i like how they dont even try to make good season names anymore
3 Likes
The tie is an unlock from a new classic challenge.
A first,
On any location.
A Tie to Die For
- Complete any mission from the main story.
- Only eliminate targets with fiber wire.
- No bodies found
- Do not get compromised.
- Do not pacify anyone,
- If you are detected by cameras, erase or destroy the evidence.
- Do it all in your suit.
Congratulation to @magicdave94 !
Good to see a continuation of the tradition of a challenge inspired by a previous idea of mine to be made in-game, and never mine 
17 Likes
Seems the pack is time limited after all, what a shame, I was starting to get my hopes up for the xbox article to have made a mistake. I guess I gave IO to much credit, what a dissapointing company.
1 Like
Just so people are aware the EGS DLC page now works as intended again.
4 Likes
4 Likes
Shame, I wanted the prank pistol to just be an empty gun so you could use it for close-range distractions and the spaghetti sauce to also be an emetic/lethal poison.
But the other two items are indeed unique! Which I’m glad to see.
Edit: Actually, could someone check if the dynamite has the same explosive radius as the explosive pens? Or is it something like the C4 blocks.
4 Likes
Roadmap blogpost has been posted.
HITMAN - Season of Eminem vs. Slim Shady
Click to unroll details
Welcome to a new season of HITMAN World of Assassination! We have a brand new Elusive Target mission for this end of the year, with none other than Rap Icon Eminem featuring in a double role, both as himself and his alter ego Slim Shady. This mission promises to be one of the most mind-bending and dangerous to date, with a surreal setting in a redesigned Hokkaido. We hope you enjoy this new mission, with a unique performance from Eminem to go with it. In addition, we bring you a bagful of new content, with Challenges, Featured Contracts, Twitch Drops, and more, including none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme himself with the return of The Splitter.
PREMIUM CONTENT
December 1st
Eminem vs. Slim Shady Elusive Target
Rap icon Eminem enters the World of Assassination as both himself and his twisted alter ego, Slim Shady. After trying to bury his other self in “The Death of Slim Shady,” Eminem now enlists Agent 47 to erase his past for good. In the new mission briefing trailer shared today, we learn more about this new assignment. In this surreal mission, created by IO Interactive with Eminem, and creative director/producer Paul Rosenberg, players will have to infiltrate a Hokkaido medical facility transformed into the Popsomp Hills Asylum, navigating eerie spaces and unexpected turns.
December 1st
For new players, here is how to access the Free Starter Pack:
For PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®5, you can download it here.
For Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, you can download it here.
For PC, you can download it on the following platforms: Epic Games, Steam, and the Xbox app.
For iOS, you can download it here.
Additionally, we will be releasing a brand new DLC pack to all platforms, the Eminem vs. Slim Shady Pack. This includes The Antithesis, a two-level Arcade contract featuring Eminem, along with new weapons and Freelancer Safehouse cosmetic items, and is priced at $4.99/€4.99/£3.99.
The Eminem vs. Slim Shady Pack includes:
· The MC Fit
· The Prank Pistol
· Mr. Chainsaw Jr.
· Jar of Mom’s Spaghetti Sauce
· A set of four Freelancer Safehouse cosmetics items, inspired by the Elusive Target mission
· The Antithesis – a two-level Arcade contract featuring Eminem
The Elusive Target mission will be available to play from December 1st to December 31st.
December 1st
HITMAN WOA available on new platforms starting today
HITMAN World of Assassination is launching on the ROG XBOX Ally X and ROG XBOX Ally, giving players a new option to play as Agent 47 on the go. The new Elusive Target mission featuring Eminem vs. Slim Shady is playable day one on these new devices. The game is also now an Xbox Play Anywhere title, allowing players to enjoy seamless play across Xbox consoles and Microsoft PC with shared progress and achievements.
December 1st
Twitch Drop: Bomb-Ass Dynamite
We are releasing a brand-new Twitch Drop, the “Bomb-Ass Dynamite”.
Link your Twitch account to your IOI Account and simply watch your fellow Agents on Twitch to unlock this brand-new item. For a reminder on how to earn this reward:
- Link your IOI Account to your Twitch account.
- Watch a cumulative 30 minutes of HITMAN World of Assassination on Twitch between December 1st and December 14th, 2025.
- Any streamer playing under the HITMAN World of Assassination category on Twitch is eligible for Twitch Drops.
December 21st
Twitch Drop: The Solstice Suit
We know this one has been long-awaited, so we’re pleased to share that a second Twitch Drop will be coming with The Solstice Suit:
• Watch a cumulative 30 minutes of HITMAN World of Assassination on Twitch between December 21st and January 9th, 2026.
January 22nd
We will be reactivating a host of former Twitch Drops with The Purple Streak ICA Briefcase, The “Casino Monarchique” Chip (100.000), The Purple Streak Boxer Suit, The Neon Duck, The Purple Streak ICA19 Classic Baller, and The Purple Streak Suit all up for grabs:
• Watch a cumulative 30 minutes of HITMAN World of Assassination on Twitch between January 22nd and February 22nd, 2026.
December 1st
IOI Account Unlock
The Chainsaw Duck
A brand new item, the Chainsaw Duck, will be available to unlock by playing The Reflection, the new Elusive Target mission featuring Eminem , or The Antithesis and having a linked IOI Account . After playing the mission, the duck will be ready to be redeemed on your IOI Account.
NEW CHALLENGES
December 1st
A Tie to Die For
Complete this classic challenge to complete your killer look.
December 18th
Keeping The Magic Alive
Perform a few good deeds to unlock a new suit, fitting the occasion.
NEW FEATURED CONTRACT PACKS
December 1st
OzzyGrl’s Wicked bunch
December 31st
Cherry’s Animation Chronicle
RETURNING CONTENT - EVENTS
December 18th
Holiday Hoarders
Holiday Hoarders is back, which can only mean one thing: you must stop Harry “Smokey” Bagnato and Marv “Slick” Gonif from breaking into the Palais de Walewska. Enjoy your trip to Paris, with two items: Lil Flashy, the Explosive Xmas Gift, and two suits: the Cozy Christmas Suit, and Santa 47 to unlock.
Hokkaido Snow Festival
Enjoy a nice winter retreat to Hokkaido, and while you are at it, take a moment of your time to deal with Dmitri Fedorov, with two items: the ICA19 Iceballer, the Ice Pick, and two suits: the Krampus Little Helper Suit, and the Snow Festival Suit to unlock.
ELUSIVE TARGETS
December 12th
The Food Critic
December 26th
The Sensation
December 31st
The Splitter
The Splitter is back! Movie legend and action superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme takes center stage in our latest Celebrity Elusive Target mission.
Agent 47’s mission will be threefold: escorting an ICA board member within the facility, uncovering Max Valliant’s sinister agenda, and most importantly, taking down Max Valliant. He’s a ruthless and unforgiving assassin whose only weakness seems to be his self-confidence.
January 16th
Year 5 Elusive Target Galore 1-12
During the holiday season and the start of 2026, we will be making a whole bunch of returning Elusive Targets available for you to complete, giving you one more shot at completing as many contracts as you can.
January 30th
Year 5 Elusive Target Galore 13-25
6 Likes
Still don’t see any way to claim this, even though I’ve done both the ET and the Arcade. Wonder if its just a matter of waiting for IO to run some script on their end?
@IOI_Artjoms Is there any action required of the player to claim this, other than playing one of the missions and IO will look after the rest?
12 Likes
Mr. Chainsaw gonna become of my fave tools for Freelancer for sure!
3 Likes
So, this is for @IOI_Artjoms benefit more than anyone elses, but I’m gonna do a quick review of the roadmap on here to hopefully explain why these roadmaps feel so stale:
This roadmap Is…not that interesting. And it has a lot of filler. A lot. I’ll reserve judgement for the DLC’s contents and mission, but even that has problems. We’ll get to that.
First though, a good chunk of the roadmap is useless information for veteran players. Holiday Hoarders and Hokkaido Snow Festival have their yearly Free Starter Pack activations, and the mentions of the items that can be unlocked. Fine for those players, useless for everyone else who have probably unlocked those items by now.
Second, Elusive Target Galore returns. On the one hand, this system is good, as it allows players who missed ET’s to have another go at beating them, but it comes with the side effect of making any need to play the regular ET’s on-time as they come out entirely pointless. You can just wait until the end of the year. As a veteran player, there’s no motivation to do these. And on top of that, these are already missions that have been replayed to death by now; some of them are almost a decade old, and really shouldn’t be used like this to attract players to the game/ make people play it. At the end of the day, they feel like obligatory content drops to give players something to do in each roadmap, and that just isn’t a good feeling as a player to experience.
As for advertising the Anniversary edition and the unrelated DLC’s, it is really tacky that these are included here. It literally just to remind people that they exist. In my opinion, and I’m sure IOI will disagree with me, only new and returning content should be on the roadmap, not DLC’s and editions that were released months ago. It implies said paid items are new and made for this season, and suggests the roadmap is filled with more content than it really is.
As for the challenge unlocks, these are separated apart by 18 days, and is arguably the only new free content for the game for people already playing but not paying for extras. These items also vary wildly in quality (the Pinot Noir bottle just feels like an in-level prop, not an unlockable worth using, versus the Durian, which just makes the Emetic meta even worse by power-creeping every other Emetic item out of usefulness in most situations), and the challenges are often not that engaging anyway, not on their own like this. The “A Tie to Die For” is literally just the “Piano Man” challenge.
Back in Year 4, there was an effort to make challenge packs (the “Cloud 9 challenge pack” and the “Codename 47” challenge pack), which had a set of five challenges each set across multiple locations. These were still reasonably simple challenges, but they felt much more expansive and engaging because they took players all over the game’s levels, and I really wish that you would do more of these.
Take the Codename 47 pack:
Six challenges spread out WOA, and it feels much more substantial to play and complete.
As for the twitch unlocks. We have too many now, and we’re starting to run out of ideas for new reskinnable items. And what started out as a fun way of engaging with Hitman streamers, has turned into yet another obligatory part of the roadmap. I feel like the company should stop making these unlocks now, and just put these on rotation as-is.
And finally the arcade contracts being free for the month. This is nice, and even generous to be honest. But they’re only like this so players have something to do in-between waiting for stuff to do in the desert of content. Irrespective of how good the missions are, they are no fun if this is the only new expansive thing you can play in the game. And it’s time limited…twice over!
Even Featured Contracts are a bit marmite-ey; you either really love them or really don’t care for them. That’s not to throw shade at the creators featured, but these are just custom contracts on the same levels people have played repeatedly, often with a puzzle or esoteric twist. They do not appeal to everyone, yet are seen as the backbone of roadmap content. I’m not saying get rid of these or anything, just to rely less on them.
Look, I don’t wanna come off as if i’m complaining for no reason about content that’s just released, I just want somewhere central to inform you Arti of what these roadmaps have turned into; very predictable content drops that are not satisfying players in the long-run and push FOMO content to the center. No new escalations, no new (permanently free) ETA missions, no challenge packs.
As a final note. For Year 5, I feel like the game needs general maintenance, gameplay tweaks, and quality of life improvements, over new DLC’s to grab the attention of the press, items of dubious quality, and ET’s that have been re-run too many times to count. This formula got old a year ago, and has gotten very tiring now.
I hope this was helpful Arti, and I await your response. Thank you for reading this ramble on a game I want to see be in a better state than current.
8 Likes
Haven’t been in the game yet to confirm myself, but isn’t the new Tie challenge a SASONKO version of the Piano Man challenge? If so, I think that’s a reasonably meaningful point of difference that warrants a separate Challenge, IMO.
16 Likes
Yup! (I believe this is technically our first SASONKO challenge)
5 Likes
I suppose, but still, it’s quite a boring challenge as things go. And it’s not a good sign of the challenge’s creativity that that’s what came to my mind first.
It’s basically an enforced challenge run using the fiber wire. That might be appealing to some people, but it certainly isn’t to me.
1 Like
Fair enough, not going to argue if that’s how you feel about it, it’s a valid take. Personally I reckon that there’ll be enough players who’ve never done a SASONKO run in their entire time with the WoA that it could be quite an engaging challenge for a bunch of people.
5 Likes
Challenge creativity’s been pretty much dead since IOI nuked the challenge packs.
On the other hand I quite like SONKOs and welcome this one.
2 Likes
I would love for them to explain how this is possible in Situs Inversus. Because one of these two things is not true unless they’ve changed that mission. I’ll wait…
1 Like
Spoiler alert 1: it’s not.
Spoiler alert 2: there are a bunch of other story missions available to attempt the challenge on.
1 Like