Hitman 3 / Hitman 3 Freelancer

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Hitman 3's Freelancer mode breaks the mould of regular Hitman gameplay so much that it's functionally a separate game in its own right. Therefore, it was only fair we gave it its own subpage and tropes to go along with it.

Spoilers for Hitman 3 are unmarked here, so be warned! Spoilers for past games like Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2, as well as for Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman are also unmarked.

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Freelancer mode provides trope examples of:

A - G

• Achievement Mockery: The Gauze Suit, unlocked by completing the "I'm Back" Challenge, however the challenge's description is redacted, hiding the nature of the challenge. To get it, you must die during a campaign for the first time.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: All the weapons from dealers are sold at the same price regardless of who you purchase them from. The only really ridiculously expensive items are the "Collector Edition" Freelancer tools, which cost up to ten times more than the regular Freelancer tools, but persist through campaigns.
• Adaptational Villainy: Due to many of the non-showdown targets being randomized NPC's who already exist in the main game's levels, this trope can often be in effect when a Syndicate Member turns out to be an average civilian, some random waiter or even outright benevolent characters like Father Francesco.
• Ambiguous Time Period: While the developers confirmed that it takes place after the main campaign, it's unknown how long ago it was since those events took place.
• A.K.A.-47: As with the main game, no weapon in-game shares its name with its real-world counterpart, although in this case, most weapons are actually meant to be customised to look different from any real world counterpart anyway.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: The inventory system from the base game is a part of the safehouse now, and by default, 47 will wear his signature suit unless you choose otherwise. You do have to unlock the room to let you do this, however, but it is the first unlock for the game mode. Doing specific challenges, and gaining freelancer mastery unlocks new suits for you to wear in the base game and in Freelancer:
  • The Gauze Suit is unlocked by completing the "I'm Back" Challenge, in that you die for the first time during a campaign.
  • Getting to Level 36 mastery unlocks "The Golden Contender Suit", an outfit that consists of 47 wearing cargo pants, green shirt, and a green-gold jacket.
  • Getting to Level 65 mastery unlocks "The Ancestral Hunter Suit", a green tweed jacket, trousers and flatcap, dark grey vest and red patterned tie.
  • Getting to Level 100 mastery unlocks "The Master Freelancer Suit", a getup that has 47 in a hoodie, wearing black gloves, a low-cut shirt and a necklace, rather reminiscent of the hackers in Colorado.
• And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating: Almost every two mastery levels unlocks some kind of room or safehouse customisation feature to further personify your crib. There are also DLC's ("Street Art", "Makeshift", and "The Undying" packs) that can be purchased to give you more options.
• An Interior Designer Is You: The safehouse can be customised to have paintings, different cars, changes to the upstairs rooms, different motivational posters, and loads more.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The supply crate Diana gives you will always spawn regardless of if you failed or completed a mission, likely to give players a head start on a new run or the following mission. They also only contain "Freelancer Tools", bespoke tools that have more utility and versatility in the game than what you can normally pick up.
  • The player is able to reset their campaign at any time in case they don't want to deal with any alerted levels the player may have spawned, or have locations they are otherwise no longer able to prepare for. It is however still considered failure of the campaign, so all the downsides are still present (losing half the total Merces earned, all freelancer tools are removed etc, again with exception of the Collector Edition Freelancer Tools).
  • NPC's are not suspicious of you waving a camera in their face in showdown missions (though if you've alerted the territory, they may well be suspicious of you, camera or no camera).
  • Once you begin a showdown or a syndicate hit, you cannot back out, and quitting via the menu is considered failure. However, if you're disconnected from the internet or crash, you can start the level again without penalty. The developers did initially allow for quitting via Alt+F4 (an exploit commonly used in other Rogue Likes), in part because of the technical issues they had trying to make it not work), but the May 2023 patch plugged this exploit. This itself was reverted in the August 2023 patch, as they admitted that people just found other ways to quit the game (such as via Task Manager or creating programs to block the call).
  • To ease the frustration of failing, you are able to permanently keep "Collectors Edition" tier of Freelancer tools when you fail a campaign, which, unlike the regular variants, will not be removed from your safehouse, unless they're on your person when you fail.
  • The "Katana Kill" prestige objective, despite the name, does not require a katana to complete, other Japanese swords and knives, such as the Masumune or Tanto, also work in completing the objective, though the game doesn't list these examples specifically.
  • Going into a mission with one large weapon will have 47 carry a briefcase containing it to avoid suspicion if he starts in an area with a lot of civilians or guards. However, there is currently no contingency in place for bringing two large weapons into a level, as only one of them with go in a briefcase; the other will be on your back, and that may pose a problem. The game does warn you about this in a loading tip and if you go near an exit point in your safehouse, however.
  • Crates only give you items you don't already own, and in the same vein, Suppliers only sell items you don't already own.
  • Guns that you earn via mastery or DLC can still be lost if you leave them in the field or fail a campaign, but are able to buy them back from a courier if this happens.
  • If you have a "Hide n Seek" objective, interacting with any hiding spot container (except for hiding a body) including getting out of the hiding spot container, will reset the timer. The timer will also reset if you either enter or exit the hiding spot container too.
  • The "No Witnesses" bonus objective is not automatically failed if the player is spotted committing a crime. Instead, a witness counter will appear under the objective, the relevant NPC(s) will be highlighted in beige in Instinct mode, and the player has the option to eliminate them before exiting the map. Additionally, being compromised in this way will not immediately alert all guards on the map, allowing the player a chance to contain the situation or escape the area.
  • You will have access to all maps for this game mode even without the deluxe pack DLC, so the campaigns are always possible to finish.
  • Timed objectives only fail if you do not kill your target within the imposed time limit, not at the end of the mission - so once you have eliminated your targets, you can take your time with any remaining objectives that don't play nice with a timer.
• Artificial Atmospheric Actions: The couriers and suppliers all do this to look busy when someone other than 47 is watching them. You can also invoke this in the safehouse by shining shoes or drinking wine.
• Artificial Brilliance:
  • As per the main game, if 47 is found trespassing, he will be escorted out of the area, except in certain situations.^note He is visibly armed, is wearing a forbidden disguise, his current disguise has either been compromised or seen through by an enforcer, or the area is labeled "Hostile" on the mini map. Unless you have any objective that does not allow you to get spotted ("Silent Assassin", for example), this will not count against you either, unlike in the base game where doing such actions would ruin the above rating.
  • In any of the hits, if the alarm is triggered, or you are outed, the target(s) will be escorted to their exit point. However, this will take a while to commence, so the player can better deal with the rising situation, and you have one last chance to take them out at the exit point as it takes them a few seconds to actually leave once they get there.
  • Non-enforcer NPCs who witness a crime will immediately see through whatever disguise 47 was wearing at the time.
• Art Imitates Art: The "Rats Playing Poker" art piece unlocked at mastery 47 is based on an Easter Egg the player can find in "Curtains Down" from Blood Money in which rats can be seen playing poker reminiscent of the painting; here the reference has come full circle and the scene has been painted in the style of the original Dogs Playing Poker.
• Area of Effect: The Oil and Water canisters respectively work like this; with 47 able to dump a puddle of eiother substance on the ground and either light it up by shooting at it, or cause an electricity-based accident when paired with a car battery or taser.
• Ascended Meme: Some of the motivational posters have various memetic phrases written on them:
  • "Nobody will notice if there's nobody to notice" (A memetic adage that posits that if there's nobody left alive, then nobody saw you commit murder)
  • "Do YOU need the bathroom?" ("I need to use the bathroom" is a long-running meme dating back to Codename 47 where 47 asks that question in a rather stilted voice, and the odd delivery and line became a meme on that basis).
  • "Names are for Friends, so I don't need one" (A popular line said by 47 in Blood Money before knocking out a thug in "Death of a Showman" and comes off as a Badass Boast fans often quote).
  • "Allan please add details, HERE!" (a blank poster with a post-it note of the infamous quote that was left in in Blood Money on a lobster crate description; fans and devs ran with the mistake and quote it all the time).
  • "Why take the elevator, when you can climb?" (a Fandom Nod about the trilogy's lack of elevators, something acknowledged in Dubai, with the only options being stairs or climbing).
• Assassin Outclassin': Undercover assassins may accompany some of the Showdown suspects. Pacifying or killing them nets you 250 XP, allows you to pick up their VERY handy silenced handgun, and killing 25 of them is required for the "No Room for Competition" challenge.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: The "Suit Only" objective involves completing the mission in your suit, and there's also the "Silent Assassin, Suit Only" prestige objective, which asks you to complete the mission without changing out of your suit, and while avoiding being spotted.
• Bad Luck Mitigation Mechanic:
  • Failing a campaign does not remove the "Collectors Edition" tier of Freelancer tools from the safehouse, unlike the regular variants which do get removed regardless of if you take them into the field or not. Similarly, any weapons you've collected will also remain in the safehouse.
  • Failing a campaign also gives you about 1,000-2,000 Merces as a consolation, which can be found in front of the hospital bed in the safehouse.
  • The supply crate in the bunker will always spawn new freelancer tools regardless of if you failed or completed any mission, letting you get back on task more easily, or lend a hand in rebuilding your freelancer tools if you failed a campaign.
• Bald of Evil: One of the possible identity clues for the syndicate leaders is that they're bald or have a shaved head.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Syndicates are all themed around various forms of illegal activities, and selecting which type to go through is actually how you select your own "theme" to taking them out. The payout objectives for Big Pharma groups involve using lots of poison, Eco Crime syndicates have a lot of accidents waiting to happen ("environmental" kills), and so on. Then there's "Sick Games" syndicates which is random because you're dealing with very strange, specific criminals who have all sorts of activities that can't be pinned down.
• Beneath Notice:
  • Syndicate leaders tend to recruit ordinary civilians through social profiling to better slip through the cracks, making their organizations difficult for conventional law enforcement to track down.
  • This extends to said leaders themselves, given how even Diana struggles to identify them directly due to their low profile, as well as a penchant for red herrings. This also explains why 47 has to identify the true target on-site.
  • Assassins, similarly to 47, aren’t immediately detectable, being nigh-indistinguishable from a civilian until they spring into action. Often the only hint is if they’re in close proximity to a would-be target.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The 4 Syndicate Leaders you assassinate in each campaign are working together through a connected network. Consequently, as you kill each one there are more levels on High Alert throughout the campaign, since their alliance with each other means the Syndicates now know someone is actively targeting them.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: Even 47 at his most indiscriminate pales to the reprehensible and insidious exploits the syndicates are involved in.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: Many of the customised weapons for the mode, such as the Assassins' HWK21 Pistol, or the unlockable "Ornamental" and "Ancestral" line of weapons you gain from safehouse mastery, count as this. They are ostentatious and look very fancy. Once unlocked, they are also available to use in the main games' inventory select screen too, which the game strangely doesn't actually tell you.
• Boring, but Practical: Quite a few:
  • The oil and water canisters are fairly easy to use, and so long as you know the routine of the target and have a gun or gadget than can create a spark, you are able to get a pretty clean accidental kill. The only downside is that spilling puddles counts as an illegal action regardless of disguise.
  • Crowbars; like in the main game, they're common on every level, allow doors to be opened relatively quickly (but do cause some noise to be made), and can knock people out in a pinch.
  • Any silenced firearm is tremendously useful. Even the lower-grade weapons, such as the Hackl 9S Covert (which is underpowered and inaccurate) and the Homemade HWK21 Covert (a pistol with a paint can for a suppressor) is useful for shooting out cameras and causing distractions, while silenced SMG's and shotguns work to open doors silently without needing a lockpick. Assassins always carry a silenced pistol in showdowns if you're short, though of course the trick is finding a way to take it from them.
  • The humble banana is permanently available in the safehouse as soon as the player reaches Mastery level 6 and takes up no more inventory space than any other tool. As in the main game, it can be placed in the path of an NPC to knock them out. Doing so is not considered a suspicious act, making it the perfect tool for robbing couriers.
• Bounty Hunter: Essentially 47's new role in this mode, in addition to being a hitman for hire. With the ICA destroyed, clients have nowhere to turn to for eliminating dangerous criminals, and clients looking for justice against crime syndicates now resort to placing open contracts or bounties on the dark web for anyone to take up and either kill or apprehend the syndicate leaders. Agent 47, newly unemployed and now a freelance assassin looking for work, has Diana filter through the contracts, and 47 accepts them and pursues the bounties on the heads of the leaders, and with his background as a hitman, he just goes straight to killing the criminals and collecting the money.
• Bragging Rights Reward:
  • Beating Hardcore mode makes a trophy show up on your shelf, and you unlock the Bruiser suit (the one 47 wears when you fail a mission). The Merces reward is no different from beating a campaign normally, however.
  • Activating a Prestige level has a trophy pop-up on your shelf with the number of what level you're at (up to 5).
• Breakable Weapons: Similar to Carpathian Mountains, many instances of regular crowbars have been removed and replaced with rusted variants instead. This has not been consistently applied game-wide however; crowbars in New York are not rusted, but the ones in Berlin are, for example.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Some of the objectives can come off as this if you have the right equipment. Being asked to poison a guard, while asking to use a poison dart gun and being asked to sedate someone can all be achieved by using the Kalmer 1 on one guard somewhere on the map.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • This is the first time in the franchise where 47 and Diana do not work for, nor try to revive, the ICA (the closest prior was in Absolution, where 47 is ousted and Diana in hiding due to Travis' fixation on Victoria, and even Agent Smiths' contract in Blood Money, while freelance, served to bring the ICA back in the long run). In this mode, 47 and Diana are taking on contracts as freelance assassins, with none of the ICA's resources to help them.
  • This is the first time since Blood Money where 47 has had his own Player Headquarters, instead this time it's a full-blown safehouse instead of what looked like a basement with guns on the wall.
  • Silent Assassin, while still in this mode as a semi-common prestige objective, is not the best rating to get anymore due to the change to being a roguelike-esque game mode (For the curious, Traceless ICA assassin is the highest the rating will go now, even if you qualify for Silent Assassin).
  • This is the first time the games have had a loadout system that the player cannot directly influence from the start; you have to find the items first, be it through crates or in the field.
• Butt-Monkey: The Couriers, who essentially are told to carry Merces somewhere by "the boss" and end up finding themselves lost, only to get hit over the head by a freelance assassin.
• Call-Back:
  • Several pieces of music in the "Exotic" album collection are lifted from various levels, such as the jaunty music from Farah's bar from "Shadows in the Water", the three tracks sung by the singer from "Landslide", and "Ritorn a me" from the projector in World of Tomorrow, among others. There's even more obscure tracks, such as the talking fish music from Helen's home from "Another Life" and a remix of the hip-hop radio music heard in Marrakesh's markets.
  • The "Electronic" album collection plays most of the fashion show's music from Paris alongside the "Doki Doki Pow Pow" theme from Hokkaido.
• Character Tics: Each suspect in showdown levels has two habits and quirks, and identifying the syndicate leader involves discovering which suspect displays both behavioural clues - if they display a habit/quirk that's NOT on the leader's dossier, you can discount them as the leader. Additionally, it's possible to use some of these tics against them, as they can open up opportunities for poisoning, or even just force them to stand still long enough for you to get a chance to confirm their other traits, which include:
  • Allergic suspects often have coughing fits.
  • Bookworm suspects may read a magazine or newspaper during their route.
  • Dehydrated suspects will frequently drink from water bottles or other drinks.
  • Foodie suspects tend to eat from plates of food.
  • Smoking suspects tend to smoke more often.
  • Sweet Tooth suspects occasionally eat a chocolate bar.
  • Nervous suspects often twitch or anxiously look around.
• Cold Sniper: Sniper rifles are often encouraged to be used, and there are several side objectives in the missions that ask you to kill guards with them for Merces.
• Color-Coded Item Tiers: Certain weapons and items have one of four tiers attached; Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary - any of which allows the player to bring them back to the safehouse, and, in general, correlates to how useful they are to the player.
• Commonplace Rare: At least one freelancer tool (or "collector" variant) is scripted to spawn on each map when a supplier is available. Of course, this was done so that tools could be reliably earned without always resorting to the supply crates, which pick from a separate pool of items.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Freelancer was designed to encourage players to explore the game outside of the bounds of "what will get me Silent Assassin"; the best rank in the game. With the randomized targets, relegation of Silent Assassin to a prestige objective, multiple possible side objectives that require going loud, and many permutations in-between, players are heavily incentivized to try new ways to interact with the game that the main campaigns would otherwise punish.
• Complexity Addiction: It's possible, although unlikely to happen each time due to the RNG in place, to try and go for every single side objective, not to mention completing your prestige objective on top of that too, which can be quite complex, and oftentimes counterintuitive to do, especially if the player is used to regular Hitman gameplay.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
  • Several quirks of Silent Assassin from the base game are not carried over to this mode; you cannot be spotted by the target, otherwise the objective is ruined, and that leaves out several assassination methods, such as shooting a target with a silenced pistol as they see you do so in a locked room, failing the objective, despite being the subject of an entire rebalance in Hitman 2.
  • The targets will often throw up in a bin or ledge nearby, instead of the toilets, despite being the subject of a mechanical rebalance as part of the "toilet fix" in 2022.
  • Combat in alerted territories is very broken, and makes it impossible to use containers to hide in, as the AI camps around where you're hiding, or outright spots you when they really shouldn't.
  • Showdown suspects, assassins, and lookouts don't ever need disguises and have free access to whichever parts of the maps they choose, even areas that would normally be highly-restricted. So if you're following a suspect around to learn their tells, they're likely to wander into areas that you don't have the correct disguise for, making you miss a tell or two.
• Continuing is Painful: Failing any alerted territory or showdown forces you to restart from the beginning, you lose half the Merces you had accrued, and any weapons you were carrying (as well as all regular freelancer tools) are also removed.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The loading screen has now changed game-wide; the new version is a black world map with location pings of stylised ICA logos showing all the locations of the hits in the trilogy, consistent with previous information (Sapienza's location is consistent with "The Authors'" briefing, for example).
  • Several newspapers can be found in the office of the safehouse, which reference past games and events, including the post-mission newspapers from "Death of a Showman" and "A New Life" from Blood Money, as well as a newspaper detailing the Haven Island resort. Joseph Clarence, the target of the former mission, is also on the cover of another magazine in 47's room and in a specific cosmetic for the living room.
  • You can find the paper the Constant is reading at the end of Carpathian Mountains on 47's bed, which shows the Satu Mare asylum from Codename 47 on it.
  • One of the living room cosmetics has a copy of the Cassandra Snow novel mentioned in 3's "Patient Zero" campaign.
  • One of the living room cosmetics has a newspaper from Whittleton Creek that details a corruption scandal involving Charles Blake III, as well as the tragic deaths of Robert and Sierra Knox.
  • "Ave Maria" (a song associated with Blood Money) plays if 47 meditates near the river outside his house.
• Continuity Snarl: 47 is still called as such by Diana, despite the fact that, at the end of 3, he makes a big deal of how he doesn't want to be called "Agent 47" anymore, as that was his name when he was at the ICA. It's possible Gameplay and Story Segregation is at play here too; it's a name players are familiar with, and makes it far easier to get invested in Diana and 47 as characters, though it's likely 47 may just be referring to the "Agent" part, however. "The Drop" Elusive Target (also set after the main campaign) would later make this more explicit, as Diana calls him "Agent" in one of their voice lines, implying it's a codename, rather than simply 47's name outright.
• Crowbar Combatant: Many of the levels have crowbars to forcefully open doors with, most often rusted variants of the original, as well as to knock someone out in a pinch. You can also unlock one as a freelancer tool.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
  • Any player expecting the game mode to play like the base game does is going to get a massive shock. While Silent Assassin is still in this mode, it's relegated to a side objective, several aspects of the game require quick thinking, and going loud is a viable option here- even required in many cases. The game still prefers you to keep things quiet as a whole, but the loosening of the top rating means that many player behaviours (such as hiding bodies, avoiding guards when trespassing in a restricted area, or simply destroying security footage) aren't strictly necessary.
  • The locations of various items and weapons that would normally be guaranteed to show up in a given location are oftentimes not present, been replaced with rusted variants, or have been switched around, sometimes even on specific NPC's. Unless you've played the Freelancer-specific map variant before, you have no way of knowing where and when this could have been applied to. You can, of course buy Freelancer Tools that serve their purpose by buying them for a token amount of Merces at a supplier. In addition, even if you've learned where items are on the Freelancer version of the map, even more of the tools are removed if the territory is alerted.
• Decoy Leader: A major reason why syndicate leaders are hard even for Diana to pin down. On top of generally keeping a low profile, they often have several members act as decoys to further obscure their identity.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • In New York, you are able to "Extract Merces" from the vault by partially pulling out the data core, and the developers went back and added up to 6,000 Merces if you do this. There are several Merces stashes in deposit boxes too. Interestingly enough, the Easter Egg involving the bank robber disguise also works here if you know how to do it, and, once completed, will award the player the Golden 12G Shotgun (a very rare Legendary unlock), as well as disabling the lasers so you can exit the vault more easily.
  • If you start in the default non-story starting point for Chongqing, the game delays the conversation you have with the woman that normally occurs by about 12 seconds — the amount of time Diana usually uses to speaking to the player.
  • Some of the base game safes contain a small amount of Merces if you know how to open them, including Rico Delgado's safe in Colombia and Don Yates' safe in Mendoza.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The music for Hitman (2016), Hitman 2 and Hitman 3 are unlockable albums that can be played on the music player (though they require the deluxe edition of the game to apply). Interestingly, the Hitman (2016) soundtrack is actually called that in-game, rather than the Stopped Numbering Sequels name of HITMAN the game is officially known as.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • While the Assassin's HWK21 pistol isn't too powerful, and is eventually outclassed by other weapons, you can easily obtain one from an early showdown mission by luring and knocking out an assassin. Having a silent firearm of any kind can be a game-changer when you're still starting out and can't buy one.
  • The Vault on New York allows players to build up Merces quickly as breaking into the vault often requires little-to-no gear, and no disguise is needed as sneaking around is enough, and it nets the player 5-6000 Merces (As much as the Silent Assassin-Suit Only Bonus Objective). The only catch is that the vault lasers cannot be turned off, requiring precise timing or fast running. And because you only lose half your Merces on a campaign failure, that means as long as you finish the New York map, even without doing any objectives, you're already half way to affording lots of items. Only picking campaigns that have New York in them is a ludicrously fast way to afford every tool and gun in the game, and is also the only location IOI have had to modify to curb this tactic.
• Distinction Without a Difference: Many of the variants of weapons are just copies of base-game weapons (even supposedly high-grade weapons like the Assassin's HWK21 Pistol is functionally identical to the ICA19). The downside is that you have lots of duplicates of weapons filling up slots that could've been used for potentially more interesting and unique weapons. On the plus side, you have lots of duplicate weapons, meaning if you lose a weapon or tool, there are replacements ready at the safehouse that are "close enough" or identical to what you lost, so you can use those to help get your old stuff back.
• Downloadable Content: Two DLC packs were released when Freelancer went live, ostensibly weapon and theming packs for your safehouse. The "Street Art" pack, which decorates weapons with graffiti and adds some artistic decorations to your home, while the "Makeshift" pack adds Stylistic Suck weapons, similar to that of the Sloth 7DS pack (old, dilapidated and look like they're about to fall apart), with the decorations also going for a more rustic look, and many of the pieces of furniture being made out of junkyard materials.
• Dungeon Shop: On each level, there is a supplier who will sell you any item they have available. While their selection is random per level, there is consistency in what you can get (Two large weapons, one - two pistols, two freelancer tools, two - three melee weapons).
• Early Game Hell:
  • The first campaign or two can feel like a vicious cycle, as every time you fail, your already-limited supply of Merces gets cut in half, you lose what you were carrying, and failing a showdown causes you to also lose your regular freelancer tools. And while you can open a supply crate to get back on track, it's all too easy to continue failing and lose more Merces and weapons each time. And the supply and reward crates aren't guaranteed to give you anything that's necessarily helpful for the missions you have available either. Once the player gets to grips with the modes' mechanics, acquiring what you want when you want it rapidly gets more plausible and accessible; the direct inverse of this trope. Even flubbing a campaign and losing all your Freelancer tools stops stinging so much when the half your Merces you get to keep is enough to clean out a supplier and get back on track. "Collector Edition" Freelancer tools do not get removed if you fail a campaign (unless you carry them into a level), meaning that even that downside can be mitigated eventually.
  • Early on, you can barely bring anything onto a mission with you, but your Gear Limit gradually increases as you level up, allowing you to take an ever-larger variety of tools and weapons with you into the field. Of course; the more weaponry you bring, the more you stand to lose. However, non-collector Freelancer Tools are lost if you flub a campaign in any fashion, not just death, so go nuts with those.
  • At the start of the game, you have access to one gun; the ICA 19 Classicballer — and it's not silenced. In fact, silenced pistols in general tend to be hard to find or come across, or require a lot of Merces to obtain in the early game, so you're likely going to be spending your first few syndicate hits getting used to the idea of going loud without starting a map-wide firefight in the process.
• Emergency Weapon: Unlocking more rooms in the safehouse means unlocking more items that come with those rooms and always respawn regardless of whether or not you succeed in a mission. This effectively makes them the only permanent fixtures of 47's arsenal, which is handy if you're going through a rough patch. These items range from obvious improvised weapons like scalpels and wrenches to things like stethoscopes and newspapers.
• Evil Power Vacuum: With Providence out of the picture, various criminal syndicates are filling up the gaping void left behind.
• Final Death Mode: Hardcore mode, which you unlock by completing a campaign for the first time. When you choose it, you lose all the Merces and weapons you had so it's a clean slate going in, every location for contracts is alerted, and many adjustments have been made in-game to make things trickier, such as forcing you to complete the prestige objective, enforcing Master Mode mechanics and maps, and adding even more NPC's to deal with. The only thing that persists is freelancer mastery (and therefore, unlocks for the safehouse), but the main meat of the gameplay very much qualifies as this trope.
• Fishing Minigame: In the safehouse, 47 can partake in a spot of fishing, and doing so allows the player to catch regular fish, starfish, a driftwood log, fishing line, a rusty crowbar, and Jarl's Pirate Saber.. This can also be done indefinitely, with the starfish and fishing line not contributing to the players' imposed gear weight limit for going into missions when caught this way. You can also gut the regular fish with a knife in the kitchen and extract some sedative poison from it which also does not affect gear weight.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • None of the showdown suspects object to the player making 47 shove a camera in their face, or do donuts around them as they walk to check them out from different angles, despite how this would be incredibly suspicious and creepy in reality. Of course, averting this trope would make finding targets harder in an already hard mode, especially when some traits are very hard to check or confirm otherwise (Earrings can just be on one ear, Tattoo's can only be on one arm, necessitating checking both ears and appendages, for example). The closest the game comes to averting this is in alerted levels (and in Showdowns, not all potential targets are necessarily going to be enforcers), but they're suspicious of 47's presence, not because of the camera.
  • The levels in the game are reused from the base missions, complete with most of the targets and events that only make sense to have happened from before Freelancer takes place. There are a few minor alterations - Berlin and Mendoza don't feature some of their targets (the ICA hit squad for the former, and Diana and Tamara Vidal in the latter), plot-relevant exits (such as exposing the ICA in Chongqing, tangoing with Diana in Mendoza, and Grey's exit in Ambrose Island) has been removed, and some mission story quests (such as the tattoo artist in Colombia, the laundry foreman in Mumbai, or the murder mystery in Dartmoor) don't play out.
  • During Showdown missions, killing a suspect who is not the target incurs the same penalty as killing a civilian, despite the fact that all the suspects are still clearly involved with the syndicate. This was likely done to force the player to actual identify the target, rather than eliminate all possible suspects.
• Genre Shift: From a strictly Stealth-Based Game to a Roguelike, of all things.

H - Z

• Hammerspace:
  • Suppliers have can hold up to 10 items to sell, and a briefcase will appear out of thin air for any of the larger weapons, regardless of what they're wearing, especially amusing on Haven Island where several of the possible suppliers are wearing nothing but a bikini or swimming trunks.
  • Your personal Hammerspace, in the form of your Gear Limit, will start small and gradually get larger as your Mastery increases, allowing you to take more items and tools into a level than at the start, and especially during the main story. Similar to the base game, your Gear Limit restricts only what you are able to bring into a level. You are free to pick up and carry as many items within the level as you want; it is not uncommon, particularly at low Mastery, to end a mission exceeding your Gear Limit several times over.
• I Fought the Law and the Law Won: Many objectives will require the player to go loud, but if you do so without a plan in mind, or go openly loud for the sakes of it, then the local law enforcement/guards will bring you down rather quickly; Assassins are also deadly in their own right if you come across them in showdown missions, though at least they also need to be alerted before they start taking action against you.
• Infinity -1 Sword:
  • The basic Sieger 300 sniper rifle has the same downside as the Druzhina, in that it requires building before use, has no additional perks (asides from being silenced), and while it is still good if you're out of other sniping options, any other Sieger 300 variant is better, as they are straight upgrades, as they have unique perks (such as body piercing or extra zoom levels for the scope), or can be nigh-instantly unpacked for immediate use.
  • The Fiber Wire, despite having its own objective, is not only fairly hard to use in practice, but the weapon itself is superseded by other free variants. In the former, the objective relies on isolating targets, which greatly depends on the mission and Target RNG, and even using emetic devices to force an isolation opportunity does not guarantee that they will throw up in the toilets, and instead the target may just head for the nearest bin (unlike base-game targets, Freelancers' targets are not subject to the "Toilet fix" that affects all non-freelancer targets from 2022). Even the weapon itself is quite rare to find via suppliers, so the Stethoscope and Fishing Line supersedes it, as they are both free to find (either from the safehouse or when in a level), can be unlocked in early stages of Mastery, they count towards the same objectives as the regular Fiber Wire, and its one downside is that it only costs one extra gear weight to carry versus the original, which isn't really a downside even when stuck in Early Game Hell where the players' gear weight is smaller.
  • Proximity Explosives tend to be outclassed by their Remote variants. They let the player afford the opportunity to move to a safe area away from guards before detonating, not to mention being able to be stuffed in a briefcase without almost immediately detonating, and thus tend to be more versatile. By comparison, Proximity explosives are one-use and require careful planning, placing and/or throwing, as well as a viable exit strategy once it detonates, which can be a hassle. It doesn't help that the duck-variants look identical to their remote variants in all but color, so if the player is not paying attention, they can accidentally take it from the safehouse in place of the remote variants, or worse, accidentally detonate it, killing them or anyone nearby.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • If you obtain an item in the field, stash or safehouse that has a Gear Limit rating, but no rarity label (meaning it cannot be brought back to the safehouse), it means that there will eventually be a way that you can find the item in question at your safehouse to bring into the field once you've earned enough Mastery.
  • During Showdowns, if you have objectives available that require you to use them on a target, they only get cleared if you've completed said objective on the correct target - if you guessed wrong or you're just picking randomly, the objective remains active.
  • In showdowns, if you manage to spook some, but not all, of your suspects, and Diana isn't immediately warning you to take out the target before they escape with a "distance to exit" marker and objective appearing, none of the suspects that are currently making a run for it are the person you're looking for.
• Instructive Level Design: Upon starting Freelancer, you have exactly one item that you can take with you into the field - an unsilenced handgun that has a perk that lets 47 aim in slow-motion for a bit. The game is all but telling you "get some practice in going in loud, but be cautious about it", giving you an easily-hidden illegal weapon in what's to be your first mission set at the lowest difficulty possible, and you'll probably realize during said mission that weapons taken from enemies and kept on your person until the end will be brought back to your safehouse for potential future use - so start building an arsenal, any way you can.
• In-Universe Soundtrack: One of the first unlocks for the safehouse is a music player that lets you listen to almost any song in the game, this includes:
  • The official OST's for Hitman (2016), Hitman 2, and Hitman 3.
  • The various classical pieces heard in the game (including Ave Maria).
  • An "Exotic" music playlist, comprising of many of the side tracks heard on radio's, sung by singers, talking fish, and other unsorted musical pieces that don't fit any specific category.
  • The "Jazz" playlist includes the licensed music from the Wests' Garden Party from Whittleton Creek
  • The "Rock" music playlist stars the three songs in The Class' album "Providence" ("Are We Stars", "Gun Show", and "Shine a Light") as well as Huldre's "Mørke", heard in one of the houses music players in Whittleton Creek.
  • The "Electronic" playlist features music that fits the genre from the game, such as a variant of the Catwalk music from Paris, the club music from Berlin, and the "Doki Doki Pow Pow!!" music from Hokkaido.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Subverted. The Katana and Masamune are outclassed here, as they are large weapons that cannot be concealed, which makes them very tricky to carry around in your suit or in non-guard disguises. And due to objective RNG, long weapons and the Katana do not mix (and can cause an instant alert if you start in a crowded area). The Tanto takes the same amount of gear capacity as the Katana, the blade is small enough to conceal in 47's jacket, can be found for free in the mountaintop start in Hokkaido (plus a second one can always be found in Yuki Yamazaki's room failing that and a different one in the top floor of New York), and still qualifies for the Katana Kill Prestige Objective (but not the feat for killing 47 targets with a Katana). Meanwhile, the Masamune's only good stat is being a Legendary weapon costing one gear capacity to take in.
• Keystone Army: Taking out a syndicate's leader will cause the organization to collapse on itself, especially in the absence of any lynchpin holding the criminal network together.
• Leave No Survivors: While it is just as possible to do as the main game, the developers added a 50 Merces penalty for killing civilians so you don't run around salting the earth of anyone who has seen you in the level. This was in response to an exploit during the CTT that had players killing everyone that'd be of any trouble to you with no consequences. Note that guards are still considered fair game.
• Leitmotif: "In Constant Motion" can be heard in the music that plays in safehouse's bunker, while snippets of "A World of Assassination" and "Mission Accomplished" can be heard in the loading screens between missions. A remixed portion of "Untouchable", the same that plays during 47's dream sequence in Carpathian Mountains, also plays if you complete a campaign.
• Lethal Joke Item: The banana is an invaluable tool in this mode, providing a means of knocking out couriers that generates zero suspicion even if done in public.
• Level Grinding: Freelancer Mastery is designed around this, which unlocks rooms and cosmetics for your suit inventory and in the safehouse, not to mention more useful things, such as an explosives workbench. That said, the grinding gets increasingly harder the more you play as the amount of Mastery XP needed per level goes up, and it's get very noticeable at Level 50 or so.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • If you have any of the "Poison Target" objectives, you are able to identify targets in showdowns, as the completion state is applied immediately after poisoning them, not after the showdown is done. And any poison (unless specified by the objective) qualifies here. Handy for thinning the herd or making sure the person you suspect is actually the target, as the objective isn't counted as completed if you've nailed the wrong guy or gal.
  • The "Distract Target" objective is shockingly easy to complete; Agent 47 just has to run into each suspect, or hell, stand very close to them, until it triggers as completed. Of course, it's not advised to do this on targets that are enforcers, but even a thrown distraction serves the same purpose.
• Macrogame: Weapons that are on your wall downstairs carry into any run; the sole exception being Freelancer tools, which still carry over into other runs, but disappear if you fail a campaign — "Collector Edition" tools are the exception to this rule, but can cost up to ten times more than the weapon is normally worth. Mastery is also carried over, as is XP earned, as that contributes to safehouse mastery, which unlocks suits, decor, safehouse rooms, and items inside those safehouse rooms that can be used in the field.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Just like in previous games, this is a viable way of eliminating the target(s). Even if the body is discovered when the target gets killed in an accident or with poison, it doesn't count against the "Bodies Found" section in the post-mission scoring.
• Master of Disguise: As per usual, disguising as someone to get close to your mark helps. Unlike in the base game however, you cannot choose where you start, meaning starting undercover is not possible.
• Meaningful Name: The currency "Merces", is Latin for a bunch of money-related words like "Reward" or "Salary", and is indeed the root word found in Latin-based languages when it comes to shopping; "Commerce" for example. Appropriate, given what it's used for in-game. Notably, this was one of two words that was on the ICA's logo; "Merces Letifier" (often translated as "Lethal Trade").
• Model Museum: The safehouse lets you inspect weapons you have collected, allowing you to see their weapon specifications and information while spinning the gun around.
• Mooks, but no Bosses: In keeping with the rest of the "World of Assassination" trilogy, there are no boss fights or tougher-than-normal assassination targets, unlike the earlier games in the series. However, unlike the previous two "World of Assassination" games, the assassins are a bit harder to take down and definitely hit harder. The Showdowns could be considered bosses in some respects, but the game still prefers you to at least attempt a stealthy approach, as going too loud too early may spook them into trying to flee the map - and even if you DO simply take them head-on, the Showdown bosses are no more dangerous or durable on their own as any other civilian on the map; the reason they're harder targets largely revolve around the unique Showdown mechanics that can cause you to blow your campaign even if you never personally see them at all, should you be too careless about identifying, making your way to, and confronting them.
• Money for Nothing: Merces become this the more you play, around Mastery 40, as you leave Early Game Hell, and start to be able to afford most guns and Freelancer tools and still earn enough from safes, couriers and objectives (not to mention the contracts' base payout) to subsidize most of those costs. Merces get to the point of being only useful for getting tools back after failing a hit or campaign, so they're never entirely useless, but it still comes with the issue with having more money thank you know what to do with. There is a prestige system to alleviate this, but even that only works five times (and each reset increases Merces and XP payouts).
• Mythology Gag: One of the unlocks for 47's bedroom is a leather chair, and interacting with it has 47 sit in the chair in such a way that mimics the cover for Hitman (2016)'s soundtrack◊ (this image is also used in the main menu to represent the first game). He also fiddles with an ICA19's suppressor, strengthening the reference.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles: Showdowns ask you to find the right target in a pool of up to nine suspects, all with different looks, tells, activities and routines, not to mention their lookouts and assassins following them.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: Much of the safehouse is using assets from Berlin (the trees and rocks in particular), although the safehouse itself is uniquely modelled, while unlockable music tracks for the music player are borrowed from the past games. Averted with the unlockable weapons, voice lines, the DLC, and level music, as those were made for this game mode outright.
• Nintendo Hard: Showdowns are very tricky; there are Lookouts that are more attentive to what you wear, assassins that follow suspects, the suspects themselves have a variety of meetings, and much of the gameplay is to find out who is the real target. And unlike non-Showdown missions, your targets will flee the map if you scare them away, intentionally or otherwise. Alerted showdowns make almost every lookout, assassin, and leader an enforcer for all disguises.
• No-Gear Level: You start off by having a low Gear Limit that you can use to take in tools and weapons, but the more you play, the more you can take in, provided you're still within the limit to take whatever array of weapons and tools you want to use.
• No One Sees the Boss: Due to the syndicates' tendency towards working through proxies and social profiling, few if anyone know who their actual leaders are. This also why it takes effort even on Diana's part to identify any clear connections.
• Non-Indicative Name:
  • The prestige objective "Katana Kill" is not limited to Katana's, other Japanese swords and knives like the Masumune or Tanto can be used instead. The game does tell you this, though it doesn't give specific examples.
  • Despite the name, the Remote Concussion Collectors Duck is not a Collectors Edition Freelancer Tool; the name is due to its original exclusivity to the Collectors Edition of Hitman 2, and soon after, the developers made it available to Gold Edition buyers of Hitman 2 as well. Note that it lacks the "Persists through campaigns" text in its description.
  • The assassins follow their assigned target suspect everywhere, and do not assassinate anyone. If anything, they act more like bodyguards.
• No-Sell: Lookouts know everyone in the level, so you cannot fool them. Usually anyway, as there are exceptions such as Lookouts not seeing through the High Security Guard disguise in New York.
• Nostalgia Filter: Several safehouse decorations reference Hitman: Blood Money:
  • There's a painting you can unlock at one of the mastery levels that is in reference to the "rats playing poker" Easter Egg from "Curtains Down" in the style of Dogs Playing Poker.
  • The aforementioned newspapers and magazines showing headlines about Swing King and Vinnie Sinistra.
  • The "Allan please add details here!" joke makes an appearance as a post-it note replacing a poster that is meant to be there.
  • One of 47's cosmetics for his bedroom is a yellow bird in a rounded cage; in reference to the bird he keeps (and sadly, has to kill to keep his cover) throughout that game.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: For the first time in the series, the ICA is no longer around, being dismantled after the events of the main campaign. 47 and Diana go into missions with no stashes, no outside help, and it's up to you to kill the target in the campaign. During the CTT, the briefing implied the ICA was still around or being rebooted, but the version in-game on release has removed all traces of such suggestions (likely as it undermined Hitman 3's ending).
• New Game Plus: A laptop in the basement lets 47 gain a prestige level, indicated by a unique safehouse trophy. By doing this, it removes all items in your inventory, so that's all Freelancer weapons and tools on the weapon walls. Your entire Merces wallet is also deducted. In return, you get more XP and Merces gained from doing missions. This can be done up to 5 times, and each level the reward increases in value.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Several aspects of New York were modified in the May 2023 patch as it made raiding the vault, collecting Merces, and planning for later missions too easy. Notably the chloroform closet was moved from outside the security office to inside it (requiring either a lockpick or timing with a crowbar to open the outside door, then either timing with an illegal opening action or a Janitor's Key from elsewhere in the map to get at), there is no way to disable the lasers in the vault (the player has to learn the pattern of the laser cycle or clean up the guards beforehand and immediately leave ), and the coins in the vault have been redistributed where the Antique Curved Knife and Burial Dagger originally were, those having been removed completely.
• Only Six Faces: Averted for showdown missions; much of the gameplay is finding the target that has unique looks and tells (what they look like and what they do respectively), meaning their appearance is made in such a way so suspects have different defining features.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: New York, prior to the May 2023 patch was the go-to for getting Merces and rare equipment as you can raid the vault and deposit boxes for rare items and stashes of Merces, often getting ~13,000 Merces in all. Post-May-2023 patch however, the developers cottoned on to this strategy, and removed the rare weapons for small Merces stashes, and lowered the Merces gained from the level in general. That said it's still an effective way to guarantee some extra Merces, especially if you so happen to start the level in the basement.
• Player Headquarters: The safehouse acts like one, complete with secret entrances to the bunker where you make plans and kit yourself out for missions.
• Power Glows: The crates you find in the level hum and also glow a turquoise color, and provide powerful, if not necessarily useful, tools and weapons.
• Pragmatic Hero: 47 is treated as one, if not a Nominal Hero here. The syndicates are essentially cults, child trafficking operations, terrorism networks, and many other groups, all of which that have members all over the globe. He's taking them down not only because they're heinous, but also because there are people willing to pay him to do it.
• Random Event:
  • The objectives are assigned this way. While most contracts you take have a set variety of objectives, you don't know exactly which ones will pop up in a given map until you've taken the contract, and sometimes you'll see objectives that aren't part of the set. Prestige Objectives also work the same way. Similarly, "Sick Games" syndicate contracts are decided once you select it as part of your campaign; you are not given the graces of seeing what could come up.
  • The fishing minigame has several items that can be fished for, while certain items on the safehouse grounds (the emetic poison mushroom in particular) randomly show up with no consistent pattern.
  • The Suppliers don't always have a static stock of guns and weapons, they are all randomised on each mission start. That said, there is some consistency, such as (Collector) Freelancer tools always spawning, as well as melee items and certain firearms, and they'll never sell you anything you already have.
• Replay Value: Like with the main game, there's a lot of it due to the randomised targets and objectives, making each run relatively unique. The mode also assumes the player to be aware of various level tricks and good assassination spots on any given map, meaning learning the level is also vital to this mode.
• Save-Game Limits: There is no saving in the mode; exiting out from the menus is considered failure of that mission. The only way to "save" is at the safehouse, which acts as a stopping point before the next mission, much like other Rogue Like games.
• Scenery Porn: The safehouse has a gorgeous environment, with a large lake and a forest surrounding the house, a calm and serene environment for 47 to relax.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Your main problem during Showdown missions. If the leader you're looking for has any reason to suspect your presence on the map - they're seeing bodies, you've alerted the Lookout for their personal network, they're hearing gunshots, whatever - they're going to flee for the nearest map exit, and if you think you can exploit this to just catch them at the exit and blow them away, you've got another thing coming, as any guards who witness their escape will follow them to protect them, and they can get quite an escort going. As such, you might want to save any side objectives that involve shooting guards or causing general havoc until after you've nailed the leader.
• Schizophrenic Difficulty:
  • Due to the random nature of the game mode, what spawns in crates and what prestige objective you select will affect weapon combinations and your general playstyle, which can pose problems on maps such as the Isle of Sgàil and Bangkok (both have a lot of enforcers per disguise), and Colorado (the entire area is hostile in your suit). Hardcore mode makes the prestige objective required for level completion, making prestige objectives like Silent Assassin and any of the timed objectives very tense, as if you screw up, that's it, your campaign is reset.
  • In showdown missions, sometimes some of the details (most commonly, tattoos) can be covered up by the suspects' hair or their clothing, and if enough suspects fit the remaining details, it can be a guessing game as to which one 47 needs to take out. In particular, picking the wrong target can cause the real target to run to the exit, and 47 fails if the target can reach it before 47 can catch them.
• Shooting Gallery: Unlocked at level 13 of the safehouse is a shooting gallery that 47 can use to test out his guns, which come with various cosmetics, such as moving glowing targets, standard paper targets, and cowboy-themed paper targets, among others.
• Shout-Out:
  • The challenge for eliminating 50 syndicate members or leaders in Marrakesh is called "Let the Darkness Unfold".
  • The "Untz! Untz!" challenge refers to the song of the same name song by Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, and it asks you to eliminate 50 syndicate members or leaders in Berlin.
  • The challenge "Fly you fools!" asks you to complete ten timed objectives, and the challenge name is in reference to the first Lord of the Rings film, where Gandalf orders the hobbits to flee Moria and the caves as quickly as possible.
  • The "Sometimes maybe good, Sometimes may be shit" challenge (fail a syndicate/ showdown mission a certain amount of times) is named after the meme of the same name where Italian football manager Gennaro Gattuso tried to defend his club, OFI Cretes' Greek football club, performance in a match, and described the team as "sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit."
  • The Mr. Clean challenge is in reference to the cleaning products brand of the same name, and asks you to complete the various "hide bodies" objectives, or "destroy security footage" task 20 times.
• Starter Equipment: You start the mode with only an ICA19 Classicballer to 47's name; an unsilenced pistol, in contrast to the base game where the default gun is a silenced ICA 19. This is your first clue that this game mode expects you to go loud at certain points.
• Stock Market Game: You can unlock the Vault in your safehouse, which allows you to check the stock market, netting you several thousand Merces (or losing the same amount), depending on your luck and timing.
• Superhero Trophy Shelf: Completing certain challenges nets you a metal trophy on the shelf in the upstairs of the safehouse, and a possible spawn point when you load into the safehouse is 47 staring at them.
• Timed Mission: Several prestige objectives exist to make you Race Against the Clock; "Timed - Get Disguises" (Get disguises every couple of minutes) and "Timed - Time Trial" (kill the target(s) in a set amount of time) to name a few. The limits tend to be quite tight so it's a good idea to have a general idea of where you'll be able to safely reset the clock if it's possible to do so.
• Unstable Equilibrium: Failing a syndicate mission makes the rest of the missions in the tier alerted, meaning that you now have to deal with harder map layouts, targets will generally all become super enforcers that can see through any disguise you put on, and your Showdown will be significantly more difficult.
• Violation of Common Sense:
  • Bringing Freelancer Tools into regular missions is usually a risk/reward endeavour — You risk losing them if you die, but the reward in doing so is that they become immensely helpful in various ways. However, failing a "High Alert" level or Syndicate showdown in any capacity removes everything on your person, as well as all the regular Freelancer Tools back at the safehouse, so for those missions, unless it's a perishable item (like the explosives, gas devices, or electronic key hackers) the opposite is true; there's no downside bringing in as many Freelancer Tools into a level until you reach the gear cap, as if you fail the mission, you'll lose those items regardless of if you took them or not, so you may as well go all-out.
  • One of the mastery challenges; "Let the chips fall where they may", requires you to kill non-target suspects during showdowns, but unlike similar challenges for assassins and lookouts, killing the wrong suspect nets a 1000 Merces penalty for 47. The challenge needs 50 kills, meaning completing it requires 50,000 Merces to be lost over various missions.
• Virtual Paper Doll: One of the few persistent unlocks that's been carried over from the main game is your suit inventory, which is also accessed in the safehouses' wardrobe. It's also akin to a dress up game as you can actually view your clothing selection in real time instead of relying on a static inventory image. It's also the only thing you can leave in the field and never lose if you change out of your suit and into a disguise.
• Too Awesome to Use: Many of the more aesthetically pleasing weapons, or even the higher tier rarity weapons (particularly silenced guns), can often be a tricky prospect to take in, as if you fail a mission, you've essentially lost a valuable piece of kit or two, especially in the early-game where getting Merces and weapons is a case of managing your wallet thriftily. Even "Collectors Edition" Freelancer Tools (which cost a lot of Merces to buy to begin with) get lost if you fail, perverting incentives to use those too, ditto for the weapons you unlock through mastery or get via DLC as those have extra perceived value for the player (earned via mastery, and bought with real money respectively).
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The safehouse's true location is deliberately kept ambiguous; all references to its location in main menu text gives a Cryptically Unhelpful Answer of "Secret Location", and there's no map, no postal code, and not very much to suggest a country of origin. That said, the developers did ask fans about this. Comments from fans pre-and-post-release theorise the safehouse is placed somewhere in Europe, judging by the foliage and EU-style plug sockets, but there's nothing concrete in-game to prove or dismiss this idea either way. Even internally, the codename for the level; "Snug Vanilla", breaks away from the codename style the developers usually use ("Adjective - [Animal associated with country]"), meaning that this is an intentional design choice.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: The main game encourages players to enact Xanatos Gambits — this mode encourages this too, but falls more under this trope, given how frequently messy hits can be on this mode, and how the player has to adapt to the situation. A good example is in showdowns, where you can trigger a target escape, and then snipe the right target if all other methods fail.
• You Have Researched Breathing: The safehouse's upper floors, specific rooms, decor, and even the outside require unlocking by earning mastery, despite the fact that 47 appears to have already been in some of the locked rooms to begin with.

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