I agree, really don’t know what the BOOM STICK and TUB TIME contracts have to do with rubber ducks???
Also think featured contracts are only aimed at CASUAL players, they are WAY TOO EASY.
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They have to be relatively simple. Featured Contracts show up on the front page of the Hitman interface. They stare you right in the face when you load the game. They may or not not be created by IOI but they are definitely highlighted and sanctioned by IOI.
Unlike the Trending contracts or the contract search results, the Featured Contracts are put forward by IOI as official Hitman content. They cannot be too difficult or they will be a source of frustration for casual players. IOI probably prefers to find and incorporate contracts that offer a mix of difficulty but none of them can be so easy that they offer nothing nor can they be so difficult that they become frustrating.
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That is really sad, because it nullifies the effort of trying to submit a challenging “puzzle” contract, it won’t get featured…
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That’s at least where Curated Creator batches are best. Where the most knowledgeble players are allowed to pick their own batches to put on the list, and they usually involve a lot of head-scratchers.
(Though sometimes they involve stupidly difficult and mechanic-breaking contracts like Vatican Privilege. 
shudder.)
But when it comes to IOI tying rewards to featured contract completion, like they’ve done with Hitman 2 and 3, I think it’s very good they allow variety in the long-term. I know I had to tip toe around a lot of H2 contracts, or do the bare minimum to complete them due to their difficulty. Others were more my style.
In the future I’m sure we’ll see some harder ones if they bring back Curated events
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There have been clear examples of puzzle-style contracts in the Featured Contracts in the past. I know that a few months ago (or longer?) there was a featured contract that required a food kill. You had to know how to do that in order to complete it with all objectives met. I personally didn’t. I gave up and shot the target in the head after throwing every apple on the map at the target’s head without killing them.
Vatican Privilege was another good example. It took a long time and you had know what what the secret was. Contracts like those alienated some players who weren’t in on how to do it “properly”.
Puzzle contracts can be entertaining but they can be frustrating too. If you want to have a contract featured (and I am not a creator), you need to have a contract that isn’t too restrictive. Design a good puzzle, sure, but make sure that it can be accomplished without having a speed runner’s knowledge of the map.
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Ok, good advice, will keep that in mind.
Well, I SA’d every contract in this batch and I wanna rate the best to worst cuz why not:
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BEST - Boom Stick - Wow I was expecting this one to be a lot harder but it turned out to be quite easy, the most challenging target was the dude near Agent Swan because I went for no briefcase and it was the running away after I killed him with the shotgun that was RNGed (going to this dude is piss ez tho), but this contract is really fun, I liked it the more I replayed it, 8/10.
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2nd Place - Duck-Billed Dollars - This is a really broken contract, with the sick guards that don’t move, feet breachers and cameras that don’t work, yeah, this contract was really weird yet still worked, had some good fun trying to complete this buggy mess, 7/10. (I know that these cameras don’t record lore wise, it was still weird considering everything in the contract).
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3rd Place - Rubber Ducky You’re The One - The nurse is easy as shit yet Marty is the most challenging target in this batch, it was compete RNG, still kinda fun, 6/10.
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4th Place - Tub Time - 3 main targets? Yea, I solved this contract in my head before it even loaded, kinda sad about it, feel like I played it only cuz its game content, not because its enjoyable, 4/10.
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5th Place - 47 Goes “Duck” Hunting - Routing for The Stalker and Thomas is kinda fun, but that lady is so disconnected it ruins the pace of the contract, plus the Stalker is kinda a filler target, you just need to get to him and shoot him, ba-bam, theres nothing to it, 2/10.
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WORST - The Night The Duck Cried - Wow this was so bad, so freaking bad, theres nothing good to say about it, bad choices of targets, bad usage of kill methods, an unrelated and purposeless disguise, 6 stupid complications, a far away required exit that takes like 1:30min just to run to it, I feel like this was made bad in purpose, just for us to hate it, 0/10.
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That one was mine. Sorry.
It’s a bit complex, but easy enough if you know the strategy.
Gotta KO the NPC, shoot them in the leg 3 times with a Krugermeier or Hwk21 Pale Silenced (low damage/subsonic weapons) and then a food item will do enough damage to kill them.
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There was a comment post I did on the old forum on the difference between puzzle contracts (can be figured out without specialist knowledge), troll contracts (requires knowledge most players won’t have and/or is extremely hard to pull off even if you know how) and challenge contracts (there’s no secret on how to complete, it just has lots of complications and kill methods that make it hard)
H2 had a fair chunk of challenge contracts and some people were really into them but lots also thought they were awful (like me lel), a couple troll contracts got in there such as the April Fool’s batch (Vatican Privilege, etc), but a couple of Puzzle contracts were also featured (Mainly Urben’s: Where Patients Meet, Raising the Bar, et al). So it’s not unheard of for Puzzle contracts to make their way through, usually just the easier ones though; also doesn’t help that in H3 most batches were only 3 contracts, and most weren’t player made (thankfully they are now), hopefully we see some this year
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The drug dealer just has a weird issue where if you bump the bartender he’s talking to so you can use the prompt sooner, he just takes a few steps and then just stands there head bopping to the music and won’t take you to the spot. He works fine if you let his conversation end first.
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Lad what would you put in a bath, if not soap things needed to be clean with
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Also if I may ask, how did you solve it?
Sorry for two messages in a row mobile hmf is hard
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I would put water 
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I experienced the same thing with the guards if you shoot them with the Sieker, but if you drop a remote emetic gas, they’ll move away normally.
Breachers are just like that though, right? Nothing to do with this contract. You just have to place them correctly, since the blast range is too small.
Those vault cameras are weird in general in New York, not just this contract. The NPCs in this level talk about how the cameras are broken down there. That’s why you won’t get caught on it (yellow guns). But if you do something illegal in front of it, you’ll lose SA.
One of the rare times when I actually go with the theme of the contract (i.e. not using the breaching charge lol)
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He’s got a point though. The gameplay of the contract has got nothing to do with tubs or explosive kills. It’s just the briefing you made that references those things. I think majority of the players care more about the gameplay than the story behind a contract. So, by playing the contract, nothing made me think of explosive ducks, if you get what I’m trying to say.
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Sieker, Bathroom, Taser for Lowenthal
Faucet, Screwdiver, Electricity Switch, Distraction for Rhodes
Taser in Paddle for Swan before he walked in it
And ofcourse pacified the delivery guy and grabbed his keys to the exit.
I completed this in my head in the briefing screen 
Not that hard
Eat Your Heart Out was a blast tho
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Yeah kinda, even tho some of its weirdness is intended, the contract is still awfully weird overall, and broken ofcourse
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Since when did ducks have to be explosive
I’m going to mute this discussion now, I don’t want to spend my weekend testifying to why I’m helping people get their contract unlocks
I liked your contract. People get electrocuted in tubs. Makes sense to me.
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