Question about optional complications for newbie / level 1 Freelancer non-hardcore

Hitman: World of Assassination Freelancer
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  • Win11 PC, Steam
  • Mods: none
  • Hitman 3 / WoA Deluxe, version 3.180
  • No Makehift, Street Art, Sarajevo Six nor Undying Pack DLCs.
  • Unlocks: Everything unlocked from the first 2 games in the trilogy (and imported them) and nearly everything from the finale.
  • Mode: Freelancer, non-hardcore

Questions:

  • For the optional complications, are they chosen from an unlimited list relative to the player’s Freelancer level and possessed gear (including quality)?

  • You may be assigned optional complications that cannot be achieved with your existing equipment and the chosen map?

My understanding of “rogue-like” is admittedly limited; I thought it meant perma-death (i.e., for WoA, lose all of your equipment, Merces) and endless play.

Best regards.

2

To my knowledge the objevtives are fully random and aren’t dependent on anything. Only exception are non-prestige objectives that are largely dependant on syndicate type.

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For your first question:

  • The payout objectives are not unlimited, they are from curated lists.
  • The type of syndicate is what decides which list is active.
  • You can see a list of those objectives during the selection of the syndicate (see example below)

For your second one:

  • You can, and you will, have Payout Objectives even if you don’t have the tool for. The most evident are the “epic/legendary pistol/rifle/shotgun/submachine/sniper elimination” ones.
  • Payout Objectives are never truly impossible for the map and the number of targets.

But:

  • Prestige Objectives are decided not by the mission, or even the syndicate type but independently by the campaign stage.
  • So be careful on which one you take before selecting the mission itself (the “open safe with explosive” by example should make you consider a map with a safe, but its entirely on your responsibility to make sure of it)

campaign
campaign1920×1080 87.9 KB

An example of syndicate type and its payout, on the left page.

You can find the list of each syndicate objectives on the Hitman wiki

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Thank you, Monwil and LandirtHome, for your answers; they were helpful.

(my apologies: I phrased poorly when writing, “unlimited list”; I meant that the player’s Freelancer level and possessed gear do not affect the optional complications to a syndicate contract. This appears to be true, if I understood your replies correctly)

A side question, raised by my reading LandirtHome’s reply: are “Prestige Objectives” offered even when one is not eligible for Prestige yet (level 60 for game to offer)?

Follow-up question to LandirtHome’s statement: “Payout Objectives are never truly impossible for the map and the number of targets”.
This is very encouraging!

Having completed a mission, I brought back the loud guns that the guards carried, a flash grenade, and a bottle of chloroform (I had other items such as coconuts, scissors, and screwdrivers, but apparently they do not count as I did not have them when arriving at the Safehouse). The supplier on that mission offered loud guns, a flash grenade, and an impact explosive; I purchased nothing.
My free supply crate contains a choice of breaching charge, crowbar, and lethal poison syringe; i have not chosen any yet.

Specific example of what I believed to be “impossible” optional complications:
“Make Target Slip” on mission in Colorado.
There will be a supplier and a courier, but no safes.
So, does this optional complication guarantee that the supplier will sell a banana or a bunch of grapes?
Or, is there a way to cause a target to slip from environmental objects such as oil from the large tank next to the garage or with water from the water pump near the non-Freelancer default starting location?

Best regards.

5

I’m not 100% certain but I think Prestige Objectives are first offered after completing the first Syndicate, ie three missions (two regular ones followed by a showdown).

Note that this is a separate function from Prestige levels, those will unlock later.

You can generally tell the difference by checking an item in the inventory. Any tools that you can keep in the boxes and any weapons that you can keep on the walls will have a rarity (Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary) and “weight” associated with it.

There are also the “everyday” items in the levels that you noticed, such as coconuts, newspapers etc. Some of them can also be found in the safehouse and brought with you when starting a mission. However, these are tied to certain areas that you will not have access to immediately. For example, you will get a newspaper in the bathroom, a banana in the kitchen, a hammer in the garage, …

This may indeed be impossible or at least difficult initially as bananas or grapes will not be sold to you by a supplier nor is Colorado a level where they would naturally appear (slipping was a later addition and only a few maps allow for slipping accidents without bananas/grapes) but you can get lucky and get a banana from a supply crate that each map will have a few of scattered across.

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Thank you very much, JaqTaar, for the point-by-point clarifications.
I will go forth to attempt the Colorado mission, especially regarding enabling slip-target complication, as well as completing the first Syndicate series to view (eventually?) my first “Prestige Objective”.
Failure or success, with the replies from the three of you, I feel better informed to play this mode.

Regarding which items can be carried from a successful mission to store at the Safehouse, thank you for the advice of the item’s grade indicator (they also usually (always?) have encumbrance, but I’m uncertain how to view those in-mission as I haven’t had enough items to exceed yet)). Unsurprisingly, everything has been “Common” or no grade (nor encumbrance) so far.

Thank you again to the three of you.
Best regards.

1 Like
7

The best way to play Hitman Freelancer is to maximize the doable Prestige and other objectives for mercs to start with.

Choose the big, easy maps for showdowns which aren’t alerted territories - Berlin, Miami, Paris, etc.

Do all the alerted territories first.

Take your time.

Fish for driftwood, with encumbrance of zero, for emetic poison in your suitcase. Carry a banana especially if you don’t have silent assassin objective and to hide bodies.

If you have caught a fish or if you find a mushroom near the shed, you can make a lethal and sedative vial, which you can make into free syringes with a contraption in your med bay room (if you have advanced so far to the level).

If a courier or safe is difficult to get without losing objectives or possibly getting killed, just complete the mission without completing everything.

I am at Level 81, have the complete set of weapons and other items on the wall and >500,000 mercs.

At level 81 you have 15 slots, which means that you can carry everything you want in the mission, and any disposable you use in the mission (e.g. explosive, electronic key card, sedative) are use in the mission, appears in your chest at the end of the mission.

I used to always take the silent assassin / suit only prestige objective, but now I don’t need the mercs, so I focus on completing all the challenges.

Hitman Freelancer gets easier, both because you get better at it over time, and you don’t really need to mess with complicated objectives just for mercs anymore.

Hitman Freelancer evolved from ghost mode and elusive targets, and it is likely that IOI will optimize and create a Hitman Freelancer like mode in Project 007.

2 Likes
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During a mission and when exiting it, you can carry as much as you want, except for being limited to two two-handed items. The limit, which increases with time as DAvid_Spafford mentioned, only restricts how much you can take with you at the start of a mission.

When you switch items by pressing I, I think the weight and rarity are shown in a corner. If not, you can press M to open the map and then switch to the “Inventory” tab, where you can see each item in more detail. There’s also the “Field Manual” which you can find in the “Intel” tab. It has brief explanations of the most important features, in case you missed any tutorials as they popped up or want to check them again.

As you gain experience in the mode, you will learn what you can collect and where, but in case you want a little help, there’s a topic and Google Sheet here:

1 Like
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Sadly no opportunity yet to resume playing (I took ~3 hours to finish 1st mission so want to ensure I have sufficient time since can’t save progress), but hoping to find a slot in the next day or so.
I read David_Spafford’s advice initially as advanced (e.g., fishing, getting access to shed) for my current level, but one immediately applicable point I had not considered is to keep easier maps for showdowns; I’ll remember for the next syndicate. I chose easiest map (out of the 3 choices) for my first Freelancer map.
No alerted territories yet and I will try to maintain that status.
I am trying to maximize Merces (open safes, get the courier, complete every complication that I can)… hence the reason for my first-ever topic post. Just as in life, it’s nice to know that eventually I will not need to scrounge for every Merces (there will be things to buy to complete collection, of course, but having several options on accomplishing missions is a pleasing future state).
Overall, David_Spafford, I thank you for your encouraging points.

JaqTaar, with your every reply, you teach me things I did not realise. I thought that the Freelancer inventory limit was a constant, not only for outbound to a mission. Since I chose to carry nothing outbound to my first mission, and most of the items I carried back could not be stored (I found loud shotgun and loud SMG, which occupied the 2 two-handed items, but the other items were carried “hidden” as it were), I thought I was under the limit… but now I understand.
For Colorado, I do not plan to carry any guns (I have no suppressed guns) outbound so any slots I have will be probably be for the free Supply Crate item choice among breaching charge / crowbar / lethal poison syringe; I will probably choose the breaching charge, even if I do not bring it outbound, although crowbar is tempting. I will not chose the syringe since Colorado has one so if I do not use it, I can return the syringe to the Safehouse (hitmaps shows its lethal pills are not in Freelancer).

Best regards.

10

I think that where you have showdowns and whether they are alerted territories doesn’t matter that much:

  1. You can go around with the camera zoomed in and usually figure out 1/2 of the targets which are not the leader.
  2. If there is an optional objective associated with the target: e.g. poison, then you can just Seiker any potential target to figure out if it is the leader.
  3. If they are at the expected leader’s meeting type, then you can take out or subdue any suspect at the meeting to call a meeting to lure the leader.
  4. If you snipe next to targets, Diana will call out if the leader is escaping. Best works when suspects are not close to each other.

The paths of the leader is always repeating, so you can just set up an area for your timed kill, removing any NPCs or guards or other suspects out of the way.

If you don’t have requirement of silent assassin or hide bodies then the safest way to kill a target is a rubber duck.

If you have a timed trial prestige objective, it is easy just to run around the map, throwing proximity or detonated rubber ducks. If it is a guard as a target, then you can use a remote or proximity taser, which will electrocute the guard when they pick the taser up.

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I never bother with exploding leaders unless it’s a prestige objective - there’s so many ways you can kill a suspect without using an explosion. If you’re going to use one, you need to be absolutely 100% that you’ve correctly identified them because if you’re wrong, chances are you’re going to set off the rest of them and they’ll all flee.

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I meant that rubber duck explosions are a safe and easy kill on non-showdown maps, especially during time trials.

For showdowns, I am trying to meet the award objectives for leader kills which involve sniper kills, headshot kills, sniper kills with Drazhina sniper, katana kills, fiberwire kills, accident kills.

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So the good news: I finished my first showdown SA; got an oil can in an on-map supply crate to cause target to slip before applying rat poison to a slice of pizza so I could drown her… but she does not go to a toilet so missed that optional complication. Also used rat poison on a guard to get optional complication (“poison guard”), and picked up a lethal poison syringe and an assassin’s silenced pistol.

The bad news: Internet disconnect before I exited the level. When I re-connected, the game shows that the showdown is on world map again, so need to do all again.

I hope to be lucky again with getting something in an on-map supply crate to cause target to slip (ideally oil can again as I can bring can to safehouse to re-use whereas banana is one-time).

Thanks again to everyone for their information and advice.
Best regards.

1 Like
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Oil spills cause NPCs to slip? Since when?

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My apologies; I was excited (far too highly) when I posted and edited very poorly.
The target slip was caused by a banana which I found in another on-map supply crate (I did try pouring out the oil, but it did nothing since I did not ignite it).

I suspect I will not be so fortunate, and find only a banana or an oil can, or more probably, neither item in the on-map supply crates when I try again.
Perhaps I should not use the banana, if I find it; It is always single-use, yes? If I were to stash it in the safehouse, I could not bring and use on several successful completion missions?
(I understand that if I fail a mission, any items I had would be lost)

Best regards.

16

Correct, you can’t bring bananas home from missions and use them again. There is, however, one banana upstairs on the ground floor of your safehouse, and in your garden you can grow another fruit you can use to make people slip.

Keeping it vague and blurred in case you’re not there yet and want to avoid spoilers.

17

Also: anything that spawns in your safehouse that is not part of the freelancer tools or your weapon walls can not be lost, even when you use or leave them behind in a mission.

47 insists on a steady stream of bananas and newspapers.

The only things that don’t appear on every occasion, and not always on the same spot, are the coin, the mushroom, the rusty nail and that spiky water thing.

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The mushroom always spawns, but there are four possible locations for it. I’m still wondering if there’s a third or even fourth location for the coin.

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Oh wow! Then I have missed at least one mushroom location. Very interesting :slight_smile:

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I always forget the exact locations and have to search myself, but the mushroom and the rusty nail are usually somewhere near the shed with the folding knife. Since I’m not on some high level in Freelancer I take both with me on most missions to have some kind of lockpick and poison if needed. They are always there, but sometimes a bit hidden like behind a tree on the path to the helicopter landing ground.