# My one problem with Hitman as a veteran player. **URL:** \ **Category:** Hitman: World of Assassination\ **Created:** [May 13, 2026, 5:44am UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745 "2026-05-13T05:44:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Peves](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/peves/32/140275_2.png) [@Peves](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Peves)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 5:44am UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/1 "2026-05-13T05:44:45Z")
Silent Assassin is the be all and end all way to finish a mission. But what happens if you mess up? All of the challenge is gone and nothing matters anymore. I’m not incentivized to hide bodies anymore. I can kill anyone I want, I can mess with anyone and have as many witnesses as I want and none of it matters. So how do we incentivize staying clandestine? I think 4 star SA should still be obtainable by removing witnesses from the picture via Elimination and hiding the bodies. Keeping things clean by dealing with loose ends. ---
**Author:** ![Count.Rushmore](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/count.rushmore/32/173_2.png) [@Count.Rushmore](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Count.Rushmore)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 8:52am UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/2 "2026-05-13T08:52:42Z")
Highest score available only if you staying silent and accurate not uncovering yourself and not killing anybody else except targets. This is the main incentive. If you want highest score, you would replay. If you don’t care you’ll go johnwicking everybody. Playstyle is all up to player. The freedom is the feature ---
**Author:** ![Lewisnic1](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/lewisnic1/32/145309_2.png) [@Lewisnic1](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Lewisnic1)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 8:52am UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/3 "2026-05-13T08:52:43Z")
> [@Peves](#): > > I think 4 star SA should still be obtainable by removing witnesses from the picture via Elimination and hiding the bodies. Keeping things clean by dealing with loose ends. Not a bad idea to be fair, I quite like the sound of it. In Freelancer, if you achieve max Silent Assassin (clean run, no bodies etc found), you get the ‘Traceless ICA Assassin”. I believe ‘Stealth ICA Assassin’ is given when there is a bit of a hiccup in the road, such as if a witness has seen your actions, but you manage to take them and hide evidence etc. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Urben](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/urben/32/155460_2.png) [@Urben](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Urben)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 10:04am UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/4 "2026-05-13T10:04:43Z")
Don’t you already get 4 stars if you kill and hide witnesses? ---
**Author:** ![Fleur](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/fleur/32/737_2.png) [@Fleur](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Fleur)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 10:51am UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/5 "2026-05-13T10:51:06Z")
This is what Freelancer is for. If you play it as intended, there are no restarts and your incentive when you mess up will be getting out alive. It’s fun. ---
**Author:** ![Heisenberg](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/heisenberg/32/143140_2.png) [@Heisenberg](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Heisenberg)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 11:17am UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/6 "2026-05-13T11:17:21Z")
The incentive is that you are playing as Agent 47, and that’s how 47 _does_ things. ---
**Author:** ![TimTimsen](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/timtimsen/32/76333_2.png) [@TimTimsen](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/TimTimsen)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 7:02pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/7 "2026-05-13T19:02:20Z")
> [@Count.Rushmore](#): > > johnwicking everybody Speaking of which, Pencil unlock when? ---
**Author:** ![Yacob](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/yacob/32/491_2.png) [@Yacob](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Yacob)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 1:19am UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/8 "2026-05-14T01:19:54Z")
As someone who most often plays the way you describe (clean but not SA) I just don’t stress over the rating / score. ---
**Author:** ![Dribbleondo](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/dribbleondo/32/143384_2.png) [@Dribbleondo](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Dribbleondo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 10:45am UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/9 "2026-05-15T10:45:52Z")
While I understand why people dislike the…linear nature of the score ([I myself decry it a bit in my Freelancer video – which by the way, has held up very well…unfortunately](https://youtu.be/h2lomduiHWo)), it does give the player an incentive to reach a specific goal; a “highest score possible”, and that works in the context of the games because people do like being perfectionists, and improving runs and times. In Freelancer, the carnage and comparatively wacky side objectives means that the other ratings are incentivised, and I don’t think that’d transplant well into the main game at all. I’m not against making more ratings, or making the higher ratings more incentivised in the base game, but as it is, the base game is made in a specific way for a good reason, and I don’t think IOl want to deviate from it. I recall TheKotti also taking issues with the scoring linearity, and some of their ideas are ones I agree with. ---
**Author:** ![47saso47](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/47saso47/32/51779_2.png) [@47saso47](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/47saso47)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 6:48pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/10 "2026-05-28T18:48:29Z")
The problem isn’t the game, it’s the players wanting to be coddled to their specific needs. Just like how SA got changed from h2016 to h2. You are allowed to let the target see you. Yes it makes sense in a real world type of logic but this is a video game that is suppose to challenge the player so being invisible was the best part of it and challenging the player. ---
**Author:** ![schatenjager](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/schatenjager/32/128982_2.png) [@schatenjager](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/schatenjager)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 7:16pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/11 "2026-05-28T19:16:57Z")
I don’t know that players wanting to be coddled is necessarily a problem, per se… we have entire threads on this forum dedicated to players wanting changes to game play or asking for the game to be modified one way or another. Many players artificially challenge themselves to “suit only”, even though it isn’t the highest scoring way to play, because it’s more challenging and I’m sure they would love an adjustment to the scoring to make that the higher scoring play style. ---
**Author:** ![Count.Rushmore](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/count.rushmore/32/173_2.png) [@Count.Rushmore](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Count.Rushmore)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 3:35pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/12 "2026-05-30T15:35:25Z")
> [@47saso47](#): > > You are allowed to let the target see you I think it’s a great QoL change. Thing is if the target is supposed to die, it wouldn’t have chance to spread the knowledge of some bald stranger that they have seen before their soul left their body. Dead can’t talk. You may know that if target manage to give someone know about what they seen, you loose SA. And finally, this little tweak doesn’t restrict player to be as discreet as this change has never happened ---
**Author:** ![Heisenberg](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/heisenberg/32/143140_2.png) [@Heisenberg](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Heisenberg)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 5:07pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/13 "2026-05-30T17:07:39Z")
Precisely this. They didn’t coddle players with this change, they corrected an error in the thinking that imposed a restriction on even the targets seeing you in the first place. There’s no logical reason why the target maybe seeing you in the split fraction of a second from when they turn to when you fire the shot that kills them ruining SA. Or if you try to KO the target and they’re close enough to a set of stairs that the game interprets them as being on them and instead of a KO that maintains SA, you punch them in the face and you lose the status. Now, you can just finish the target off and that status is restored, which was what the goal was to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![47saso47](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/47saso47/32/51779_2.png) [@47saso47](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/47saso47)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 1:57pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/14 "2026-06-08T13:57:39Z")
I understand the logic of it, i am merely speaking about gameplay. It takes more skill to not been seen than to go in against 5 targets and just hack and slice them all. It doesn’t really feel like 47 where he is a “ghost” that not even the target sees him imo. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/shade/32/81104_2.png) [@Shade](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 2:49pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/15 "2026-06-08T14:49:48Z")
I completely disagree with that. This isn’t a game about being a ghost - it’s about a contract killer doing his job. I feel like some people take the “Silent Assassin” status far too literally and try to turn the game into some absurd arcade challenge in pursuit of “perfection.” The fact that it’s a game means it should be enjoyable, and it needs certain simplifications. The change where a target can spot you, but that information dies with them once they’re killed, is a great improvement because it allows for more freedom and creativity. Forcing the player to always eliminate targets in an obsessively perfect, orthodox way is weak design. This game is designed to have freedom of choice, and killing in only “silent” way isn’t the freedom. Hitman is a game about a professional assassin carrying out contracts, not a ghost simulator. I want to walk into a room, deliberately look the target in the eyes, and put a bullet in them right in front of their face. If nobody else sees it, it’s still Silent Assassin. Besides, define what “nobody saw you” even means. You still have to move through the map to reach the target and the exit, and along the way plenty of NPCs are going to see you anyway. Doesn’t that already contradict your whole idea of “being invisible”? Your problem is that you want to feel validated and “rewarded” by the stats screen. The fact that you actually accomplished it isn’t enough for you on its own. Don’t you think that’s a little silly? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Heisenberg](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/heisenberg/32/143140_2.png) [@Heisenberg](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/Heisenberg)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 2:57pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/16 "2026-06-08T14:57:15Z")
47’s status as a ghost has nothing to do if the target sees him or not. They’re going to die, and canonically some targets have seen him. His status is based on whether any one else sees him. ---
**Author:** ![vnchan](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/vnchan/32/151096_2.png) [@vnchan](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/vnchan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 3:07pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/17 "2026-06-08T15:07:04Z")
Bro go play Dishorned if you want to cosplay as a “Ghost” lmao. ---
**Author:** ![schatenjager](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/schatenjager/32/128982_2.png) [@schatenjager](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/schatenjager)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 3:28pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/18 "2026-06-08T15:28:54Z")
I made this same comment in some other thread but it’s still relevant. The game’s pinnacle achievement is Silent Assassin. It’s not “No Knock Out”, “Suit Only”, “Ghost”, “Invisible”, or any other concocted status. Players strive for those types of completions for their own specific reasons, whether it’s just feeling challenged or their own specific idea of what Agent 47 would canonically do. Agent 47 is a fictional character and he is each individual player’s own to make into whatever they want him to do. Whether it’s the Heisenberg Principals of Perfection or the “SASOKNO” status that is so revered around here, _your_ Agent 47 is not _my_ Agent 47 and that’s fine. The game defines what is and is not canon. If the game is updated to allow the target to see the bullet coming as they die and still attain a Silent Assassin rating, then that’s now canon. WE don’t own the game…IOI does. We can artificially set our own level of achievement and invent challenges to stroke our own egos, but at the end of the day, Silent Assassin is Silent Assassin, no matter how you got there. There is no “wrong” way to play it if you still get there in the end. As to the original point of this thread, it’s a game. Yes, if you screw up and forfeit Silent Assassin, you can consider that particular attempt pointless if you want. You can also consider it a practice session. You can consider it a “what if”, if that makes you feel better. You can throw your controller on the floor and stomp out of the room too. We “incentivize staying clandestine” by keeping Silent Assassin play the highest rating in the game. If you fail to achieve that, try again. If you need to invent your own goals to keep it fun or challenging, do that. ---
**Author:** ![anomie](https://www.hitmanforum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@anomie](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/anomie)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 5:06pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/19 "2026-06-08T17:06:37Z")
Silent Assassin is the highest ranking on the scoring screen, but Silent Assassin, Suit Only _is_ an official challenge for each map. Personally I do the fancy “SASO no-KO no-loadout” runs just for the challenge of it, and I make videos just to share with like-minded people and to show off a bit. 😀 Speedruns don’t interest me, so I don’t do those even though the scoring rewards it. My idea of the “canonical” 47 is much less restrictive than how I play these days. ---
**Author:** ![schatenjager](https://www.hitmanforum.com/user_avatar/www.hitmanforum.com/schatenjager/32/128982_2.png) [@schatenjager](https://www.hitmanforum.com/u/schatenjager)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 5:18pm UTC](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745/20 "2026-06-08T17:18:19Z")
Correct. Silent Assassin, Suit Only is an official challenge. So is Piano Man, Hold My Hair, and Tasteless, Traceless. These are all challenges though, not ranks. The highest available rank in any given level is simply “SIlent Assassin”. Also, as I said, players add more criteria for their own personal gratification. If you want to play every single map Silent Assassin, Suit Only, No Knockout, No Loadout, that’s your personal choice to do so and I fully support your ability to do it, but it’s still _your_ way of playing, and not what the game requires. If it gets your videos more views, go for it. I, conversely, _never_ play suit only because I don’t like it (except for the challenge you already mentioned). It still comes down to choice of the player rather than anything the game itself requires. [Next page](https://www.hitmanforum.com/t/my-one-problem-with-hitman-as-a-veteran-player/26745.md?page=2)