How many People Has 47 Canonically Killed?

I always felt bad about killing him yes he knew too much but he was just doing his job.

I know it’s been a while since that conversation, but are you really trying to retcon that 47 have never killed a non-target? His kill record is perfect in a sense that he never failed to kill the ones he was supposed to kill. Considering how insanely protected most of 47’s targets are, the fact that he always manages to get them and make it out alive is already a sign of inhuman skill and professionalism. I don’t think ICA ever cared about collateral deaths of hired goons, and 47 himself never bothered with saving lifes in the first game, Contracts don’t count, because this game was showing 47’s flashbacks and reflections, not the accurate portrayal of events. He actually began avoiding unnecessary deaths by using sedatives and such only after friendship with Padre Emilio, which I always thought was really cool character development detail. Even though from day one 47 was miles ahead of any other assassin in the agency due to his enhanced genetics and such, he still found a way to improve and revise his methods. That being said, even in the second game you could retain SA after killing one guard, so I don’t think sparing non-target lifes was such an unshakable principle for him.

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Look at the progression of the series, not just from a story standpoint, but a technical one as well. 47 killed non-targets in the first game because it hadn’t been developed with the option to avoid doing so in any feasible way. Indeed, with Contracts in the picture, it’s actually Codename 47 whose version of events no longer applies, because the updated game allowed those missions to be replayed in the way that we now know 47 would do.

The one possible exception to this is the Columbia mission, because part of the contract was to destroy Ochoa’s lab, meaning that other people who were inside it were going to die. So, ICA may have given 47 the green light to kill whoever he needed to, since the mission was setting up a massacre anyway. Or, Ort-Meyer’s contract on Ochoa might have allowed for it.

ICA would absolutely have cared about collateral damage. There whole reputation as the best in the business of murder-for-hire isn’t based solely on the fact that they get the job done, but that it’s done discreetly. That is what the client is paying for. You can pay any thug to kill someone, but ICA’s clients want it done quietly and with no one dying who isn’t intended to die. This is confirmed in Blood Money in how money is deducted from payment for non-target deaths, which is also shown later in Freelancer as well.

So yes, I am still of the mind that 47, while on the job (this is an important point), has never canonically killed a non-target.

From the technical standpoint 47 inevitably killed plenty of non-targets in Codename 47, same as from the story standpoint. It only makes sense and feels natural for his character and methods to evolve alongside the gameplay mechanics progression, why do you want 47 who just woke up in his asylum chamber be exactly the same as he is in WoA?

Contracts cannot overwrite Codename 47 because it’s not how these missions actually happened, but how he redoes them in his mind laying wounded in the hotel, long after 2:SA events.

Right after the asylum escape 47 would do these missions in one way, during the Contracts-BM period - differently. Know what else the updated game allows? Grab dual ballers and mow down everything that moves, but we don’t consider that canon, right?
Speaking of dual Ballers, I wonder why they’re his signature firearms in all the pre-WoA games, isn’t it the most impractical weapon for Silent Assassin after M60 machine gun?

Discreetly does not mean without collateral kills, it means without any leads to the client and preferably without drawing too much attention by turning the entire scene into bloodbath. If it’s just one or two thugs found dead other than the target - it’s more than discreetly and should not concern the client at all.

You can pay any thug to kill average Joe going to work and back alone at the same time every day, but not someone as highly protected as most Hitman targets. And even if your target is easy, your thug might kill it, but sooner or later get caught, and in PD he will talk. With ICA you know that won’t happen.

That’s only if they explicitly stated that in the contract and paid extra. That would mean a non-target death is a hard failure state for the mission.

Matter of fact, Codename 47 also deducts your money for killing civilians and cops. However, it’s not your client who pays you less for a sloppy work - this money are cleaning cost used for bribing and such. Same thing as saying 47 wouldn’t spend his money on a weapon to fulfil the contract.

Besides, do you think Ort Meyer really ordered a hit on all those negotiators you’re required to kill to get to Lee Hong? How come agency, which is all about killing only the target and no one else comes up with a plan to start an entire gang war? You are explicitly told to murder like 10 people including the chief of Hong Kong police just to get to one real target.

Look, 47 is a perfect assassin, because he never failed to kill a target regardless how practically impossible it was, but it was never said or implied that he never killed a non-target while doing his work, I have no idea where did you get that from. No need to retroactively change lore from the previous games just because some new mechanics were added.

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Hey IO do you also see this? Why’d you change that poor girls name?? Why you take away the 5 fathers? Why is Smith no longer a sloppy drunk?

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Wow, there was just… so much wrong there, and I’m at work and have a busy week ahead, I’m not in a headspace to be responding to all of that right now. I just got done arguing with Dribbleondo once again yesterday and I’m wiped out for now, on top of what I already said on this matter.

All I’m going to say is, nothing you said is correct, all easily refuted by paying attention to the series, and you don’t seem to understand what the idea of being a “perfect” hitman is in regards to this franchise or its central character. If you want more elaboration, I’ll provide it over the weekend. And also, check what @Yacob said above and consider carefully.

Just… yikes. Wow.