo practicing; it’s not just a database of Roulette strats like the Milanote, but also a spin generator with tips on how to complete it at hand plus the very useful Match Sim mode to emulate a live game with real-time reaction/completion time.
Croupier
Made by BluntsNBeatz this is a highly customisable in-game spinner available as an app or mod.
Peacock Roulette
A twist on the Roulette formula using the Peacock server, offering both standard spins as well as the addition of extra objectives, random targets, and even unlockables, all in-game.
The Hitman Roulette Substack
As already mentioned, this is written by In4Fun and is a great resource for learning more about Roulette and in particular if you are interested in reading about the history and statistics of Roulette Rivals.
Roulette Guides
A new F7SC document that centralises all of the resources for learning Roulette. Many covered here already but the “Advanced Training” section in particular has some additional useful stuff to peruse.
RRStats
Created by CurryMaker, this is not so much for learning about Roulette gameplay but will give you statistics from all Roulette Rivals matches including the time maps are completed in, which can give you an idea of what to aim for. You can also watch replays of matches if there is a particular one you are interested in, and you can look up a player’s stats if you want to do some research on an upcoming opponent.
Discord Servers
Join the F7SC Discord Server
Join the Roulette League Discord Server
