Video Game / Hitman 2

Think deadly.

Make the world your weapon.

Hitman 2 (stylized HITMAN 2) is the seventh game of the Hitman series by IO Interactive, and is the second entry into the World of Assassination Trilogy. A sequel to 2016's Hitman, it is also the first game of the franchise to be published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, after Square Enix dropped the developer in 2017.

Set after the events of its predecessor, Hitman 2 continues the story of Agent 47 as he seeks to eliminate the mysterious Shadow Client, a quest that will unravel the secrets of 47's past and his true identity.

Hitman 2 had six locations at launch, but unlike its predecessor's episodic release schedule that released them over a period of months, they were all available when the game was released. Said locations are a luxurious beach mansion in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand; a racing circuit in Miami, USA; a village in the rainforests of Colombia; the slums of Mumbai, India; a quiet suburb in Vermont, USA; and the Isle of Sgàil; a mysterious island in the North Atlantic. Some of these locations are even larger than ones featured in past Hitman games. An expansion pass added two more missions: A large bank in New York, and an island resort in the Maldives, with both continuing the story from the base game's missions.

Mechanically, this iteration of Hitman is pretty much identical to its predecessor. It does have a few notable changes, however - mirrors now work as...well, mirrors (enemies can see you if you stand behind them), the enemy A.I. has been adjusted to be both more persistent and smarter in tracking you, foliage is able to be hidden in, a feature that returns from Absolution, among other much smaller changes. The major big change however is the long awaited return of the briefcase back into the game, which allows you to smuggle weapons, tools, explosives and the occasional fish into secure areas, as well as being able to use it as a handy throwable item, blunt melee object and a lure.

The game also re-introduces the Sniper Assassin game mode from Hitman: Absolution, with a single player and a newly added co-op mode. It was made available to play immediately upon pre-ordering any version of the game, but was available to everyone after purchase. It includes Himmelstein, as well as two expansion pass levels; Singapore and Siberia. Additionally, the levels from Hitman (2016) were available for this game on launch as part of a "Legacy Pack", which incorporates the new features of Hitman 2 into the first campaign's levels. Owners of the first game got one of two Legacy Pack DLCs (along with the aluminium travel briefcase, and other goodies) for free, depending on if you had the Game of the Year edition or not.

Outside of the gameplay mechanics, the biggest change to the game compared to its predecessor is the story cut-scenes. Having been dropped by Square Enix between the release of the first and second games, IOI's limited budget, time and technology options necessitated a significant change to the highly-detailed animated cut-scenes used in the first game. Their preferred choice was a stylised still image format, akin to a comicbook, whilst still maintaining the voice acting, and certain animated portions. The fully animated cut-scene style was brought back in the DLC locations, after many fan requests.

A few months before the game's release, a prequel comicbook series was finished up, which serves as an origin story for 47 and Diana, titled Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman, which had Diana struggling to cope with the loss of her parents, while 47 finds out about himself and the world, all while taking down "The Institute for Human Betterment". The comic series is closely linked to this game, and thus has a lot of Call-forwards that makes this game's plot easier to understand than without it.

A sequel to this game, Hitman 3 (no, not that one), was released on January 20th, 2021, which completed the "World of Assassination" Trilogy. Also revealed in the announcement was that, much like before with 2016, this entire game will also have a Legacy Pack for HITMAN 3, with Progression from this game being able to be transferred over (Hitman 2 required returning players to re-unlock the equipment from 2016).

This game, alongside Hitman (2016), was de-listed on all storefronts on January 26th, 2023, as Hitman 3 was rebranded as "Hitman - World of Assassination", which imports these levels for free^*All the base levels from this game are included for free, but not the DLC levels; that requires the more expensive Deluxe Edition of the game regardless of game ownership. The move was done to avoid customer confusion that had plagued the latter two games' life on getting these levels' DLC packs. No word on the servers being shut down, however.

Not to be confused with the much earlier second entry in the Hitman franchise, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

Spoilers for Hitman (2016) will be unmarked here, you have been warned! Spoilers from this game, as well as for Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman and Hitman 3 are marked as such.

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Hitman 2 provides examples of the following tropes:

In General

# - J

• 20 Minutes into the Future: Following Hitman's lead, this game is presumably set in the early 2020s, specifically May to November 2020.
• Acceptable Breaks from Reality:
  • While the AI is quite smart, it’s still able to be manipulated into doing certain actions, such as luring a guard away from the area with a dropped weapon or the briefcase.
  • Blunt objects only knock the target unconscious. In real life, blunt objects with enough force applied onto them can kill from blunt force trauma (something which Blood Money portrayed accurately). Of course, if there were no objects that knocked people out, the game wouldn't be balanced, and collateral damage would be much more frequent among players.
  • Like with Hitman 2016, Absolution and Blood Money, closets and bins are never checked for bodies, so you'll always have the opportunity to take care of at least a few pesky NPCs.
  • No one makes a note of any disguises lying on the ground, so you can change to them when you need them.
  • As in 2016, all disguises are shown as being stored in a plastic bag roughly the size of a small backpack when discarded. Somehow, it's possible to stuff a flamingo mascot costume and a ''full set of knight's armor'' in a bag that would realistically be able to hold a t-shirt and jogging shorts at best.
  • Guards don't get suspicious if they escort you out for trespassing repeatedly. So as long as you're willing to go back to the start you can try as many times as you need to sneak through a trespassing zone. Like in 2016, This does however, void a Silent Assassin run.
  • You can poison somebody with rat poison, follow them to an isolated area, and then knock them out; they won't die despite the stuff remaining in their bodies nor can they drown in their own vomit.
  • 47 can poison food or drinks in full view of the public (including the intended target) if he is wearing any kind of food service uniform, such as a waiter, a bartender, or a chef.
  • When 47 has to talk to someone while disguised as someone specific, his targets almost never notice that the person's voice has changed, even if they know them personally. Occasionally, 47 will Hand Wave such changes by mentioning illness, or saying he's a replacement for the person they expected, but more often than not, it isn't mentioned at all. For example, if 47 disguises as P. Power in Columbia, Rico states that he looks different in real life compared to when on TV, in which his wife points out that TV Post-Production is likely at fault, which 47 just goes along with.
  • Even if one-of-a-kind characters are killed in public, you can still take their clothes and pretend to be them. Not even the guards who bagged the body will question their sudden reappearance.
  • Like in the previous entries, once your target dies, Diana and 47 will immediately know about it, no matter how impossible (for example, poisoning someone's food and walking to the nearest exit to wait). If 47 had to see his target's body, it would slow the gameplay down considerably.
  • Shoving targets over ledges and poisoning them count as accidents, although they would look like obvious murders in real life.
  • You only have to disable a surveillance system once on a map. It doesn't matter if there are multiple locations with no logical reason for all their systems being connected; you don't have to worry about any cameras anymore. Likewise, a guard will only investigate if they actually see or hear you sabotaging the security system; they won't wonder why their monitor screens are suddenly blank or what happened to a destroyed camera if they discover it later.
  • 47 uses the exact same fake name ("Tobias Rieper") everywhere he goes. While this would cause obvious problems in real life, in the game it helps make things less confusing for the player and serves as a Continuity Nod to its use in earlier games.
  • People screaming in pain and shouting for help draws little attention (Colorado and Hawke's Bay are the sole exceptions, where a Target Lockdown is triggered).
  • 47 can eliminate targets during phone calls without alerting the other end (Margolis on a call with her spy, De Santis with her bosses, Sophia Washington to Zoe).
• Acme Products: Kronstadt makes everything from vacuum cleaners to cutting-edge war tech, and the logo is stamped on air conditioners, deadly in-home security systems, and more.
• Acoustic License: Unless you are really far away from the person in a conversation, their voices become noticeably clearer when really close to them, no matter if they are in a nightclub or near a radio.
• Adam Westing: In "The Undying" and its rerun "The Undying Returns", Sean Bean plays an assassin who has faked his death multiple times whenever the ICA has tried to kill him. Naturally, they send 47 to finish him off...twice.
• Adapted Out: Diana's younger sister Emma appears nowhere in her backstory, and appears to have been Exiled from Continuity, as even Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman makes no references to her.
• A.K.A.-47: Played Straight. No weapon in-game shares its name with its real-world counterpart. This was either to avoid copyright issues, or to simply put the money that would have been spent on licensing to other uses. The Black Lily (The ICA19 / Blackballer), Sieger 300, and the Silverballer all avoid this problem, as they're better known by their nicknames by this point.
• Alone with the Psycho: The psycho being you, of course. Like 2016, this game lets you have extended conversations with your target or a notable NPC, so now 47 can disguise himself as someone else (such as the target's accomplice, a tattoo artist, or a former Kronstadt employee dressed as a Flamingo), and lure the unsuspecting target into an isolated room or area for a little chat before killing them. This can even be a Dead Person Impersonation, if 47 killed the real person to get their clothes.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: The inventory system from the previous game is carried over wholesale, which includes the ability to change 47's starting outfit. Having the GOTY Legacy Pack nets you three suits added in Hitman 2016 (see the 2016 page for the list). While some costumes are exclusive to their level, completing an Elusive Target in that level for the first time (except Mumbai, The Maldives and New York) unlocks a variation of that levels' unique location-specific suit to your starting inventory, where you can use it in any level you see fit. Some suits are tied to the elusive target system, while others can be gotten through escalations and challenge packs, as listed below:
  • If you had completed any Hitman (2016) elusive target, you got the Black Winter Suit, which is identical to the Winter Suit, but with a tiny red badge on the breast pocket.
  • Completing an elusive target with a silent assassin rating unlocks the "Terminus" suit, a damaged suit named after the level of the same name in Absolution It also has a bandaid covering 47's barcode.
  • Completing three elusive targets unlocks the suit 47 wore in Hitman: Absolution.
  • Completing five elusive targets with a silent assassin rating unlocks the "Winter Suit", a grey trenchcoat that goes over 47's default suit.
  • Completing six elusive targets unlocks the suit 47 wore in Hitman: Blood Money.
  • Completing nine elusive targets unlocks a gloved variation of the stndard suit.
  • Completing twelve elusive targets unlocks the suit used by Mark Faba in "The Undying" elusive target, aptly titled "The Undying Look".
  • Completing fifteen elusive targets unlocks the "Casual Undercover" suit, complete with shades and a black trenchcoat over a white button-up shirt.
  • Having the Silver Edition nets you the Winter Sports Suit, winter-wear that makes it look 47 is about to go skiing, complete with non-functional goggles.
  • Having the Gold Edition gets you the Smart Casual suit, which has pinstriped trousers and a trenchcoat with a hood.
  • Completing the "Snow Festival" mission in Hokkaido unlocks the Snow Festival Suit. The trailer for the mission calls it by the more obvious Arctic Parka. It's the coat that's used in the starting tutorial mission.
  • Killing 100 targets in Ghost Mode got you the Phantom suit; a grey suit, grey tie, and a white shirt combo. It's basically a Palette Swap of "The Undying Look". It cannot be obtained anymore in this game, but is available as an unlock in Hitman 3.
  • Getting full mastery in Golden Handshake gets you the Trenchcoat with Gloves, a gloved variant of the "suit" from that level. Notably, it's one of two gloved suits in Hitman 2 that isn't gotten by completing an elusive target (Mumbai's is gotten from an escalation, and while the Requiem Suit is also gloved, that was a DLC from 2016).
  • Signing up for an IOI account nets you three suits based on IOI properties that were added into the Definitive Edition of 2016 originally; The Freedom Phantom Suit, the Futo suit, and the Lynch suit.
  • Completing The Calvino Cacophony escalation nets you the Summer Suave suit, with 47 decked out in a floral shirt, white trousers, sunglasses, and a hat.
  • Completing The Dubious Cohabitation escalation grants you the Cashmerian suit, a black buttoned-up pinstriped suit, black tie, and a floral red lapel on the left side. It is modeled after the suit worn by the Kashmirian, and the name itself is a pun on Cashmere, a type of wool.
  • Completing The Divine Descendance escalation unlocks the Imperial Classic with Gloves, which is the Elusive Target suit for the Mumbai level, making it officially the first (and currently only) Elusive Target suit that can be gotten by other means. This is because the developers are not doing any Mumbai-based Elusive Targets, but still wanted to give the suit out.
  • Completing The Blake’s Endeavor challenge pack on the Isle of Sgàil gets you the Arkian Tuxedo, which is essentially a black variant of the guard disguise, but with a custom mask and a Tuxedo underneath.
  • Completing The Bartholomew Hornswoggle escalation nets you The Buccaneer, a pirate outfit this is otherwise found in the level.
• Animation Bump: The cutscenes in this game are all over the place. 2016 has actual fully animated cutscenes, and partially animated briefings. Interestingly, the reverse has happened; the story cutscenes are mostly still images with minor animations to them, with dialogue over them, with the briefings being fully-animated (including Sniper Assassin briefings). There are exceptions; the opening movie for this game is full motion video, as well as "The Bank's" story cutscene and briefing being rendered in-engine, similar to Hitman 2016's cutscenes. It's a bit of an...interesting concoction of animation styles.
• Anti-Escape Mechanism: Melee weapons act as Homing Boulders, so if a target is fleeing from you, as soon as you get the auto-lock on onto their head with a briefcase or a knife, then it will stop them from running away as soon as said item pacifies/kills them.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The game autosaves regularly, so making a mistake doesn’t force you to replay an entire level. It's disabled on Master difficulty, however.
  • Upon death, NPCs drop their items, while in Blood Money they remained on the body, making them irretrievable in some cases. This way, if you push someone out-of-bounds, their items can still be picked up.
  • Normally, once you begin completing objectives during Elusive Target contracts, you can't restart or quit anymore. However, if you're disconnected from the internet, you can restart from the beginning without penalty.
  • Unlike the previous game, if you're carrying something that would raise suspicion if it's found during a frisk, the game won't let you get frisked until you get rid of it.
  • Like in the previous entries, NPCs don't care about doors opening on their own.
  • There are a few items only obtainable by beating a certain amount of Featured Challenges. Fortunately, they will be marked as beaten even if you ignore any or all optional objectives, and beating the mission is enough to count. There are a few contracts that have forced objectives and are trickier than usual, but the great majority of them consist mainly of optional objectives.
  • Completing a challenge doesn't require actually completing the level. For example, in "Three Headed Serpent", you can disguise yourself as a P. Power, save your game after you meet up with Rico and he sits down, kill him with the tattoo needle, reload your game, wait for him to sit down again, then plug him with a pistol and you will obtain the experience points for completing two separate assassination challenges, as well as completing the Mission Story. Even if you die in the process of completing a challenge, it still counts towards your mastery level. This is disabled on Master difficulty.
  • Unlike in Blood Money and older games in the series, running isn't suspicious to NPC's, and it barely makes any additional noise, sparing the player from the need to go through large parts of the game at a glacial pace. Similarly, crouching in plain view of NPCs will attract casual attention and comments, but won't raise suspicion or out you on its own.
  • Elusive Targets that unlock usable, non-cosmetic, non-Bragging Rights Reward items (like the explosive pen or the blinding-flash toy robot) will give you their reward simply for starting the contract rather than completing it, avoiding the frustration of having it rendered inaccessible by failing.
  • If the player walks into an NPC for long enough, 47 will pass straight through them, to prevent NPCs from blocking mission-critical passageways.
• Arc Words: "No-one's untouchable." It's said by The Constant to Diana at the end of the Isle of Sgàil, it was repeated by Diana's younger self in the "Untouchable" cinematic, and was one of the first words spoken by her in the narration of the Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman comic.
• Artificial Brilliance: IOI is really trying to improve the notoriously bad AI that plagued the previous games.
  • NPCs can now see reflections in mirrors, something which was missing in the previous game as an oddity IOI never bothered to fix. Now you have to duck if you want to take out the target washing his hands instead of standing up.
  • If 47 is found trespassing, he will be escorted out, except in certain situations.^note : He is visibly armed, is wearing a forbidden disguise, or the area is labelled "Hostile" on the minimap
  • If the detection bar rises to about halfway, when an NPC loses their sight of 47 they will check the immediate area, as they are certain they saw something.
  • If the alarm is triggered, the target(s) will be escorted to safety. If the safe point is compromised, they will be escorted elsewhere.
  • Guards will flank 47 if given the opportunity. Any firefight can end in quick death if there's even one way a guard can get behind 47, as they will use it while others keep 47 occupied.
  • If 47 is taking cover in a different room, the guards might not enter and instead take cover and refuse to leave unless 47 escapes through another route. If 47 pokes his head out of the room, they will open fire.
  • Guards will pick up any firearms they find, and civilians will tell the nearest guard if they find one. They'll also disarm explosives unless they look harmless.
  • Guards can tell which direction a silenced sniper shot was fired from if they see someone getting shot. They will then investigate the origin of the shot.
  • Guards will now use flashbang grenades in combat if you stay in one area for too long or enough guards gather in the area.
  • If you release a winch to drop something or shoot someone but the guards don't witness it, they will still know it was you if you hang around the vicinity.
  • While you can still hide inside closets, chests etc, guards will now realize that if you entered a room and disappeared without a trace, they'll stay a little longer to try and coax you out of hiding. Naturally, staying put is the better option.
  • If the player drops a gun within the sight of another guard while disguised as one, the guard will initially berate 47 as he should always keep it holstered. Even if 47 disappears from that character's sight, the guard will get suspicious and chase you. However, if you drop a gun when the guard isn't looking, they will later treat it if it came out of nowhere, wondering where it came from. NPC's who find guns on the floor will report them to a nearby guard, as long as they didn’t see you drop them.
  • Leave a briefcase lying around, and they will be reported to the nearest guard and is taken to a safe location - it could be rigged to explode, after all. Leaving your briefcase behind in the view of a guard is treated as a hostile action by guards for this reason.
  • Strange but not obviously criminal behavior may not raise NPC's suspicion levels, but it will certainly attract their attention. For example, any NPC that sees you throw an object will turn to stare at you, not wherever the object landed.
• Area of Effect: Grenades work like this, though special mention goes to the Emetic Grenade as it's AOE is fairly visible.
• Armor Is Useless: Enemies wearing body armor (i.e. the guards in the HAVEN island villa) are no tougher than regular unarmored Mooks, and putting on their uniform makes you no more durable either. The exception is equipping the knights armour in Isle of Sgàil, which makes you much harder to take down.
• Ascended Glitch:
  • The ICA Executive Briefcase MKII. It’s a reskin of the regular Executive Briefcase that comes with the Expansion Pass, but with much slower speed when thrown. This is a nod to the "slow homing briefcase" glitch that the game launched with, where due to its low speed, you could see the object tracking much more clearly than with other thrown objects (such as balls or swords). This allowed you to see your briefcase chase people around corners among other amusing things. Fans told the developers they wanted the glitch to remain, simply for the comedy value, but it was silently patched out in Update 2.14, until 2.50 added in the aforementioned ICA Executive Briefcase MKII as a compromise.
  • There's a featured contract for The Icon called "Grand Theft Bosco", which simply requests you to steal Dino's car keys and escape. Not only is this the only featured contract without a kill objective, it's also the only time a glitched contract has been made official by the developers.
• Ascended Meme:
  • Player-created contract missions that task the player with assassinating the two guards at the entrance to the last tutorial mission are extremely common; a mission to kill the two is even a Featured Contract, contracts that have received a stamp of approval from the developers.
  • The game references the various Memetic Mutations found throughout the series, such as Allan failing to add details in post-it notes, 47 reusing his "names are for friends" line, among others.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Averted, in sharp contrast to previous games in the series. Every single one of your targets is unarmed and has absolutely no way of fighting back if attacked directly. At most they can flee as their bodyguards escort them to a safe zone. If cornered, at most the bravest of them will insult 47, while the rest can only cower and plead for mercy.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: The Suit Only challenges involve completing an entire mission in a suit. There are two variations: Suit Only (complete the mission without changing out of your suit), and Silent Assassin, Suit Only (complete a mission without changing out of your suit, and do not get spotted).
• Bait-and-Switch: The trailer for the first Elusive Target consists of the target talking to his bald therapist. Then he shoots said therapist, and it's revealed that 47 is watching the entire thing from a security camera feed.
• Bland-Name Product: Brand names appearing include "Fountain View" and "Dr. Popp".
• Brand X: The brands of food in the game are either Malaproper titled drinks (Fountain View in place of Mountain Dew, Dr. Popp in place of Dr. Pepper, Franz ketchup and Hanz Ketchup being stand ins for Heinz), while Rampart beer, Damberg ketchup, Crunchies chips, Full Metal Orange soda, Harpy beer, Thwack soda, and many others we could list were made for the game.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Getting full mastery in a level unlocks a unique item for that level. These tend to be Joke Items which definitely still have utility in the game, but aren't really all that useful to anyone skilled enough to unlock them to begin with:
  • For Hawkes Bay, you get a Flash Grenade
  • For Miami, you get a Concussion Grenade
  • For Santa Fortuna, you get the ICA Micro Remote Audio Distraction
  • For Mumbai, you get the Druzhina 34 Sniper Rifle (the same one used by The Kashmirian)
  • For Whittleton Creek, you can smuggle an item into Nolan Cassidy's house, and you receive the Remote Explosive Rubber Duck MKII)
  • For Isle of Sgàil, you get the Remote Concussion Rubber Duck.
  • For New York, you get the Trenchcoat With Gloves outfit.
  • For Haven Island, you get the Tropical Suit.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Completing certain challenges can lead to this happening:
  "Silent Assassin", "Suit Only", "Silent Assassin, Suit Only"
• Briefcase Blaster: Briefcases can be used to conceal sniper rifles or other large firearms. Taking sniper rifles out from the briefcase no longer takes upwards of ten seconds, as it did with most rifles in Blood Money (the W2000 is the exception as it was practically instant). Instead, most rifles takes a more reasonable five seconds to unpack, with the exception of the Sieger 300 series, which are near instantly unpacked from the briefcase.
• Breakable Weapons: Some "weapons", such as the muffins and snowball can only be used once as they break apart when thrown. This is also true of cans of pop.
• Book Ends: "Nightcall" takes place on a dark coast in New Zealand. "The Ark Society" takes place in the dark near a coast, but instead on a fictional island. Additionally, both missions only have female targets.
• Boring Yet Practical: Quite a few:
  • The Screwdriver: One of the most versatile weapons 47 has to play with. It can be used as a distraction tool, a melee attack, or thrown as a weapon, a means to set up environmental traps, and it can be carried openly with any disguise, even on Master Difficulty. All levels have at least one screwdriver somewhere on the map, making it a versatile all-round tool.
  • The Handyman Wrench: Completing 20 Featured Contracts unlocks this item to your inventory, and, much like the screwdriver, it can be used as a distraction tool, a pacification tool via melee or throwing, and is also a means to set up various environmental traps. It can also be carried openly with any disguise, even on Master Difficulty. What makes it more useful however, is the very fact that you can bring it in with you to the level, as it's in your inventory from the start, rather than having to scour the level to find one.
  • The Briefcase: You have a throwable distraction, and it can be used to knock people out. Oh, and you can stuff a sniper rifle in it to transport it to a more ideal location. Plus, if you bring one into the level with you, you essentially get it for "free", since you can bring another object inside it.
  • Coins: They can not only be thrown, they can be placed. If anyone spots a coin you've interacted with, they'll go and pick it up. Place one on a puddle or a cliff, and you've just set up a potential accident.
  • Completing 30 featured contracts gives the player a hobby knife. While it functions like any other knife, it can be openly carried in any disguise.
  • Any silenced pistol, which carries on the franchise's tradition of it being the most useful firearm in the game. The basic ICA19 is available from the beginning, combining quiet shooting with decent stopping power.
  • The ICA Flash Phone, as well as other flash devices, are useful for getting past guards in Silent Assassin runs by blinding them for a few seconds, especially if there's no easy way around them.
  • The ICA Titanium Crowbar, obtained from completing the "Breaking And Entering" challenge pack in Whittleton Creek, is very useful, almost on par with the Handyman Wrench's utility. It can pacify and distract others, having it in your inventory means you're able to bring one into a level, and all three of the challenges to obtain it^note Pacify three deputies, Use a crowbar to open the front doors of the Cassidy, Janus, Schmidt and West properties, and Find 5 door keys can be obtained in merely one or two runs of the level. About the only negative things are that crowbars aren't quite as versatile as wrenches in terms of what accidents you can set up, nor as quiet as the lockpicks when opening doors, and any door you do open remains open, and does draw some NPC curiosity, but it's never a bad item to have on hand.
• Camping a Crapper: You can drown people in toilets by first making them sick. Or by sneaking behind them, choking them, and then snapping their neck. Or shoot them in the head.
• Cassandra Truth: At the start of "Chasing a Ghost" the Shadow Client's militia forces a Providence operative to reveal the organization's existence to the world. Judging by NPC dialogue in subsequent missions, the public reacted pretty much the way you'd expect if someone went on real-life television and announced The Illuminati were real: dismissed it as a prank or a hoax, with only the occasional nut taking it at face value.
• Choke Holds: As usual, present and accounted for. This is the main way of pacifying NPC's so you can use their clothes as a disguise. Related is the Fiber Wire, which is the default equipped item for your "tools" slot in your loadout.
• Cold Sniper: 47 is very distanced from human emotions. He is also very skilled with a sniper rifle.
• Complexity Addiction: It's possible to invoke this, and many player-made contracts rely on it.
• Cosmetic Award: Some of the unlocks are functionally identical to another item, with only cosmetic differences. This is especially apparent with all but one of the "MK II" line of items and weapons, which are almost the same as their standard counterparts, but with a pink "2" decal stuck on the side.
  • The "El Matador" is a prettier looking "The Striker" Hand Cannon reskin from the GOTY Legacy Pack that was originally from Hitman 2016. It's also your reward for completing the escalation "The Delgado Larceny" with a Silent Assassin rank.
• Conspiracy Thriller: The plot of 2016 reveals that 47 is in the middle of a war between two nebulous organizations: The ICA and Providence. This game continues the storyline.
• Conspicuously Selective Perception: The Legacy Pack added a guard placed in Paris' outside cafe patio, specifically to encourage crowd-blending it seems. What makes it this trope is that he'll be suspicious of you, even in your suit. This is also true of members of "The Crows", who are intentionally looking for out-of-place people and potential assassins.
• Continuity Lockout: The past events explained and flashbacks shown in this game by Diana, the Shadow Client and 47, are actually direct references to Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman a comic series released before this game came out, with the developers going so far as to recreate certain panels and moments from this series. This means the full story may be lost on casual observers of the storyline who otherwise haven't read these comics.
• Crazy-Prepared: It seems 47 takes every possible scenario into account in the field, and thus shows off unexpected, but nonetheless impressive, knowledge and skills that many wouldn't expect a bald assassin to know. For example, he knows how to play the drums well enough to blend in with a band, he can sell a house convincingly, albeit dryly, he knows about flag codes for disqualifying drivers from the Global Innovation Race, he knows enough about medicine to impersonate a Medical Officer, and loads more in every mission. While some of these moments are obviously made to maintain the Rule of Funny, the intel the ICA digs up for 47 is also pretty detailed, justifying many of these moments.
• Crowbar Combatant: Many of the levels have crowbars to forcefully open doors with, as well as to to knock someone out in a pinch.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Mission Stories not only provide scripted ways to approach the targets, but occasions to kill them in a variety of particularly flashy (and of course, cruel) ways:
  • In Hawke’s Bay you can Suffocate Alma with a pillow
  • In Miami, you can blow up Sierra Knox's car, shoot at it with a sniper rifle to send it careening out of control, or tamper with it before the race. You can also let her win, and rig the pyrotechnics to fail and cause her be burned to a crisp when on stage. All of these are accident kills. Also, you can push Robert Knox can off a balcony while he's repairing a satellite dish. If you time it right, you can throw him right on top of Sierra's car, causing her to lose control and crash.
  • In Santa Fortuna, you can kill both Andrea and Rico by flattening them with a statue of Rico. You can push Hector into a cocaine bricking machine to kill him, similar to the Marrekesh Printer kill for Zaydan in 2016.
  • In Mumbai, you can blow Dawood Rangan off of his movie set with an industrial fan. You can kill The Maelstrom by cutting his throat with a razor blade. As for Vanya Shah, you can set a train to tear through her abandoned trainyard and mow her down, as well as some of her guards/ loyal subjects.
  • In Whittleton Creek, you can blow up Nolan Cassidy by re-activating the security measures in an underground vault while he's still inside it. The closest Janus gets to an unusual kill is by him igniting his own oxygen tank with his cigarettes.
  • In the Isle of Sgàil, you can push Sophia into an Iron Maiden, and burn Zoe Washington alive inside of an effigy.
  • In New York, you can kill Athena by loosening the glass in a window, and she'll fall to her death next time she tries to lean on it. You can also just shove her through it when she’s not looking.
• Cutting Off the Branches: While you have a wide range of options available when completing missions, and can be as lethal or as careful as you like with regards to bystanders, the game always assumes that non-targets survived the missions where they appeared (with, for example, Jason Portman appearing in three different levels, implying 47 canonically didn't kill him in the earlier ones.) Recurring characters also never recognize 47, which implies that the canonical outcome of each level was the Silent Assassin ending.
• Data Drive MacGuffin:
  • "New York: The Golden Handshake" has the player retrieve a data core containing the identities of the Providence Partners, either by breaking into the bank vault and retrieving the core directly, or by stealing three hard drives containing the backup copy from three different bank officers.
  • While not a mandatory objective in "Haven Island: The Last Resort", the player can get into the good graces of one or more of their targets by stealing various USB drives at their request.
• Death from Above: Any type of "Falling Object" accident kill falls under this, ranging from coconuts to chandeliers.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If a witness reaches a guard, they will accurately describe whatever 47 was wearing at the time of the crime. Guards will also share the details over their headsets, although this doesn't seem to create new extra-aware guards or witnesses.
  • NPCs seem to have slightly different lines depending on how many bodies they discover in one spot. Similarly, the lines will be different if the player stole the victim's clothes.
  • Guards will see through ledge "accidents" if the target was killed before you threw the body off. However, pushing a conscious target or throwing an unconcious body down will be treated as an accident.
  • While the dev team chose not to add car batteries to the levels from 2016, they still went through them to make sure previously unusable water sources work with electricity in case you take a taser-type item with you. A notable example is the large spring bath in Hokkaido, where 47 can fry everyone (five people by default) relaxing in it.
• Destruction Equals Off-Switch: Shooting the security tapes with a gun will kill the cameras in the level, letting you not worry about them spotting you as you explore. On Professional and Master difficulty, doing this is an incredibly wise idea before you start any meaningful progress within the level.
• Difficulty by Region: Besides the changes to gameplay (such as NPCs being able to see reflections in mirrors), the levels from 2016 have also been slightly adjusted by adding a guard to a previously empty security room on higher difficulty levels, and also adding more cover and tall grass to hide in at certain locations.
• Dirty Coward: Most of the targets when held at gunpoint. They will pathetically beg for their lives and desperately try to bribe 47 away. Averted with Alma Reynard, the three Mumbai targets and Janus, who either accept their fate calmly (Reynard and Janus) or go out cursing and belittling 47 (Rangan, Shah and Kale).
• Distinction Without a Difference: The game changes the "Opportunities" system to be called the "Mission Stories" system, despite being identical in all but name.
  • The MKII weapons have the same stats as the originals found in the legacy pack, but have a pink sticker with the number "2" on the side.
• Easier Than Easy: The idea behind Casual Mode is to allow players who aren't familiar with Hitman's mechanics to still have a chance at completing the game. Cameras are absent from this mode, there are fewer guards, and firefights are considerably less deadly.
• Easily-Overheard Conversation: A staple of the franchise, and how you’ll get most of the intel on your targets. Crosses into Welcome to Corneria with notable NPC's, such as Paul Powers and your targets, who will always spout the same dialogue near you whenever you enter a room.
• Embedded Precursor: Every Mission from Hitman (2016) is also available in this game as DLC, and it's free to download if you already own the previous game. They have received small updates to match the gameplay improvements in Hitman 2, such as working mirrors, blending into crowds, and hiding in tall grass.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Shadow Client and his associates are certainly no saints, but their adversary, Providence, isn't winning any prizes either.
• Exact Eavesdropping: The game notifies you when a conversation you're overhearing could lead you to an assassination opportunity, or towards another mission objective.
• Exact Words: 47 will sometimes indulge in this if he's in disguise. For example, if he talks to Shah while disguised as the new foreman in Mumbai, he talks about his approach to assassinations while making it seem like he's telling her about his management style and techniques.
• Flavor Text: All the weapons, poisons, and suits have one to describe their effects (if any) on the player/target.
  Coconut: A Coconut.
• Foreshadowing: The Kronstadt name was first mentioned by an NPC in Morocco (A false name of "Kronstadt University"), with "The Gunrunner" Elusive Target for the level mentioning Kronstadt Industries wanting to buy weapons from him.
• Give Me Your Inventory Item: A lot of Mission Stories have specific NPC's require you to do a Fetch Quest to get an important item, which then you have to give them in order to pass (such as materials for a dress in Mumbai).
• Goggles Do Nothing:
  • The Winter Sports Pack added a Winter Sports Suit, which looks like a skiing outfit. 47 has some goggles round his neck, which he doesn't put on or use for...well...skiing down a mountain.
  • Siberia also has 47 wear goggles in the Siberian desert...on his head. Seems being a super-clone means snow doesn't harm you...
• Goofy Print Underwear: Pops up on occasion when you steal a disguise from guards or NPC's.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: The "El Matador" Hand Cannon. It's basically a prettier golden reskin of "The Striker" found in Hitman 2016, and in the GOTY Legacy Pack.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Guards will occasionally say "What in the fargly 'H' 'E' double hockey sticks is that doing there?" when they encounter a suspicious object.
• Hammerspace:
  • This is how the briefcase acts. Unlike in Blood Money where you could only use it for sniper rifles, in this game you can fit just about any weapon, melee or tool in the briefcase, be it a sniper rifle, a long-sword, or the lockpick. Can turn into Bag of Holding for certain items, such as the long-sword and the "A New Bat" bat, which are far longer than the briefcase, and yet can still be stashed inside of it.
  • 47 himself can hold three large items (One gun on his back, one item in his right and left hands respectively), but can have an infinite amount of pistols, coins, snooker balls, and various other small items in his suit.
• Handbag of Hurt: The Briefcase can be used in this way, acting as an impromptu melee weapon should you need to. Like other objects, you can also aim it at a persons head, and it'll knock them out.
• Hand Cannon: The "El Matador" is a golden M1911 variant chambered in .357 magnum. It's basically a reskin of "The Striker" from the GOTY Legacy Pack. It kills in one shot, pierces multiple bodies with one bullet, and is so powerful it will cause enemies to fly through the air and flip end-over-end, likely a reference to the broken physics of the Silverballers in the earlier games. To unlock it, you need to complete the 3-level escalation mission, "The Delgado Larceny".
• Hidden in Plain Sight:
  • The "Blend In" mechanic allows 47 to conceal himself by performing a mundane action within the environment as long as he is wearing the appropriate disguise while doing so. For example, washing a bar while disguised as a bartender, mopping the floor while disguised as a janitor, chopping vegetables while disguised as a cook, etc. While this might seem at first redundant, this allows 47 to be overlooked by people who would otherwise see through his disguise, allowing him a safe spot to overhear information or wait to make his move.
  • Blending into both crowds of people and bushes/foliage returns from Hitman: Absolution after being absent in the previous game.
• Hidden Weapons: You can hide small items in your suit (coins, pistols, a screwdriver etc.), though some of the later unlockable weapons, such as the 5mm pistol, the folding knife and the collapsible baton, are deliberately designed to be concealed from guards during a frisk search.
  • You can also hide weapons by putting them in the briefcase, though you can't get frisked when an illegal item is in there.
• Hide Your Children: As per the rest of the series, there are no children playing in the streets of Miami, Colombia, Mumbai or Whittleton Creek.
• Homing Boulders: Thrown weapons, melee items, food items, as well as your briefcase, are able to track targets around corners and through walls. It was, for a time, most noticeable with the briefcase due to the slow speed it had on launch, which became an Ascended Glitch in the form of the ICA Executive Briefcase MKII after a patch in 2.14 patched the regular briefcases to normal speeds.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: You can play Hitman 2's levels on Casual, Professional, or Master difficulties. Casual mode has very forgiving combat, no security cameras, and Mission stories are active. Professional mode adds back in the security camera's, as well as the smarter AI, and getting into combat isn't advised. Master Mode only lets you save once, disables auto-saving, and the AI is smarter still. They will also respond to running (crouch-running is unaffected).
• Infinity -1 Sword:
  • The Fiber Wire has this baggage. It is still fairly useful, which is why it's your default "tool" in your loadout for when you start a level for the first time, but the problem is, it's outclassed by pretty much anything else you can take with you that are often more useful and versatile, such as a lockpick (which unlocks conventionally locked doors, and most maps have locked doors so there's no reason to not ever take it) or the Disposable Scrambler/ Keycard Hacker (which unlocks doors with keycards, albeit on three separate doors, with the same reasoning as above). The only thing the Fiber Wire does that could even be considered a benefit is that it lets you take down a target silently when they have their back to you, and allows you to drag them out of sight without having to manually press the "drag body" prompt, shaving off about two seconds, which is just Boring, but Practical by comparison. So unless you're speedrunning, or require precise timing so people don't see you, you're better off bringing something else.
  • The various Remote and Proximity Explosives. While they can be useful for setting up accident kills, they are otherwise "fun" items that don't have much use in a Silent Assassin Run. The sole exception are the breaching charges, as those are functionally silent, and can be used in Contracts Mode to kill targets when isolated.
    • Special mention goes to the RFID ICA Proximity explosive. This item, rather uniquely, comes with a coin the target picks up that triggers an explosion once they get close to the bomb. However, it has everything working against it. It has the same problem as all the other explosives in your inventory, in that they void Silent Assassin if you use it to kill a target in a public area. Its entire gimmick means you rely on the targets' loop passing by the explosive, which could take anywhere from 20 seconds to an excruciatlngly long tens of minutes, meaning even regular non-RFID explosives saw more use simply because they were easier to use and set up in advance, and they weren't any better anyway. As with sedative poison in 2016, this item was scarcely used by the playerbase outside of specific puzzle-oriented contracts in Contracts Mode, to the point that players forget that this is an item!
• Infinity +1 Sword: The ICA Electrocution Phone, which lets you almost flawlessly kill any one target with an accident, thus not having to worry about isolating the target or hiding the body. It's particularly useful for most of the Elusive Target missions. It does require beating three mission stories in "Golden Handshake", which can take upwards of about two hours, but it isn't hard to get.
• I Fought the Law and the Law Won: If you go openly loud after a particular messy hit, then the local law enforcement/guards will bring you down rather quickly on anything above Casual Difficulty.
• Item-Drop Mechanic: Anyone carrying something will immediately drop it if they are killed, knocked out or sedated. This is to ensure that mission-critical items and otherwise useful items (such as door keys and keycards) don't fall into the abyss in places like the Isle of Sgàils' cliffs.
• It's Probably Nothing: Literally the response of guards when they semi-spot you/ inspect an area where they hear a sound, and they quote the trope in response. Normally to their undoing.
• Instant Sedation: Sedative poisons act on a target or NPC almost immediately after they've been consumed, in which they will be put to sleep and, if found, will not count towards the "Body Found" section of the scoring screen. The only exception is if the Target has a Mission Story where Drinking poison would be animated (such as Francesca De Santis)
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: The Modus Operandi for 47 and his penchant for disguises. Played straight in Golden Handshake, where you can enter as a Janitor cleaning the Mezzanine.
• Joke Item: The ICA Executive Briefcase MK.II, a version of the Executive Briefcase that comes with a worn out MKII pink sticker on it. It's your reward for completing the "Best Case Scenario" challenge pack in the Isle of Sgàil. Sounds pretty neat, but "What makes it a Joke Item?", we hear you ask? Well, it's an Ascended Glitch version of the regular briefcase that moves slowly when it homes in on peoples heads, a Good Bad Bug which got patched out in Update 2.14. Now the glitched briefcase returns, much to everyone's delight!

K - Z

• Karmic Death: All of the targets have at least one.
  • Pushing Alma Reynard over a railing or kicking her off the roof, like she coerced a man into doing earlier.
  • Tricking Robert Knox into blowing up his daughter Sierra with a bomb he meant for her opponent, and subsequently shoving him over the ledge. Alternatively, blowing up Sierra during her victory celebration or poisoning her with the trophy champagne. Robert Knox can also be killed by tampering with his own creations, be it a car engine that explodes in his face, or a combat robot killing him in the middle of a demonstration.
  • Feeding Rico Delgado to his man-eating hippo, grinding Jorge Franco in a cocaine grinder and throwing Andrea Martinez off a ledge as she reads her ex-boyfriend's love note. Alternatively, crushing Rico (and optionally Andrea) with a giant statue of himself. Or drowning Martinez in concrete meant for the bodies of the cartel's rivals.
  • Blowing Dawood Rangan off his apartment rooftop and strangling Vanya Shah to death disguised as a tailor. Alternatively, having both sniped as the Kashmirian and murdering the Maelstrom when he meets with you.
  • Blowing Nolan Cassidy up in the vault of a house he intended to buy and smothering Janus during his therapy session.
  • Burning Zoe Washington inside an effigy and shoving Sophia Washington into an Iron Maiden as she threatens you. Alternatively, stabbing Zoe in the chest while she insults Janus at his funeral and kicking Sophia off a cliff as she ponders whether or not to kill the Constant.
  • Kicking Athena Savalas through the clock window to her death when she is cruelly firing you while you're disguised as a banker.
  • Helping Ljudmila Vetrova retrieve a USB and murdering her while her back is turned. The most epic example, however, would be to gas the entire server chamber when all three targets are there, looking at the newest tools of their criminal business.
• Kent Brockman News: Every level except the Isle of Sgàil (The Ark Society), New York (Golden Handshake), and the Maldives (HAVEN Island) has a news broadcast in the level, where Pam Kingsley is hosting a 24/7 news channel broadcast, which primarily exists to give some foreshadowing to later game events, as well as some Where Are They Now to some of the previous games' NPC's or targets. Specific examples can be read in the location-specific folders below.
• The Key Is Behind the Lock: If there's a locked room in this game, then there's a good chance the key (or keycard) to said locked room is in there too, such as the drummer in Santa Fortuna holding the key to the house he's in. Can obviously be bypassed with a lockpick or keycard scrambler, or by entering via a window or other means.
• Leave No Survivors: Still possible, albeit takes a lot longer, as there are easily around 600 NPC's in each level. Many consider it a Self-Imposed Challenge.
• Lethal Joke Character: A number of so-called disguises fall into some combination of being comical to look at^note e.g.: the flamingo outfit from Miami or the unlockable clown suit or inappropriate^note e.g.: putting on Janus's Ark Society robes while also being absolutely useless as far as accessing restricted areas... if they don't turn the entire map into a hostile zone. It still being 47 under the disguise, however, the lethal part is obvious.
• Lethal Joke Weapon:
  • Muffins and apples. When thrown, they knock NPC's down, but it does not pacify them, however, sneaking behind an NPC and decking them in the back of the head does pacify them.
  • The concussive rubber duck is surprisingly silent; its noise doesn't carry outside the room you detonate it in, so you can knock out several people with it without causing an alarm, making some levels much easier to obtain Silent Assassin in. The only downside of this method is that there are a few milliseconds during which someone you knock out this way can see someone else lose consciousness before going to sleep themselves, which can ruin the above-mentioned rating.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Just like 2016, there's never technically been a game called "Hitman 2" until now - ''Silent Assassin" has a subtitle.
  • On the Casual and Professional difficulties, Completing challenges and acquiring their rewards doesn't actually require you to complete the level. You can complete a challenge, load a save made before you completed said challenge, and carry on with another challenge. Master Mode averts this, however, as it expects you to play the level with one save slot.
• Limited Loadout: When selecting a loadout for each mission, 47 can start out with one pistol and two supplementary weapons/gadgets on his person and one additional weapon (of any variety) or gadget stashed in an Agency pickup somewhere in the level. The briefcase increases the slot by one as you can carry a third item in the briefcase while obviously having the briefcase with you as an impromptu melee weapon/carry case. In terms of what can be picked up in-game, 47 can carry as many small weapons and items as he can find, but only a single rifle grip gun or large melee weapon slung across his back or in hand.
• Mad Lib Thriller Title: Continuing the theme from Hitman (2016), all escalation missions are named in this fashion. More specific examples can be found in their respective location folders.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Just like in Blood Money and 2016, 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: Agent 47, natch.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Averted, as women comprise nearly half of the game's targets^note Alma Reynard, Sierra Knox, Andrea Martínez, Vanya Shah, Zoe and Sophia Washington, Athena Savalas, and Ljudmila Vetrova from the main campaign, plus Doris Lee and Captain Re Thak "Spider Lily" from Sniper Assassin), and in fact are the only assassination targets in the Hawkes Bay, Ark Society, and Golden Handshake levels. The female NPCs in any level are treated nearly identically to their male counterparts - they are equally capable of being enforcers for a given disguise/location combo, and can be knocked out or killed with no greater or lesser consequences than a male NPC. The only differences are that 47 cannot take their clothes as a disguise, and female guards are not present (as Word of God admitted that it's a balance measure).
• Mission-Pack Sequel: Literally. This game was originally planned to be the second season of the previous game, meaning these missions started out as DLC before being turned into a full sequel. Amusingly, the reverse has also happened, as the first game is DLC for this game, and also free if you own said game.
• Mooks, but no Bosses: Like the previous game, Hitman 2 averts Elite Mooks and Authority Equals Asskicking to a notable degree, most likely as a result of IO Interactive attempting to distance the series from its older, more video-gamey roots. All assassination targets are unarmed and have no means of resisting you if you attack them openly.
• Mundane Utility: As with the 2016 Hitman, in addition to being used as distractions or improvised weapons, certain items can be used for their intended purpose - coins can be used as payment, wrenches and screwdrivers can be used to make legitimate repairs, etc.
• Murder, Inc.: The ICA, an organisation that accepts contracts to kill people, whoever they are and whoever ordered their death.
• Mythology Gag: The Winter Suit's seems to be based on the Badass Longcoat 47 wore in some scenes of the (non-canon) 2007 Hitman film.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles: Downplayed, as while 47 knows what the normal and Elusive Targets look like, it's up to the player to find them among the NPCs within the level, some of which look similar to each other.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: This game reuses a lot of assets from its previous entry, Hitman (2016), such as the cherub candle statues that appear in Paris also appear on the Isle of Sgàil. Also weapons (see Distinction Without a Difference for why), as well as objects you can interact with, such as hammers, knives, cups and glasses. NPC in-game dialog is also shared, but that is downplayed, as Hitman 2 NPC's have different accents for each location, with guards and scared NPC's being the most egregious examples.
• No "Arc" in "Archery": Subverted for most weapons, as shooting where you aim at will kill them, this includes Sniper Rifles, even at long distances. The only weapon to play this straight is the Kalmer 1 tranquilliser dart gun, which has an arc that you need to learn in order to use the weapon effectively.
• Not Completely Useless: Lockpicks. They're not weapons or bombs of any kind, but are among the most useful things in your arsenal.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Averted. Unlike in the last game, characters and NPCs have accents that fit their nationalities rather than just having generic American/British accents. The accents still appear from time to time, but it's much less immersion breaking than it was in the previous game. The sole exception is a handyman who leaves a voicemail for the occupants of the house Alma Reynard took over, who quite clearly should be a New Zealander but doesn't sound like it.
• Nintendo Hard: Master mode is very tough and will likely require players to retry several times to get the hang of the new rules. Bloody kills and most accidents ruin an NPC's disguise, as well as NPCs being more Attentive to gun sounds. In short, IOI looked at possible tactics most players would use for each level, since most routes have at least one new obstacle specifically to make it more impractical to those trying it.
• No-Sell: Guards or NPCs who have white dots over their heads will get suspicious of you if you enter their line of sight while wearing their disguise, as they know everyone in the level with that particular outfit.
• Nerf: A few notable instances:
  • The Silent Assassin Ranking system. When Hitman 2 launched, it worked as in 2016 (don't get suspicious and no bodies could be found unless poisoned). However, it got modified on release two months later, with the "Never Spotted" bonus being changed to a "Never Compromised" bonus. This allowed for players who trespassed, but complied with guards that escorted them out to still retain their Silent Assassin status. To cut a long story short, the "Never Compromised" feature was essentially a by-product of a hotfix that allowed for targets to not compromise you if they see you do anything illegal, but as long as they are never found by another NPC (such as you killing the target before they tell someone), you would retain the Silent Assassin rating. In Update 2.21, this four month old hotfix was reworked, meaning you can no longer trespass, get caught, comply with guards, and still retain Silent Assassin. The former feature of killing targets who spot you is still being kept, however (as that was the intended goal of the hotfix).
  • Fire extinguishers, and to a lesser extent the grey propane tanks. In Hitman (2016) fire extinguishers could be used as portable accidents, as they could be carried around without suspicion and when blown up, they detonated with lethal force; the game counted this as an accident kill, meaning they could be used to kill targets without losing the silent assassin rating. Here they instead knock out any unfortunate NPC who happens to be near them as they detonate. The propane tanks can still kill, but have a smaller lethal radius, only knocking out anyone not within about 1-2 meters.
  • Electrocution traps now usually involve one-use only water coolers which form a puddle underneath themselves when broken, and NPCs clean said puddles once they spot them. As such, one can no longer chain accident kills by abusing the loop described under Artificial Stupidity. However, legacy levels still feature natural puddles so it can still be performed in them.
• Old Save Bonus:
  • If you own the previous game, you get an appropriate Legacy Pack containing all the levels and missions from 2016, and also an aluminium travel briefcase, all for free. The progression of the levels and the bonuses you get from them (rather frustratingly) do not transfer, however. Mercifully, the most useful equipment, like the Lock-pick, your Silverballer, as well as poisons, are unlockable early on, making the grind a bit more bearable for returning players.
  • Completing any of the Elusive Targets in the previous game earns you the Winter Suit and ICA Performance coins.
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: The game opens with a disclaimer similar to the ones from the Assassin's Creed series, indicating that the game was made by a multicultural team of various nationalities, religions, genders, and ethnic backgrounds. Since the game was published by Warner Bros. (technically) rather than Ubisoft, and since at no point does the game touch on any sensitive real-life religious, political, or racial controversies, one does wonder what the purpose of the disclaimer is meant to achieve. It's possibly a response to the internet backlash the previous game Absolution received for including latex-clad dominatrix nun assassins as enemy characters, or the much older controversy from Hitman 2: Silent Assassin where one of the levels (a luxury hospital) was architecturally based on a real-life Sikh holy site.
• Palette Swap:
  • Some of the suits are identical to one another in all but color, the "Phantom Suit" is just a greyscale-variant of "The Undying Look", while the "Midnight Black" suit is a black version of the Marrakesh suit from the Legacy Pack. The "Winter Coat" suit gotten from the Hitman Legacy Pack's Old Save Bonus is identical to the one in this game in all but a tiny pin on the breast pocket. Averted with location-specific suits, which have minor model changes (normally gloves) that stop them being direct swaps.
  • The ICA Executive Briefcase MK.II is identical looks-wise, asides from a massive pink "2" sticker on the side (a Take That Us towards the "MK.II line of weapons").
• Perfect Poison: There are three poison types in the game that can be used, all of which have pill bottle and syringe variants:
  • Lethal Poison: This kills any one person on the spot
  • Emetic Poison: This makes the victim throw up, and they will head to the nearest toilet or bin to spew their guts out. The Sieker 1 dart gun can make people throw up from a distance.
  • Sedative Poison: This sedates people on the spot, and will make the victim immediately be put to sleep. They can, however, be woken up again, so use with caution. Initially only had a pill variant to use on food, but the [Kalmer 1] tranquilizer dart gun can sedate people from a distance, and a regular syringe variant to jab people with was also made available by completing the "Master Vampire" challenge pack, making it the only poison that does not have a MK.II variant for, as it is only available via the Legacy Pack (and thus, cannot be unlocked in Hitman 2 proper).
• Police Are Useless: Downplayed. A group of guards is perfectly capable of taking out 47, but they never call for reinforcements from outside the level. Some guy opened fire on a crowd in Mumbai? Surely the combination of two groups of bodyguards and a street gang present can handle this, no need to send in an armed anti-terrorism response team.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Since the ICA is supposed to be a neutral organization, their agents generally don’t take a stance in the morality of their missions or their targets. In the end, the ICA is only concerned with completing the contracts, and the fact that most of their targets happen to be very unsavory characters anyways is just a small bonus.
• Poisoned Weapons: The Black Almond Dagger, which is a dagger that has a single dose of poison in its handle, which can be administered via food or drink.
• Punny Name: The poison weapons all have puns associated with their intended effects:
  • The Kalmer 1 (Calmer, as in, to sleep) and Sieker 1 (Sick, as in to throw up).
  • The poison vials have labels reading VomiTOROL (Emetic, a pun on Vomiting), resTYNZINE (Sedative, a pun on resting), and FataLIDOMIDE (Lethal, a pun on Fatal).
• Real-Place Background: As per tradition with the series, the levels are designed to represent the culture and architecture the real life location would inhabit and have. For example, the fictional town of Santa Fortuna is based in the Columbian rainforests, which have appropriate accents, derelict architecture, and grass and tree's everywhere.
• Retcon: Using the ejector seat assassination on Jasper Knight actually killed the actor in the first game. In this one, Diana's dialogue was changed to mention that his parachute was still working and that he didn't die.
• Save-Game Limits: While in combat, the saving system is disabled. Elusive Targets, Custom Contracts, and Escalations don't allow saving at all.
• Scenery Porn: All of the levels look amazing, even on the lower graphical settings.
• Schmuck Bait: Almost everyone will check out any noises they hear, and pick up any placed coins/weapons 47 has interacted with. You can place a coin on a ledge, throw something to get someone to investigate, and push them off once they notice and try to pick up the coin, for example. They're not idiots though, so trying this while they are watching won't work.
• Self-Deprecation: "The signature MKII look" on several items is just a small pink sticker with the number 2 slapped on somewhere, something that most players weren't happy with as it barely counts as a reskin. The description for the ICA Executive Briefcase MKII pokes fun at this, as well as at the slow homing briefcase, and the likelihood of players using the briefcase as intended, all in this gem of an item description:
  "This physics-bending briefcase is designed to induce fear and terror in whoever gets in its way. With a throwing speed tweaked for maximum style, there is no end to the possibilities this item offers. Of course, it sports the signature MK II look - the ultimate look of superb craftsmanship! Could be used to hide illegal items, but that is clearly besides the point."
• Serial Escalation: The locations of this game are even larger than previous ones.
• Shoot Out the Lock: Returning from Blood Money and 2016 is the ability to blast open doors with powerful weapons. While your Silverballer isn't powerful enough, a shotgun blast or a burst from an automatic weapon often does the trick. The only pistols that can shoot out the lock are two; "The Striker", part of the GOTY Legacy Pack, and the "El Matador", which is identical stat-wise to "The Striker", only Gold.
• Snowball Fight: With the Winter Sports Pack, you get a snowball to bring with you on any level, no matter how out of place it may be, like in sweltering hot Columbia, for example.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Let's see... Aside from the obvious explosives, shooting a fire extinguisher causes it to explode, knocking out anybody nearby. Open gunpowder bags also explode. Propane tanks start leaking when shot, and any spark afterwards will blow it up.
• Sunglasses at Night: You can invoke this by playing on the Isle of Sgàil and donning any suit with Sunglasses, such as the Summer Suave suit, or the later-released Tropical Suit.
• Southies: Many of the bodyguards found around the game speak with a heavy version of this accent.
• Stopped Numbering Sequels: Zig-zagged. This is a direct sequel to the 2016 Hitman, which itself was actually the sixth entry in the series, but this one is also technically the only game with the exact title of Hitman 2 — the actual second game in the series is Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.
• Suddenly Always Knew That: Mission Stories basically exist as partially to maintain some Rule of Funny, and to show off 47's impressive skillset. So far, he is able to:
  • Use the tools of a pit crew to mess with their race car in specific and subtle ways
  • Perform a "spiritual cleansing" in front of a group of superstitious folk with nobody the wiser
  • Play the bongos with the rest of a band without any rehearsal
  • Fix a tattoo to look exactly like another person
  • Paint a stylish portrait of someone
  • Neatly shave people's beards and hair without harming them (It is worth noting that 47 himself is bald and always has been, so him knowing how to do this is not a given)
  • Sell a house convincingly, if a bit stilted
• Super Drowning Skills: Anyone will die the instant their face makes contact with water, even if it's a tiny puddle. Played with in the case of Vanya Shah, where part of her routine has her wash her face in her own personal water pond. You can, of course, still dunk her head into said pond to eliminate her.
  • And of course, there's also the general fact that none of the NPCs in the game can swim. If you shove them off a ledge into water, even from a small height, they will drown. There is one specific exception: there is a certain body of water Rico Delgado can be thrown into and he'll be shown swimming... the pond his man-eating hippo lives in.
• Tap on the Head: As with the previous game, 47 can bludgeon an NPC with any blunt object (or throw nearly all^*the exceptions generally being potentially squishy food items of said objects at an NPC's head) for an instant knockout - faster than the Choke Hold, but at least marginally louder depending on the exact object used. Unconscious characters will remain so permanently unless awakened by another NPC, but but will display no ill effects if revived.
• Technicolor Toxin: Lethal poison is colored Red, Emetic Poison is denoted the color green, and Sedative poison is denoted a yellow-orange color (the vials are blue, however).
• Temporary Online Content:
  • Elusive Targets. Each one is only available for a limited amount of time, and once that period passes, they're gone. Additionally, once you complete or fail the contract, that's it; you can't replay it at all.
  • Holiday Hoarders and the Hokkaido Snow Festival were time-limited upon their release (despite Holiday Hoarders being permanent in Hitman (2016)), but were made permanent additions to the game in the December 2019 update.
  • Ghost Mode ended up becoming this, being removed in August 2020, a few months leading up to the release of Hitman 3. This in turn also removed the ability to obtain the Phantom Suit.
• Thermostat Tamper Tantrum: Robert Knox suffered injuries at his face which deprived him of the ability to hydrate his eyes; due to this, he has to maintain a damp atmosphere in his offices. It can even be used to kill him: first, modify the AC to make the air dryer and then he will go to the bathroom to take his eye drops; 47 can poison.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The throwing mechanic is lifted from the previous game wholesale, which itself was reused from Absolution, and it locks onto NPC heads. Lethal items will always kill them and blunt weapons will always knock them out, walls, stairs and corners be damned.^note If an NPC goes behind cover/a wall after 47 throws something at them, it will still hit because of the game engine still telling the object to follow the head. Became a case of a Good Bad Bug (that has sadly been patched out) when it came to the briefcase, which looked particularly amusing, as it moved really slowly compared to other melees.
• Tranquillizer Dart: The Kalmer 1 tranquillizer dart gun. It has two darts, and acts like a long range sedative poison gun. At the games' launch, it was something of an Infinity -1 Sword for players who unlocked it, as sedative poison wasn't that useful in most circumstances. Why put a NPC or target to sleep, when you can get the same effect by knocking the target out cold by caving their head in with a can of pop / ball / baseball bat?; which has the added benefit of your throw auto-locking onto their head when you throw items from afar. This is on top of other downsides, such as the Kalmer 1's sedative darts having an arc, they suffer from distance falloff, and, this bears repeating, it only has two darts, meaning you cannot reload the Kalmer 1 unless the level you use it on has the gun somewhere laying around^note Hawkes Bay, Miami and New York have it. Because of this, like in 2016, sedatives fell out of use by players pretty much immediately. Update 2.21 fixed a shortcoming with sedative poison (which includes the Kalmer 1) to now not count towards the "Body Found" section on the score screen, which now makes it a viable option to take down pesky NPC's and targets if they somehow later get found by another person, making it a straight upgrade from knocking someone else out. You still have to contend with the Kalmer 1's other downsides, but it's an improvement nonetheless.
• Tropical Island Adventure: "The Pen and the Sword" is set in Singapore, where Agent 47 is tasked with eliminating some hostage takers, and "The Last Resort" is set in the Maldives on a fictional island known as Haven Island, where 47 is tasked with eliminating three of HAVEN's higher ups.
• Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: Dropping a briefcase in the view of a guard, refusing to pick it up again and trying to leave without it will result in the guard trying to arrest 47. In real life suspicious briefcases/bags/etc. are considered to be highly dangerous as they could be fitted with explosives. If they see a silent, emotionless man leaving a suspicious package lying somewhere they'll naturally consider the situation to be worth intervening.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Downplayed due to there only being a limited number of levels, but still applies. Unlike previous games, 47 has a different default outfit for every location he visits. His classic suit is still available as a sartorially elegant option, but unless the player selects options otherwise he will generally arrive at a mission wearing whatever would let him most easily blend in, be that a dinner jacket for the slums of Mumbai or a wetsuit for New Zealand.
• Vague Hit Points: There's no visible number for hit point value, but if you're hurt enough (shooting, electrocution or poison, for example) then 47 dies.
• Variable Mix: The background music gets more intense in certain situations, like when you're being hunted or you're close to exiting the map.
• Virtual Paper Doll: 47 has a starting outfit that can be changed to your liking, such as the Summer Suave Suit can be swapped out for the Snow Festival suit, if that's more your thing.
  • On a related note, the game encourages the use of disguises to get to otherwise-inaccessible area's.
• Violation of Common Sense: Weapons, tools and poisons do not have a separate frisking system for when they're put in the briefcase, making for an odd situation where you can get all the Poisons, the custom 5mm Pistol (designed to pass body patdowns), as well as some of the Lethal Melee weapons past the guards with no disguise on, despite the fact that the guards frisking you explicitly ask you to open your briefcase and they look inside of it as part of the frisking procedure. This means you can smuggle the Custom 5mm pistol past the guards, but not a Letter Opener (the game will refuse to let yourself get frisked), the latter item being otherwise be pretty non-suspect to have in a briefcase.
  • Related to this is that some items shouldn't realistically be able to fit in the briefcase, but do. The "A New Bat" from the GOTY Legacy Pack and the Broadsword from the Isle of Sgàil stand out as the latter is the height of 47, and the former is part of your starting inventory, and can be out of the briefcase, but cannot be put back in the briefcase for some reason.
• Welcome to Corneria: Like with the last game, you're gonna hear a lot of random conversations when hanging around NPC's, such as a phone call between a very worried P. Power and Dexy Barat in Columbia, the female news reporter who has ambitions too^*y'know! in Miami, or Diana's incessant target identification quips. To curb that last one, Update 2.50 patched in an option to disable Diana's voice for 48 hours after hearing mission-critical information, such as when Diana describes the chawls to 47 in Mumbai, or the infamous "THAT is Viktor Novikov" speech) from Paris. This was largely done according to IOI "To make her less of a meme".
• Wrench Whack: The game features wrenches that can be used to set up environmental traps, or use to knock someone out.

Campaign:

For the Tutorial, as well as the games' various Paris, Sapienza, Marrakesh, Bangkok, Colorado, and Hokkaido missions that were added via the Legacy Pack DLCs, go here.

Hawke's Bay: "Nightcall"

47 sneaks into the safehouse of Alma Reynard, one of the Shadow Client's top lieutenants, on the coast of Hawkes Bay in New Zealand. As he searches for intel, Alma and her entourage of bodyguards come home, and 47's objective changes to assassination.

---

• Big Storm Episode: Thunder and lightning can be seen and heard throughout the map.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Killing Alma by poisoning her tea that Orson makes for her counts as this. The player is given the option to either poison the sugar or the honey that sits on the counter in advance - however, in the Hitman 2 iteration of the level, the game will make a note of whatever ingredient you chose to poison, and Alma will always pick the one that hasn't been poisoned by the player (or, if the player has used multiple types, the least-lethal option), making lethally poisoning the sugar or honey before the militia arrives at the house impossible without having two lethal poisons on hand. Curiously, this was changed in the Hitman 3 iteration, which also adhered to the above rules for several years, but was then changed in favor of random selection. The player is still going to have to do some save-scumming to get it right, but at least the game is not taking notes anymore.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Alma was the girlfriend of Sean Rose, one of the targets in Colorado in the previous game.
  • One of the guard conversations outside the house mentions Berg, Rose, Graves, and Parvati, all militia members that 47 took down in Colorado in (2016).
  • When talking about Mr. Donavans' wife and children (whom she kidnapped to blackmail him), she mentions that The Shadow Client doesn't like collateral damage and are to set them free on her word. This is in reference to Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman, where 47 kills the Technician that makes a nullifier for the clone implants Ort-Meyer uses as a failsafe, and 6 (The Shadow Client) berates 47 for taking the easy way out.
  • The news program playing in the house provides several nods to past game events, as mentioned under Kent Brockman News.
  • 47 snarkily mentions "Soders would've been proud" in his phone call with Diana in the cutscene after this mission. Soders was a target in Hokkaido's "Situs Inversus" mission in (2016) because he was The Mole for Providence while working at the ICA.
• Continuity Cavalcade: If you go near the truck outside on the beach, one of the militia members digging the trench asks about the Shadow Clients' hits and another member recalls the list:
  • Eugene Cobb (who went missing before the events of the 2016).
  • Thomas Cross (a Reclusive father of the primary target in Bangkok's "Club 27" mission: Jordan Cross, who was killed specifically so the Shadow Client could draw him out to take all his hidden money that Cross had in offshore accounts).
  • A woman from Blue Seed Pharmaceuticals (Blue Seed were first introduced in Colorado, and were the main antagonists in the Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman comic; the hit itself is likely in reference to Cheryl Franklin, whose final fate was left ambiguous as the comic never elaborated if Soders successfully killed Cheryl before rescuing Diana from her Elite Mooks, or if it's simply another person here).
  • Rex Larsson (A CEO of a shipping company, he appears in a news report in the house).
• Cutting Off the Branches: However the player completed Colorado in 2016, 47 canonically didn't use any method that raised the alarm (which means no exploding watches, going loud, or using explosives in general).
• Disposing of a Body: Alma's garage contains the body of an Olympic committee member and his wife, whom Alma and Orson took the identity of to infiltrate the Prime Minister's house party. Grunt dialogue states that Alma merely intended to subdue them, only for the husband to rip off her mask. Once Alma arrives home, the bodies are taken near the beach to be burned.
• Extreme Omnivore: Alma's dog Max apparently has a taste for car tires.
• Foreshadowing: The reason Diana helps 47 uncover his past is because she "knows what its like to have everything taken away from her". This becomes relevant in the "Untouchable" Cutscene after "Three Headed Serpeant", where a flashback shows Diana's parents dying to an exploding car.
• Gimmick Level: Hitman 2 introduces functioning mirrors that allow NPCs to see 47 through them. This level features a unique gimmick where the mirror in the bathroom fogs up and can't be looked through, giving 47 an opportunity to perform an assassination.
• I Have Your Wife: In order to kill a Providence operative located in London, Alma kidnaps the wife and daughters of his company's vice president, a New Zealand native, under the threat of killing them if he refuses to kill his boss.
• Kent Brockman News:
  • Pam Kingsley reports on the murder of shipping mogul Rex Larsson (discovered to be one of Reynard's targets), which Canadian authorities have confirmed is an act of terrorism.
  • She talks about a new Cassandra Snow film coming out that was made in memory of Craig Black (one of the Targets in Patient Zero campaign), but is a wholly original story not based on the books, with the implication that Craig Black's death didn't stop further entries being made. Ironic, considering his motivations as an operative of the Liberation cult in the "Patient Zero" campaign was to be remembered for his cult activities, not his books or films (which he absolutely despised). The news report also confirms that the events of the campaign happened before "Freedom Fighters".
  • A new album by "The Class" is set to be released by Monumental Records to commemorate the death of Jordan Cross, much to the chagrin of former band member Heidi Santoro, who calls it a "shameless cashgrab".
  • Aleksander Kovak, the client from the "The Last Yardbird" sniper assassin level, was arrested after trying to convert the money obtained from the Yardbird's final heist into Bitcoin, and will likely be charged with their murders.
  • The Kronstadt "Spider" operating table has claimed its first victim, though it's left ambiguous whether or not it was Erich Soders that got killed. The GAMA facility in Hokkaido claims the death to be of "human error", not at the hand of the machine.
• Mad Lib Thriller Title: The escalation; "The Mills Reverie", is named after Orson Mills. "Reverie" means to daydream.
• Missing Mom: If you wait long enough, Alma will eventually wake up in the middle of the night to call her sister Celia and apologize for missing her daughter Mercedes's birthday, who’s currently living with Celia.
• No Fair Cheating: The "Hitman with a Shotgun" Assassination challenge requires you to eliminate five guards using a shotgun, without getting spotted. If you use the Agency Pickup to bring in a silenced shotgun in an attempt to cheese it, you'll find that the kills don't count.
• Properly Paranoid: Some of the guards are talking about the previous games' Colorado mission and how 47 managed to get into the compound and leave without a trace, all without raising the alarm, and is justifiably worried for his life that 47 could be anyone, anywhere, and could even be in the house.
• Stealth-Based Mission: The mission takes place around a large beach house on an otherwise empty seaside. Disguises are limited to guards and potentially other employees inside.
• Super Drowning Skills: Anyone who is knocked out or strolls too far into the ocean will die instantly. This expands to guards or Reynard herself, if she is spooked enough.
• Tutorial Level: Similar to the Agency Training missions in 2016, this is a low-stakes, low-threat mission with few disguises and a limited number of entry points into the house in order to show the player both the sandbox-esque level design and some of the things they're able to do. This level also introduces some of the new concepts to work with, such as tall grass and working mirrors.
• Warm-Up Boss: Alma Reynard. She's far easier to assassinate than later targets (due to her boyfriend Orson being an abysmal bodyguard) while still demonstrating assassination opportunities that can be used throughout the game.
• We Need a Distraction: 47 needs to return to his boat to exit the mission, but since parking it and infiltrating the mansion, several guards have been deployed to patrol the beach and a few are investigating his boat. He needs to detonate some kerosene left in the open bed of one of their trucks to draw their attention away from the boat so he can slip past and exfiltrate otherwise unnoticed.

Miami: "The Finish Line"

Taking place during the Global Innovation Race, a massive Miami-based racing expo for tech companies, 47 is contracted by Providence to kill father-and-daughter Robert and Sierra Knox, the heads of Kronstadt Industries and former Providence agents who recently defected to the Shadow Client.

---

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: 47 can stage an accident to kill Robert Knox that is made to appear to be this.
• Artistic License – Cars: A background conversation reveals that Sierra has had the rollcage removed from her car to make it lighter and more competitive, which would explain why causing her to crash would be lethal in spite of modern racing cars' strong safety record - however the vehicles racing in the Global Innovation Race are clearly based on Le Mans Prototypes and in vehicles of that high specification, the entire car would be a crash structure and would be impossible to subvert for any performance gain.
• Artistic License – Physics: Robert Knox, demonstrating his killer robots, declares they use ultrasonics to scan the environment and ensure they only get the right target. Given the robot is only ever fed 2D photos, however, ultrasonic scanners would not provide a benefit since it would lack data to compare with.
• Blackmail: An opportunity involves a disgruntled ex-employee wanting to blackmail the Knox family.
• Bait-and-Switch: The Florida Man complains loudly about not having enough "crystal", the secret ingredient in his unusually addictive food products. He means sugar.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The two targets in Miami are both linked to Kronstadt Industries; whose products are hugely important to the running of the GAMA Hospital in Hokkaido. The hospital's AI, KAI, introduces herself in the first game as a second-generation artificial intelligence created by Kronstadt Industries.
  • Sheikh Salman Al-Ghazali from the IAGO auction in the previous game returns as a potential disguise in this mission.
  • The publicly accessible part of the Kronstadt exhibition contains a familiar surgical table with robotic arms, identical to the one used during Soders's surgery in Hokkaido.
  • One of Sierra's race sponsors is the Ether corporation, the biotechnology company who employed Silvio Caruso and Francesca de Santis to develop DNA targeting viruses in Sapienza.
  • Another one of the sponsors is Quantum Leap, the company Jason Portman sells in Hokkaido.
  • Sanguine has a booth at the race, and you'll find shopping bags bearing their name in a couple of other missions.
  • If 47 impersonates the blackmailer, he is asked for his name, prompting one of his classic lines from Hitman: Blood Money to return:
  Agent 47: Names are for friends.
  • One of the guards near the helicopter exit will talk about his time in the Gama Hospital and how he ate botched fugu there, alluding to one of the ways Yuki Yamazaki can be eliminated.
  • Heidi Santoro, Jordan Cross's former guitarist, can be found wandering around the Driver's Lounge, sporting a slightly different attire.
  • One of the sponsors for the Global Innovation Race is Blue Seed, a pharmaceutical company. This is significant because in the Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman comic, Blue Seed were the ones responsible for poisoning the local water that led to the death of Diana's brother and several others, and Diana's parents decided to get litigious. After their untimely death, Diana tries to go after Blue Seed in response. Their logo is also a water droplet, strengthening this connection. They are also a part of Providence, and in response to the lawsuit, they put out a contract with The Institute that lead to 47 and 6 to kill Diana's parents with a car bomb, something not revealed in this game until the final Isle of Sgàil custscene.
• Cutting Off the Branches:
  • When Heidi Santoro speaks to Sierra in the Driver's Lounge about Jordan Cross's funeral, they bring up Abel De Silva, and how he never remembered anything from creating the "Are We Stars" track back in the Himmapan Hotel in Bangkok, with him apparently waking up in his hotel room after blacking out mysteriously. This confirms that Abel was knocked out by 47 and probably Mugged for Disguise since 47 was the one doing the drum work that he has no recollection of performing.
  • Assuming that the Pale Rider Easter Egg exit described below is not itself non-canon, one of Diana’s possible lines when exiting the level indicates that at some point during The Showstopper, 47 donned the Vampire Magician disguise. Another suggests he wore the Santa 47 suit as a starting outfit on at least one of the missions where he infiltrated GAMA.
• Cymbal-Banging Monkey: One appears in this level, and can be turned on to cause a distraction.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • You can kill Sierra Knox by electrocuting the champagne puddle that results from her drinking from the trophy.
  • The facial recognition demo in the expo hall has different responses depending on what disguise 47 is wearing when he approaches. The game seems to actively encourage it, in fact, with multiple, varied responses to disguises obtainable on the complete opposite side of the map.^note Additionally, the demo is in a public area, so 47 is able to approach disguised as virtually anyone.
• Disqualification-Induced Victory: 47 can exploit this by disqualifying either Sierra Knox or her main competitor so that the other wins. Interestingly, Sierra is programmed to lose without 47's intervention.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Hector Delgado, whose Cartel plays a central role in the next level, can be found talking to the Sheikh in one of the paddocks. He even mentions the super cocaine the Cartel is cooking up.
• Easter Egg:
  • A secret escape involves the Dolphin statues outside the Kronstadt center.
  • Successfully killing both targets dressed as the Pale Rider gives one of the Kronstadt garage racecars a unique white livery and the opportunity to exit Miami using a Cool Car.
  • Yet another secret escape involves going to the helipad while dressed as a Flamingo mascot - the chopper will be replaced by a bird's nest, and 47 will flap his wings and fly away under his own power.
  • If the player has the patience for it, they can knock out one of the Flamingo mascots, bring him to the Kronstadt android demo, and scan a flamingo photo into the android, which then kills the mascot. Every NPC in the level will now be wearing the Flamingo outfit. You also get an achievement, aptly titled "Pink Army".
  • If you somehow have even more patience, killing everyone in the Miami level has a scottish-sounding announcer quip over the intercom about your murderous spree, then admits he probably should leave the area lest he be killed too. This is a direct reference to Youtuber BigMooney06, who is well-known for making "Kill Everyone" challenge videos.
  • Holding a target in a non-lethal chokehold without knocking them out or killing them eventually has them start to criticize your technique. Many of them break the fourth wall, eg. "Wow, you seemed a lot stronger in Blood Money!"
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The "Simmons Concussion" escalation contract involves knocking targets out (via hitting them with sodapop cans) rather than killing them.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Unless the player intervenes, Sierra will always lose the race. The developers did consider making it random, but decided against it for the the sakes of consistency.
• Fauxrrari: The cars seen in the race bear a striking resemblance to Daytona and Le Mans prototypes.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Sierra's bio states that she's expected to win the race again. By default, she'll always place second unless Moses Lee is eliminated or has his car sabotaged. The race announcer will also refer to her as a "new winner" should the player rig things in her favor.
  • Moses Lee will always get out of his car wearing his trademark cowboy hat, with no evidence of a helmet anywhere. Similarly, Sierra Knox will only emerge with a helmet if she loses the race, and then only to slam it on the ground.
  • Despite the latter being a celebrity driver, prior race winner, and CEO of his team's primary sponsor, virtually no one will notice if 47 masquerades as Moses Lee. Barring 47 committing any illegal acts in view of an NPC, the Kowoon crew chief is the only person in the entire level who will see through the disguise.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Robert can be lured onto the roof next to the track and (if timed right) pushed off to land directly on Sierra's car, killing him instantly and causing her to die in the ensuing crash.
• Goofy Suit: The bright pink Flamingo mascot costumes, which 47 can choose to wear and must do so to reach a certain opportunity. Completing the "Spring Breaker" challenge series unlocks a blue version of the outfit that can be worn outside of the level.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: At one point, Robert Knox chooses to demonstrate a Killer Robot capable of discerning friend from foe via facial recognition by standing in front of it. Robert Knox is a famous guy so there has to be at least one photo of him lying around...
  • An Opportunity reveals that Robert plans to kill one of Sierra's competitors with an explosive under their car. 47 can steal the bomb and drop it into the trashcan behind Knox before he sets it off.
• I Have This Friend: A guard that you meet with while waiting for Sierra dressed as a Flamingo questions why you're meeting with her. They also ask 47 whether or not you can take the Flamingo suit home with you and if you get to take it to parties. He tries to stress that he wants to know as it's..for a friend.
• Insurmountable Waist-High Fence: In order to get the keys for the speedboat exit, you must unlock the door to a hut, despite being placed right next to an open window that 47 can just get his arm through.
• Kent Brockman News:
  • Pam Kingsley reports on the rivaling Moreno Cartel and the Delgado Cartel (the same cartel 47 encounters in Blood Money), and that the rivalry between the two has only escalated, with mutilated bodies found in a compound.
  • She delivers the news that the soldiers part of the attempted Moroccan Military Coup in "A Gilded Cage" were interviewed recently, and all claimed that General Reza Zaydan, one of the mission's targets, had acted alone. A hearing for Claus Hugo Strandberg (the mission's second target) is set to be scheduled soon after.
  • Pam reports that Sebastian Sato, Sanguine's designer from "The Showstopper" who left after Viktor Novikov's death, has launched a new gender-neutral clothing line.
  • Pam reports on the discovery of Sean Rose's body by local kids in Colorado, and that the militia's compound was then investigated by the FBI.
  • She also reports on the Global Innovation Race, mentioning the ticket sales going through the roof, as well as the Kowoon-Kronstadt rivalry.
• Lighter and Softer: Sunny Miami was deliberately designed to be the next level after the very dark and stormy "Nightcall" to contrast it. The tone also is much less bleak, with the targets being extravagant former Providence agents rather than a ruthless terrorist who kidnaps, tortures, and murders.
• Made of Explodium: Bottles of the experimental octane booster will explode on impact if thrown.
• Mad Lib Thriller Title:
  • "The Aquatic Retribution" (which largely takes place in an aquarium)
  • "The BigMooney Flamboyancy" (a contract made by BigMooney06 which involves killing people as a flamingo)
  • "The Riviera Restoration" (Riviera meaning coastline, Restoration referring to the Medic disguise)
  • "The Simmons Concussion" (which is themed around pacifying people)
  • "The Treasonous Mimicry" (the theme of which is exploding rival teams disguised as a Kronstadt team member)
  • "The Unpalatable Termination" (you kill targets with a shotgun while disguised as a food vendor; unpalatable being a double meaning for "not like this" or "inedible").
• Medication Tampering:
  • 47 can poison Robert Knox's eye drops so that if he uses them, he'll poison himself in his bathroom.
  • A number of NPCs mention that Sierra Knox routinely gets an IV infusion after races; naturally, 47 can impersonate her doctor and poison her IV bag.
• Meaningful Name: The mission name is in reference to the racing that's happening around the level.
• Mugging the Monster: One NPC is attempting to blackmail Sierra Knox with some of Kronstadt Industries' dirty secrets; without 47's intervention, said NPC has zero chance of walking out of his meeting with Sierra alive. Of course, it can also be Sierra attempting this trope if 47 takes the blackmailer's place...
• No-Gear Level: Initially, your gear slots are locked and the only outside assistance you can bring is a single drop. You can unlock your gear slots pretty quickly, though.
• Offing the Offspring: An unintentional example can be done by placing Robert's explosive in Sierra's car and handing him the trigger. Upon doing so, Robert, an otherwise neglectful father, realizes what has happened and will proceed to leave the area.
• Only in Florida:
  • Robert Knox's favorite lunch spot is a food truck called Florida Man's. 47 can disguise himself as its owner, whose name the game simply lists as Florida Man. One of the items in this mission is a "Florida Man" article.
  • This mission has the two most ridiculous exits in the entire game, where one involves the helicopter exit being replaced by a birds' nest while 47 is dressed in the mascot outfit, and he will escape by flapping his arms and flying away, while the other has 47 riding on the backs of two dolphins and essentially jetskiing away on them.
  • Speaking of the mascots, killing any of them using the Knox military robot causes almost every important character to start wearing mascot outfits.
• Only in Miami: The level takes place in Miami City in Florida.
• Robot Soldier: Robert Knox is attempting to sell these to Ted Mendez, a consultant to the US military. An opportunity involves impersonating Mendez and taking Knox out with his own robots.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Knoxes thought they would be the Shadow Client's next victims and cut a deal with him to prevent that. Solely because of that, Providence wishes to dispose of them instead.
• Shout-Out:
  • The challenge of disguising yourself as the sheikh is named "Sheikh Zanzibar, I Presume?", referencing the nickname Giant Bomb gave the Sheikh character during one of their many videos highlighting the first game.
  • The Aquarium contains a cleaning sponge adjacent to a pineapple inside one of its tanks, along with a starfish.
  • According to nearby intel you can pick up, the chief scientist of the Kronstadt robot soldier was building a fembot on the side called Dolores, and asked to stop.
  • An escalation for this level is called "The BigMooney Flamboyancy", a shoutout to a popular Hitman Youtuber of the same name.
  • A whiteboard in the medical bay shows patients named J. Doug, A. Farrant and M. Channel. These are referring to Jane Douglas, Andy Farrant and Mike Channel of Outside Xbox, who have done a lot of Hitman Let's Plays. Their particular playstyles are also referenced in racing / medical terminology terms (Andy couldn't be diagnosed, Mike has burns, possibly from an explosive duck, and Jane needs re-hydration).
  • Using the secret exit unlocked the Pale Rider Easter Egg described above will cause Diana to give a "Some say..." monologue.
  • A Man near the marina starting location only speaks in CSI: Miami quotes, and goes around the non-racing parts of the level and quotes truly awful one-liners to random objects.
  • The female jogger in the seaside area of the map is named Kate Switzer, likely a nod to Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a registered entrant.
• Streaking: The Tannoy announcer may mention this when you go around the racing event, as a Noodle Incident ivoling the prior years' race involved a streaker messing up the race.
• Take Me Out at the Ball Game: One of your objectives is to kill Sierra Knox either during or after the race.
• Too Dumb to Live: Robert Knox has opportunities involving him staking his own life against one of his prototypes' success, attempting to reconfigure a satellite dish while teetering off the edge of a building since there's no guard rail, and attempting to repair his highly experimental car while standing behind where its thrusters would be.
  • It seems to run in the family, as Sierra herself ordered the roller cage of her car to be removed, guaranteeing any crash she has during the race is fatal. She also chooses to confront and threaten the blackmailer (likely Agent 47 in disguise) herself after dismissing her guards, all while standing on the edge of a very high drop into a dumpster.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can trick Robert Knox into accidentally killing his own daughter.
• Violation of Common Sense: The "Last Words" Challenge requires you to hang on the edge of the dumpster that Sierra plans to push the Blackmailer into while she's about to do so. She then notices you and steps on your fingers to send you to your demise as well.
• Wood Chipper of Doom: You can find a wood chipper in a little grassy section right outside the Kronstadt Bay Centre where you can dump bodies inside, and kill them. Doing so is even one of the Challenges in the "Spring Breaker" achievement.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: One opportunity and a few challenges involve helping Sierra Knox win, only to kill her during the award ceremony.

Santa Fortuna: "Three-Headed Serpent"

In an effort to track down how the Shadow Client's militia moves around the planet, Diana finds out that they primarily move through the Delgado cartel's drug distribution network, based in the village of Santa Fortuna deep within the rainforests of Colombia. In order to stop them in their tracks, 47 is deployed to assassinate the three top members of the cartel: Andrea Martínez, the cartel's social organizer and negotiator; Jorge Franco, the head chemist of the cocaine processing plant; and Rico Delgado, the current head of the cartel. By killing them, it's hoped that the militia will be exposed in their movements.

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• Ascended Extra: Andrea Martínez was present at the IAGO auction and had a conversation with Dalia Margolis in the previous game.
• Ascended to Carnivorism: The targets can be fed to a very hungry hippopotamus if you so choose to dispose of them in that manner.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!:
  • Underneath the mansion's garage, there are weapons hung on a wall, one of which is a golden variant of the assault rifle used by the guards in the level.
  • Rico Delgado keeps a unique golden gun called "El Matador" in his safe. It's also yours to keep if you complete the escalation "The Delgado Larceny" with a Silent Assassin rank.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: For Rico, the contract on the Chilean Delgados was the most important day of his life. But for 47, it was just another paying job.
  • In Rico's museum on the Delgado Cartel's history, Rico elaborates further on the fallout of 47's contract on Fernando and Manuel Delgado. With their deaths, the Chilean branch of the Delgados disintegrated and their vineyard was invaded by the Chilean military. Rico's family was forced to flee to Colombia, where they spent years rebuilding.
• The Cartel: Agent 47 faces off against them in this mission.
• Continuity Nod:
  • This is not the first time 47 travels to Colombia to assassinate a drug lord. It's also not the first time he's had to deal with the Delgado cartel.
  • Rico Delgado himself is mentioned by Andrea Martínez, one of the guards in Sapienza, and by Sean Rose in the previous game.
  • The hippie from Sapienza is in town and has an actual Mission Story now, involving a meeting with Jorge Franco.
  • P-Power is constantly calling Dexy Barat, Jordan Cross's former manager, to no avail.
  • There are Sanguine shopping bags in Catalina's closet.
  • The mansion staff in the laundry room can be heard talking about Rico being sensitive on the topic of the "freak accidents" his uncle and cousin died in.
  • Part of Rico's mansion is a museum of his exploits and sentimental objects collected over the years. One unusual object a guard asks Rico about is a bottle of wine, "a vintage year" from 2004. Fernando's cello is also found in the back of the room.
• Cutting Off the Branches: NPC dialogue in the mission mentions that Manuel Delgado from Hitman: Blood Money died in a "freak accident", which means that canonically 47 finished the mission by staging an accident.
• Dead Person Impersonation: The drummer of the band appears to have drunk himself to death in his bedroom, meaning 47 must disguise as him and take his place.
• Despair Event Horizon: Returning the love letter to Hèctor will cause him to personally deliver it to Andrea, giving 47 an opportunity to throw her into the river from the office balcony as she reads it. Hèctor is horrified by her fall, assuming the love letter has driven Andrea to suicide, and throws himself off a balcony of the Delgado mansion soon afterwards.
• Developer's Foresight: The conversation and events that occur while disguised as P-Power change based on whether or not the bodyguard and/or Catalina Delgado are present, and you can sneak into the compound to perform the tattoo without having to talk to the latter.
• Expy: Brilliant chemist, poor social life, family man, The Perfectionist? Jorge Franco is all but Walter White with more money, power, and hair.
• Fantastic Drug: Jorge Franco has created a form of "super cocaine" for the Delgado Cartel to profit off of.
• Failure Is the Only Option: That Mook getting executed in the briefing? You can't save him, no matter what you do or how and where you start the level, even if you skip the scripted opening.
• Fed to the Beast: Rico Delgado has a pet hippo that he uses to execute people, which has led to the animal developing an addiction to meat. It's currently ill because one goon fed it a traitorous drug mule without permission, forgetting the dude currently had a couple kilos of cocaine in him at the time.
• Foreshadowing: When Grey and Olivia are talking, a shot of a Russian sign is seen outside; институт улучшения человека. When translated to English, it reads The Institute for Human Betterment, something that would be important after the following mission.
• Inside a Computer System: The cutscene that plays before this mission has the Partners and the Constant in a virtual environment talking to one another in a fictitious suspended base Hitman 3 later calls "The Black Pyramid". They "jack in" via their own VR headsets, but they are represented by models of themselves.
• Job-Stealing Robot: Jorge Franco has ordered a circuit board to repair his cocaine processing machine. The minute the board is inserted and the machine is working again, he fires his lab workers.
• Jungle Japes: Much of the surrounding environment outside of the town, mansion, and lab is rainforest with very thick foliage that conceals 47 himself or the people he's ambushed.
• Karmic Death: At great expense, Rico Delgado constructs a statue of himself celebrating everything he's done for the local village, even if it's mostly terrorizing them to keep them in line. 47 can sabotage the statue foundation and arrange it so Rico will cause the statue to fall on top of him (and possibly Andrea) once he removes the canvas covering it.
• Kaizo Trap: Much like in Sapienza, 47 can inadvertently kill an NPC during the closing animation scene for the sports car exit.
• Kent Brockman News:
  • Pam Kingsley reports on the Delgado Cartel and the rumored agreement between the U.S. president and the cartel to look the other way for its supposed shady dealings, in exchange for campaign funds. The president, of course, denies all this, but the U.S. congress wants to launch an inquiry anyway.
  • Pam also reports on the disturbing news of Delgado Cartel members being killed by a literal Ass Shove in Medellín. The "Curare" hitman was reportedly hired by the Moreno Cartel, and is a sign of further drug war escalation.
  • Kingsley reports on the still-unsolved murder case of Thomas Cross, who was kidnapped and later killed after the events of Club 27 drew him out. Cross Holdings COO has been promoted to president, and the company's new management has made the company financially stable in the stock market again. Also Pam admits that GNN News is run by Cross Holdings, and is glad she's not being let go due to their liberal leanings.
  • Pam reports on the discovery of a safehouse owned by The Maelstrom in Shanghai, who’s now the chief suspect in the murder of construction company CEO Lin Xi.
  • Pam reports on the death of Sierra and Robert Knox from the previous mission. Although their deaths were ruled as tragic accidents, the small likelihood and the recent string of corporate assassinations have given rise to numerous conspiracy theories. She also reports that Moses Lee has won the race and suggests moving it to Shanghai.
• Mad Lib Thriller Title:
  • "The Calvino Cacophony" (cacophony meaning a mixture of sounds, the escalation involves killing the band members)
  • "The Delgado Larceny" (You're stealing Rico Delgado's El Matador and killing people with it)
  • "The MacMillan Surreptition" (Surreptition means to be sneaky, and this escalation involves using bushes and a machete to kill people)
  • "The Turms Infatuation" (You have to kill Hector Delgado in various ways, with the "Infatuation" part referring to his crush on Andrea Martinez)
  • "The Truman Contravention" (which is all about killing people with workplace accidents)
  • "The Merle Revelation" (Have worshipping villagers follow you disguised as the Shaman and kill the targets).
• Meaningful Name: The name of the mission is "Three-Headed Serpent", something referenced in ancient Greece and is a symbol of intimidation and power. Appropriate, given all three targets are trying assert more power in the world, as well as being intimidating. The name is also mentioned by Diana in the briefing.
• Non Sequitur: When disguised as P. Power, you get the opportunity to take a selfie with Catalina Delgado, which you can also ignore if you wish. If you do accept however, you just see 47 in the background looking blankly at the phone, not even bothering to smile, while Catalina poses for the selfie as happy as a ferret. This bit ends as quick as it starts, has no bearing on the actual Mission Story to kill Rico, nor is it used for any kind of set up later on.
• Piranha Problem: The murky river surrounding the village is home to various piranhas who will feast on any body thrown in. A few challenges involve feeding the targets or a butcher to them.
• Shout-Out:
  • Rico Delgado keeps a golden gun in his safe, he calls "El Matador".
  • A twofer with the "Secret Tunnel" challenge:
    • The name references the song/meme from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
    • Completing the challenge involves traversing a room filled with pressure sensitive tiles - which will unleash a flurry of arrows from stone carvings on the walls if triggered - in order to retrieve an artifact on the far side. Sound familiar? As a further bonus, the item needed to access the room to begin with looks remarkably similar to the idol from the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, while the Steam achievement for completing the challenge is "It Belongs in a Museum".
  • The "Nature Finds a Way" challenge involves pacifying 5 coca field guards while they are inside said coca field. Completing the challenge typically resembles the velociraptor ambush in the tall grass from The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
• Tattooed Crook: One opportunity has you disguise yourself as a celebrity tattoo artist who has a session scheduled with Delgado.
• Temple of Doom: One such area can be found in the caves under the village, complete with a Booby Trap in the form of a tile maze.^note stepping on a wrong tile will unleash a flurry of arrows from the carvings on the walls. Successfully accessing the area and retrieving the ceremonial dagger at the far end will complete the "Secret Tunnel" challenge and grant the "It Belongs in a Museum" achievement on Steam.
• Tempting Fate: Jorge Franco is currently running tests on a rare flower sample he found in the jungle. Destroy it, and he heads out for another. Unfortunately for him, the plant only grows on a tree branch extending over a cliff facing the waterfall...
• Torture Cellar: The basement of the Delgado compound has a storage room featuring a bloody chair surrounded by bloodstained plastic sheets and tools. A tape of Delgado interrogating and then torturing an Ether employee is on the table nearby.
• Video Game Caring Potential: "The Hero of Santa Fortuna" is a challenge centered around helping various people, including the targets.

Mumbai: "Chasing a Ghost"

47 is contracted to come down to the slums of Mumbai and hunt down three of the most notorious pirates of the South China Sea: Dawood Rangan, a sleazy Bollywood producer; Vanya Shah, the self-proclaimed "Queen" of Mumbai's underworld; and the "Maelstrom", who went off the grid after a disastrous hijacking before resurfacing with the killing of a Providence CEO. While the ICA has a positive ID on both Rangan and Shah, they lack one on The Maelstrom, forcing 47 to descend into Mumbai with little, if any, leads.

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• Assassin Outclassin': Played with as 47 can use the Kashmirian to eliminate his targets.
• Bad Boss: An entire level of those.
  • Dawood is an unscrupulous Bollywood producer who forces actresses into the Casting Couch, doesn't pay because his movies are usually insurance scams, and fires people at the drop of a hat.
  • Vanya keeps her workers enslaved and rules as "Queen of the Slums" but only helps in exchange for elaborate bribes. She also kills anyone who displeases her, especially tailors.
  • Wazir allegedly abandoned some of his team to die during their last raid.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Should you orchestrate things in this manner, the Kashmirian could be the one considered responsible for the deaths of three of the biggest crime bosses in India.
• Chatty Hairdresser: The barber that 47 can disguise as uses his position to gather information for the Crows by talking up his clientele. Inverted when 47 takes his place, where it's actually the customers who do the majority of talking.
• The City Narrows: Half of the map is comprised of the dense and maze-like slums that Mumbai is known for in real life.
• Coincidental Disguise-Complementing Trait: One possible method of taking out Darwood Rangan is to have 47 pose as the artist that Rangan hired to create the latest portrait for his Shrine to Self, then keep the target in position until a sniper hired by fellow target Vanya Shah can kill him. However, this requires 47 to actually paint the portrait, and in yet another unexpected twist, 47 has enough skill as a painter to successfully complete the artwork, finishing at the very moment the sniper blows Rangan's brains out.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Maelstrom drinks from one of four different Moja Tea stands that is randomized in each level. Similarly, TV's in the level play a Moja Tea commercial that randomizes between four color backdrops (blue, green, orange, and purple), which matches which stand The Maelstrom drinks from.
• Dangerously Close Shave: One possible method of killing the Maelstrom is to disguise yourself as a barber and slit his throat while shaving him.
• Did Not Think This Through:
  • The Maelstrom has taken elaborate steps to make himself invisible. However, he has a house on a hill guarded by a literal army of soldiers and doesn't think this might clue people in to the fact that the woman who lives there is important to him.
  • Subverted with the Kashmirian as he kills both his employers before he's paid. He wasn't interested in the fee, though. Instead, he wanted to eliminate both so he could go to work for the Maelstrom.
• Easy Level Trick:
  • The most risk-free way to eliminate the Maelstrom is to poison the glass he'll be drinking from during his meeting at the hill. No matter which NPC he is, he will always be one of two people to drink from there, even if you haven't identified him. So long as you know which glass he drinks from beforehand (the glass closest to the ladder), you can kill him pretty easily.
  • The quickest way of eliminating both Dawood and Vanya is by summoning them to the old boathouse and dropping a boat on them when they meet up. This can be done by placing a brick in any of the nearby furnace's, and getting rid of the guards overlooking the boathouse.
  • If you start as a street vendor, the Maelstrom will always be the first NPC who crosses the bridge and right into your path. Just add a little, ahem, spice to your wares and offer your unsuspecting target a sample.
  • The runaway train presents an extremely simple, but very destructive, means of eliminating Vanya and the Maelstrom. Both the train switch and one of the levers you can use to turn it are located on the very edges of the trainyard, allowing you to redirect the train without ever needing to infiltrate Shah's compound. You will get civilian and guard casualties, but they'll both be dead. It even provides you with an easy level exit.
• Easter Egg:
  • Another secret level exit, this one involving 47 floating away holding an umbrella.
  • One of the arcade cabinets in a small arcade near the initial starting point has a copy of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin running on it.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Maelstrom's old lover is the only person who can lure him out.
• Fatal Method Acting: One potential way of killing Dawood involves blowing him off the roof with an industrial fan while filming the final scene. None of the cast is that shocked, and the director decides to keep the scene in believing it would make a better ending.
• Gambit Pileup: Both Shah and Rangan hired the same hitman to kill the other. 47 can aid him in killing either Rangan or both of them. And then it turns out that the Maelstrom had him kill both of them.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite the fact that no one knows what the Maelstrom looks like and you finding out being a major part of the mission, if 47 manages to kill the Maelstrom without gathering any Intel (he can be identified by the scar on his face, his walk speed being slightly faster than other NPCs, and the extremely long Vagueness Is Coming speech he gives if 47 impersonates the barber), Diana will just magically know that the man 47 just killed is the Maelstrom.
• The Ghost: No one knows what the Maelstrom currently looks like. Part of the mission involves finding this out.
• Kent Brockman News:
  • Pam narrates over some local cricket news, specifically about how the Mongooses team has suddenly fallen ill with stomach flu before their big game against the Hippos. Despite this, she notes the team is still feeling optimistic. This was caused by Dawood Rangan, who bribed the referee to dope the Mongooses so that the Hippos would win, something he admits to one of his ever-hopeful bodyguards, who had placed a bet on the Mongooses winning.
  • She reports on an explosion at Ether's R&D facility in Johannesberg, later revealed to have been done by the Shadow Client. Ether claims no chemicals were released into the air, thankfully, but their stocks did plummet because of the incident.
  • Kingsley reports on the previous missions' assassination of Rico Delgado, as well as Jorge Franco and Andrea Martinez. Naturally, the residents blame the Moreno Cartel.
  • Keeping up on the Ether story, she reports on a hostage tape from the Shadow Client's militia featuring Ether's CEO Neleis De Waal, in which he was forced to admit his involvement in Providence.
  • Pam reports on the story of a local construction company supposedly having its luxurious hotel blown up by Kashmirian nationalists, though there's a theory that the owner destroyed his own property for insurance purposes when no terrorist group claimed responsibility. Rangan is planning on releasing a movie about the hotel's owner saving his guests.
• Mad Lib Thriller Title:
  • "The Dubius Cohabitation" is all about killing people from within the Chawls via an accident or a sniper rifle. The name is in reference to the odd behaviour of one of the residents (The Kashmirian) NPC characters comment on, and cohabitation refers to the chawls itself.
  • "The Chameleon Anonymity" escalation has you using various disguises in the Laundry slums to eliminate guards; Chameleon of course referring to 47's Master of Disguise capabilities.
  • "The Hirani Evacuation" is named after an indian film producer of the same name; Rajkumar Hirani, and has you dump specific bodies down an elevator shaft.
  • "The Han Encasement" is all about killing targets in the construction site with containers; Encasement means to cover specific building parts while in construction.
  • "The Raaz Algorithm" is names after an Indian horror flick of the same name, in which you have to kill specific targets without being spotted.
• Meaningful Name: The mission name references the expression "chasing ghosts", which has several definitions, one of which is follow or chase someone persistently and quickly. Part of the mission s finding the Maelstrom and chasing him down Mumbai.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles: The Maelstrom has no visual identity to start with, as he's hiding in the crowds of Mumbai, not even the all-powerful ICA can find him. To make things harder, he may not look like his photo that you can acquire due to his randomised look.
• Operator from India: Two examples:
  • Discussed by a blacksmith who talks about his cousin setting a call center up and suggesting his co-worker do the same. He rejects the idea, stating that he already enjoys his job.
  • A variation on this is that an NPC outside Rangan Tower can be heard trying to scam someone from abroad into downloading a virus.
• Properly Paranoid: Each of the three targets has at least one extra layer of security compared to many others in the game - the Maelstrom is a recluse who needs to be properly identified before assassination, Vanya Shah's assistant doubles as her food taster, making poisoning her difficult, and both Dawood Rangan and the Maelstrom require the player to pass or circumvent not one but two frisk checkpoints when meeting them while wearing certain disguises. The level is also noteworthy for the presence of a second assassin, gunning for two of the three targets with the intent of provoking a meeting with the third.
• Rummage Sale Reject: The Holy Man disguise, which contains a dreadlocks wig, an eyepatch, an orange sari with a crimson sash, as well as having an umbrella and plastic bag. Wearing it does not allow access anywhere, but is part of the "Mumbai Master" sidequest.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Tailor has this reaction when Vanya decides he's going to make a dress for her. This is because of the fact that she's murdered many other tailors.
• Shout-Out:
  • One secret level exit depicts 47 floating off into the sky while holding an umbrella, an image highly reminiscent of Mary Poppins.
  • Some of the Escalation names are named after Indian pop-culture, see Mad Lib Thriller Title above.
• Snuff Film: If Dawood is blown off the set by the fan, the director suggests using the footage of his death instead during a phone call.
• Throw It In!: Invoked in-game by the director. If 47 sabotages the industrial fan to blast Rangan^note and possibly his hapless co-star over the side of the building during filming, the director can afterwards be overheard on her phone, stating they have footage of the accident, and suggests it be used in place of the film's original ending.
• Troubled Production: In-Universe. The film Rangan is working on, Mumbai Hero, is on its final day of filming, yet the lead actor is too sick to attend the final photoshoot, and the lead actress threw the final scene's script down the elevator shaft. Even if the script is obtained, a fight breaks out between her and Rangan due to the actress refusing to kiss him.
• Undying Loyalty: The Crows have a fanatical loyalty to the Maelstrom.
• Unwitting Pawn: The player can help the Kashmirian kill both Rangan and Shah by fixing his rifle scope and setting the targets up. He evidently doesn't realize that he's secretly being helped by a rival assassin.
• Video Game Caring Potential: If you're disguised as a laundry foreman, you can give Shah's exhausted workers permission to go on break.

Whittleton Creek: "Another Life"

Working together with the Shadow Client, who’s revealed himself as Lucas Grey/Subject 6, another survivor of the experiments that created 47, 47 heads to the suburb of Whittleton Creek in Vermont to track down Janus, an ex-KGB spymaster and the former "Constant", or head of Providence, as well as Nolan Cassidy, his head of security and a "Herald" (a Providence agent responsible for dealings with outsiders), as his existence is risking their plot to frame Janus as the Shadow Client. In addition, 47 must find clues as to where the current Constant can be found by searching the neighborhood on foot.

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• The '50s: The Wilson's barbecue party has this aesthetic, from Susan's red polka-dot dress, jazz music playing, and the white picket fences surrounding the garden, all during a sunny afternoon.
• Alone with the Psycho: Nicely subverted if 47 tries to infiltrate Janus's house disguised as his nurse. Guards will escort 47 to Janus's room and introduce him... whereupon chief bodyguard Gunther Mueller will pull 47 aside, explaining that he wasn’t informed of any changes by the nursing agency, does not recognize 47, and therefore will not leave 47 alone with his client without running a background check. 47 is then locked in an empty room. Can be double subverted, however, if 47 then escapes said room and approaches Janus, who will allow 47 to proceed as if nothing happened.
• Awesome, but Impractical: If you get Janus talking to 47, he’ll remember the program that created 47 as this. Sure, genetically engineered super-soldiers sound cool, but they still need training as kids and they're still erratic. To Janus, a handful of well-placed spies could do much more.
• Bookcase Passage: One exists that connects the houses of one of Cassidy's spies and Janus.
• Call-Back:
  • While it isn't the same doctor from Sapienza, 47 can once again knock out a therapist named Dr. Lafayette to meet with a target in complete privacy, so they can perform a therapy session, and whom will do an Exposition Dump onto 47 with little provocation, which can then also end via Vorpal Pillow.
  • If you talk to Charles Blake III, 47 says he "doesn't care much for politics"; this is word for word what Diana says to describe 47's opinion on the ICA's politics at the end of Bangkok in 2016.
  • To Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman:
    • In the "Homecoming" cinematic, the reveal that Lucas Grey is also an Ort-Meyer clone named Subject 6, who became friends with 47 at a young age to take down "The Institute for Human Betterment" and Providence. 47 finally recognises him by quoting their mantra ("To take them all down").
    • As Grey mentions in the "Long Shot" cinematic to Diana, the two tried to raid the Institute, but failed as they didn't expect Ort-Meyer to be Crazy-Prepared for their betrayal, and during the raid, he escapes under the advice of 47, while 47 and the rest of the clones have their memories of 6 and the raid altered afterwards. Ort-Meyer plants the false memory of 6 being killed when they were younger, when in fact 47 and 6 were nothing but loyal to each other.
    • When 47 takes the anti-serum to the memory wipe in "Long Shot" that Grey stole in "Untouchable", his memories show that Ort-Meyer and Janus are talking about the fallout of the "Minnulescu" Incident; the same one described by Grey in Colorado's final cutscene, which the comic book detailed further.
    • If 47 disguises himself as Janus's nurse, he mentions that he reminds him of a boy he once met that was part of an "idiotic" project to "create an army of super soldiers through genetic manipulation", alluding to "the wipe" of 47 and the clones' memories, and he goes into more detail about it..
  • Ort-Meyer’s version of events of the Institute’s raid is in reference to Hitman: Enemy Within, a relatively obscure novel from 2006 which mentions 6 as 47's first kill and childhood bully.
• Continuity Nod:
  • To Hitman: Blood Money:
    • The title of this mission is partially in reference to the fan-favourite, and similarly named; "A New Life" mission, a suburban-themed level the developers clearly took inspiration from.
    • Nolan Cassidy's briefing notes that he was on duty in the White House during Vice President Daniel Morris' assassination.
• Cut-and-Paste Suburb: The houses in Whittleton Creek looks identical to each other on the outside, and all of the houses that you can fully enter have almost their entire layout be near-identical to each other. Often the only differences between the houses are rooms being flipped from right to left, they lack an attic, or just flat-out copy the whole room layout wholesale. This is downplayed, as you can only fully explore five houses (Janus's, Nolan's, The Schmidt's/the house for sale), the West's, and the Wilsons, with the rest of the houses not being able to be fully explored (Batty's house, for example, as it's being fumigated).
• Cutting Off the Branches: No matter what you do in-game, 47 canonically picked up the group photo clue featuring Janus and The Constant, as the first shot of the "Gifts and Curses" cutscene that plays after this mission features the photograph.
• Deadly Gas: 47 can spike the fumigation machine at Nolan Cassidy's house with lethal poison and switch it on, killing anyone inside.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: Not only do Diana and Lucas plan to have Janus murdered, they intend to make it seem like he was The Man Behind the Man to the Shadow Client.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • The realtor will eventually stop eating muffins after being offered a certain amount and meet up with Cassidy.
  • If a flyer is put in Cassidy's mailbox, he'll eventually meet with Charles Blake III.
• Easter Egg: Pointing a gun at the painting in Janus's basement after you kill him causes it to gain googly eyes, and its stare follows your gun if you adjust your aim.
• Easy Level Trick: The houses present particularly easy opportunities to snipe both targets. Janus can be sniped through the window of the house next door and there are no NPCs on the top floor on Professional. Stand outside the attic window in Nolan's house, and eventually he'll come out onto the sidewalk and just stand still for an easy elimination.
• Fake Difficulty: Played with. The "Find Clues" objective that is required to complete the level, but there are loads of clues to find, some harder to obtain than others. One of the clues is attached to Janus's ceremonial robes. However, despite Diana mentioning there's a note attached to it, 47 can't simply just read the note, he has to change into the robes to do so, meaning this particular clue is totally unavailable if you're trying any of the "Suit only" challenges. It doesn't fully enter fake difficulty because Diana marks Points of Interest on your map, no matter the difficulty (much like the Mumbai "Crows" hideout), so finding smaller clues, while more time consuming, they are easier to do, so long as you're willing to traipse round Whittleton Creek to find them.
• Fictional Province: Whittleton Creek is said to be within Vermont, but does not actually exist.
• Foil: Interestingly, the main bodyguards of both targets serve as foils to one another. Janus' bodyguard dresses casually but is savvy and hyper-diligent and will be suspicious and wary of any unexpected events. Nolan's bodyguard, on the other hand, dresses professionally but seems to really want to enjoy himself while on the job, eating snacks while at the house tour and expressing a desire to join the neighbors' BBQ.
• Frame-Up: By killing Janus, 47 and his team hope to pin the blame of being the Shadow Client onto him. This would take the heat off of Subject 6, who would simply be outed as a pawn to be dealt with at a later date.
• Genre Blindness: Despite having been a Secret Service member when Agent 47 infiltrated the White House, Cassidy is a paranoid yet very incompetent man. If you approach him dressed as the real estate broker he wants to meet, you can lead him straight to an booby-trapped underground vault he disables thanks to experience with the model line. Then he'll send his sole bodyguard to outside the house to see if it was visible at all from the outside, while the idiot wanders on into the vault - and leaves Agent 47 at the security console. This is an accident kill for him.
• Goggles Do Nothing: The "BBQ King" wears a pair of comically massive goggles. Taking the disguise makes 47 put them on, making him look like an absolute goofball. On a somewhat related note, the same disguise also gives 47 an oven glove that does not impede his ability to shoot.
• I'm Standing Right Here: If 47 disguises as Janus' nurse and begins their session, Janus will reminisce about how he "reminds" him of a boy he met in Romania while overseeing Ort-Meyer's project. When 47 asks about what happened to him, he assumes he’s dead.
• Kent Brockman News:
  • The Censor, a serial killer patrolling Vermont and grading his victims based on how they fought back, is subject to a news broadcast. This is Foreshadowing to him becoming an Elusive Target almost a full year later.
  • Pam reports on an upcoming indie movie festival to commemorate Dino Bosco's death, which is being held in Sapienza, where he was eliminated. Pam also notes that the town has seen its fair share of deaths in recent years, in reference to the location's various missions.
  • She reports on an upcoming global energy summit that’s being held in Kiruna, with the hopes of a climate treaty being made as a likely outcome. This also foreshadows the following mission, where the Ark Society's "Original Five", energy CEOs faced with this exact problem.
  • Kingsley reports on the discovery that the painting "Artist as a Blank Canvas", on display in a museum in Barcelona, is a fake. This is likely a Take That! towards the True Art Is Incomprehensible artist stereotype, as the painting is literally just a blank canvas, yet everybody else treats the situation dead seriously.
  • She also reports on the death of Wazir "The Maelstrom" Kale from the previous mission, who’s presumed to have been killed at the hands of The Crows. Authorities suspect that Kale is responsible for the death of Neleis De Waal and various other corporate figures.
• Knockout Gas: Similar to the Deadly Gas above, if 47 puts a sedative into the fumigation machine^note either sedative poison he carried in or cached, or the insecticide found in the level the fumes will knock out anyone in Cassidy's house.
• Mad Lib Thriller Title:
  • "The McCalister Ransack" is themed around stealing specific objects from people's houses (A.K.A Ransacking their houses).
  • "The Batty Tranquility" has 47 repeatedly pacifying James Batty, as well as later targets, while disguised as the mailman. The Tranquility portion refers to the mailman complaining about Batty's annoyance with Janus, and James is constant pestering them about it.
  • "The Covert Dispersal" is themed around killing the covert operatives one by one at the Wilsons' garden party.
  • "The O'Leary Conflagration" is centered around killing targets with the large cooker in the Murder Basement.
  • "The Nolan Disinfection" has you kill specific guards in the house of Nolan Cassidy with poison pumped in with the funigator.
• Meaningful Name: The mission is partially derived and named after a "A New Life", a Blood Money mission with a similar premise. It also partially refers to Janus, who is an ex-spymaster now living an ordinary life in suburbia — literally leading another life.
• Memory-Restoring Melody: 47 not only eliminates former Soviet spymaster Janus and his bodyguard Nolan Cassidy, but also searches for clues to help him, Lucas Grey, Diana, and Olivia find out where the Constant will be meeting so they may capture him and find out more about Providence. One of the way 47 can accomplish this is by playing a gramophone in Janus' house. Once Janus hears the music playing and investigates it, he will mention his next meeting with the Constant, confirming that aspect.
• Mythology Gag: Like in A New Life, you can stowaway and crush bodies in a garbage truck.
• No Kill like Overkill: An easy way to kill Cassidy is to pump his house full of poisonous gas. This of course results in several non-target casualties.
• Nostalgia Level: This level is very similar to a popular level from Blood Money. The two levels also share a similarly-titled level name; "A New Life" and "Another Life".
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": When shown the vault in the basement of the Schmidt residence, Cassidy notes that most owners don't bother to change the code from the manufacturer default and tries opening it with said code. It works.
• Rake Take: If people walk into rakes, then it will smack them in the face and knock them out. Witnesses will freak out about this as if they've found an unconscious body caused by 47, even if they see the entire incident play out.
• Retcon: One that resolves an inconsistency from the Birth of the Hitman comic. The "Homecoming" cinematic has 47 (unknowingly) revisit The Institute for Human Betterment to confront Grey, with Diana noting that the building burned down in 1989; the following cinematic ("Long Shot") has Grey explicitly naming The Institute of where 47 and Grey's siege takes place. This fixes an issue where the comic showed a fire taking place at the end of Issue 1; this game rules that specific fire to be irrelevant; Diana is unknowingly talking about 6 and 47's siege on the building during "Homecoming".
• Schmuck Bait: Cassidy's house contains an armory upstairs, including a wall display with several assault rifles and a remote bomb behind a pane of glass. Breaking the glass will cause an alarm to sound, even if the player has disabled the security system.
• Shout-Out: There's a pizza on the roof of one of the buildings (The one right next to "Road work" on the map, number 422).
• Stepford Suburbia: Whittleton Creek looks like the perfect all-American suburb but contains a seedy underbelly underneath: Cassidy's crew of undercover bodyguards for Janus are everywhere and slowly taking over the town, one house has a marijuana grow-op clearly above legal limits, another house is for sale due to the previous owner having been murdered there and contains a mysterious explosive-rigged vault which said owner was likely using for some unknown sinister purpose, and the local sweet, muffin-baking granny is a serial killer with a "Murder Basement", and sleeps with a pink handgun under her pillow. While some people are suspicious of the newest residents due to their secrecy and expensive furniture, they turn out to be the most normal people in the neighborhood.
• Technicolor Toxin: Using the fumigation machine to flood Nolan Cassidy's home with gas will produce visible clouds of vapors inside. In a subversion of typical color choices, it's actually the Knockout Gas that produces a Sickly Green Glow; the Deadly Gas's fumes are red.
• Timed Mission: Optionally, if 47 follows one of the mission stories. Infiltrating Janus's house as the nurse will lead to Gunther locking 47 in a room while he runs a background check. 47 then has 5 minutes to escape the room and either complete his mission, knock out Gunther, or find a new disguise before the guards are alerted.
• The Reveal: The "Long Shot" cutscene before this mission has Diana and Grey reveal that Ort-Meyer was a providence operative, one of many, and his mission to bring down Providence is to get to The Partners.
• Video Game Caring Potential: The "Elderly Assistance" challenge requires 47 to "make Janus' day" by completing seven actions: giving him a physical exam, leaving a muffin in the kitchen, pouring out a cup of tea for him, blocking the mole holes in his garden (so he can nap in his garden), playing the gramophone, taking out Gunther (so Janus can visit Helen for a chat), and replacing his cigarettes. Upon completion, Janus struts around happily.

Isle of Sgàil: "The Ark Society"

Having finally tracked down Providence, 47 infiltrates a castle keep on the remote North Atlantic island of Sgàil, which is currently hosting an annual gathering of the "Ark Society", subgroup within Providence catering to billionaires who seek to find ways to survive civilization-ending cataclysms. His objective is to extract the Constant for interrogation, but he must first assassinate twin sisters Zoe and Sophia Washington, international treasure hunters and newly-elected heads of the Ark Society in order to secure the killswitches on an explosive chip implanted into the Constant, currently in their possession.

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• Achievement Mockery: The challenge "Couldn't Resist" is completed by triggering The Constant's killswitch, which results in an automatic mission failure.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Unlike the clues in the previous level, obtaining the Constant's killswitch and taking him to the boat is an optional objective, and your allies will kidnap him offscreen if you decide to skip it. This makes some of the challenges (especially the "Suit Only" ones) significantly easier and faster to complete.
• Black Republican: The Washington twins hold strongly elitist opinions regarding the social ladder.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Amos Dexter is a member of the Ark Society, and is once again an NPC you can encounter in gameplay (amusingly, despite everyone wearing masks he can be easily recognizable due to keeping his Stetson hat.
  • Dexter's not the only Hokkaido patient to return, as Jason Portman can also be found within the members of the Ark Society.
• Book Ends: The cutscene that plays after the mission ("A Bad Hand") has Diana do a Ironic Echo, and repeats what The Constant said to her back on the train in 2016:
  Diana: Mr. Edwards; still think this is maintenance?
• The Butler Did It: The name of a challenge pack. The challenges include killing someone with poison, killing someone with an Iron Maiden, pacifying 10 people with a lead pipe, pacifying 5 people with a cannonball, and acquire the Ceremonial Dagger, all of which require you to be disguised as the Butler when doing said challenge.
• Continuity Cavalcade:
  • A pair of ladies are having a conversation about the Gorski art piece "Artist as a Blank Canvas", and how Patricia Van Horne, an influential member of art and culture around the globe, (and a member of the Ark Society), stole it to be placed into Ark Society storage. This is in reference to the previous mission's news broadcast, whereby Pam Kingsley reports on the theft of said art piece.
  • One of the Ark Society patrons mentions having once attended a Heaven and Hell-themed masquerade party. He also mentions that someone got eaten by a shark, referring to one of the ways of killing Vaana Ketlyn.
  • The Keep has a book on display that prominently displays the manifesto of the Liberation Cult◊, a Death Cult that was the antagonist featured in the "Patient Zero" Campaign. This heavily implies that either the Ark Society or Providence (or perhaps both) were the ones responsible for the creation of the Nabazov Virus and the plans for a global pandemic.
  • Once again, 47 can infiltrate a funeral service which has "Ave Maria" playing. The achievement for killing Zoe whilst disguised as Janus is even called "Blood Money".
  • If 47 is able to steal a valuable necklace without being noticed, Diana praises him as being the equal of the Sparrow, a member of the Yardbirds criminal ring 47 kills in Himmelstein, and the first target of the ICA facility tutorial.
  • Two custodians discussing Zoe and Sophia talk about how Ken Morgan, one of the previous game's targets, successfully defended them by claiming they had "rich kid syndrome". When one mentions rumors of him being assassinated, he dismisses the claim as an "alt-right conspiracy theory".
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The Constant is needed for interrogation, so killing him will fail the mission.
• Collection Sidequest: The "Magpie" challenge requires 47 to collect at least 30 commemorative tokens scattered throughout the island and on certain NPCs.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Poisoning a target in this level becomes this due to the twins' routes - Zoe doesn't consume anything in her route. Sophia occasionally passes by a tray of sushi, but refuses to eat any since she doesn't feel hungry. Getting Sophia to eat requires going through "Social Climbing" and voting "nay" on "Winds of Change".
• Creepy Mortician: The mortician preparing Janus' body for his wake gleefully ponders how he kicked the bucket.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: 47 can lock Zoe inside a Phoenix effigy and burn her alive, or shove Sophia straight into an iron maiden.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: The Ark Society is a collection of the most rich and powerful people on the planet. Together they could stop any apocalypse they're fretting about, but instead they waste their time buying doomsday bunkers and doing weird club rituals.
• Cutting Off the Branches:
  • A patron discussing how he attended the Heaven and Hell party in Hitman: Blood Money canonically confirms that Vaana Ketlyn was eaten by a shark.
  • No matter what the player does on Sgàil, 47 canonically opens the safe in The Keep, which has a file on The Constant revealing his real name; Arthur Edwards, and Diana uses that name in the cutscene immediately following the mission.
• Dead Person Impersonation: 47 can take the place of the body of Janus whose wake is being held during the meeting, as the event calls for dressing him in a full-body attire and a ceremonial dagger. This allows 47 an opportunity to kill Zoe Washington as each attendee to Janus' wake will approach "Janus" and say a few parting words, with Zoe last after dismissing the guards to tell her true feelings about her predecessor in private — 47 can stab her in the chest for a quiet, unnoticed kill since the nearest potential witness is the blind harp player.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Placing or throwing the torch around the phoenix effigy will instantly alight it and will kill anyone around it. It’ll also compromise 47 if Zoe is set on fire. The torch will also ignite any oil or gas drums it comes into contact with.
  • Depending on how you answer, it’s possible to admit to having no loyalty to Janus or the Washington twins during the lie detector test, causing Zoe to be impressed by 47 being a lone wolf and allowing him into the Ark Society, or act strange and get rejected. It’s also possible for Zoe to unmask 47 as an assassin, immediately turning the level into a hostile area.
• Easter Egg:
  • Killing everyone in the level except the Constant will summon guards dressed in knight armor. They can withstand several shots from high-powered weapons and will get back up if knocked down.
  • If disguised as Blake Nathaniel, 47 can make Constantin follow him. If led into the kitchen's freezer, Constantin has unique dialogue regarding his cousin Winston.
• Electroconvulsive Therapy Is Torture: The initiation trial makes use of an ECT machine as part of Zoe's request to make it more thrilling. Unfortunately for her, said machine is prone to short-circuiting and the wires happen to be near a puddle.
• Et Tu, Brute?: After "learning" that Janus was Lucas Grey's employer, the Providence higher-ups, especially the Constant, feel very betrayed.
• Explosive Leash: The Constant has a kill-chip in his body, with the targets holding the triggers.
• Fictional Province: While the Isle of Sgàil doesn't exist, it's said to be somewhere in the North Atlantic. Judging by the name being gàidhlig, it's apparently a Scottish island, with the Orkneys or Shetlands being the most likely candidates.
• For the Evulz: You can trigger the Constant's killswitch for no reason other than to give yourself a Non-Standard Game Over and complete a challenge. It's appropriately called "Couldn't Resist".
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • If you eliminate Zoe by immolating her in the effigy, the camera cuts to the top of the effigy as the whole thing goes up in flames.
  • If you assassinate Sophia by shoving her into an iron maiden, the camera goes to an overhead view when 47 shoves her in. He then closes the iron maiden and you can't open it again.
• In-Joke: According to Andy Farrant of Outside Xbox fame, he got asked by Sumo Digital (co-developers of this game and the last game's Colorado mission) as to what his least favorite ingredients are to put in a cocktail. He responded with celery, chili, and raw egg, which are found in a cocktail recipe on this map. Andy was then forced to drink it as part of a video.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: The "Entertainer" disguise adds a blindfold over 47's eyes and turns the game black & white. This doesn't affect 47's skills with guns in the slightest.
• Interface Screw: The musician disguise includes a blindfold which turns the screen a shade of grey akin to Instinct mode without the object highlights.
• Island of Mystery: The Isle of Sgàil described as being one of the most secretive places in the world. A custodian near the helipad says that the castle was used by the British Crown to store taxes, before being used as a prison for aristocrats. MI6 briefly used it as a black site for Russian spies, with Janus being held there for a week in 1976.
• Knight's Armor Hideout: Knight armor can be acquired in the Penthouse, allowing 47 to stand motionless on several plinths located around the map. The suit itself also provides extra protection at the cost of being unable to crouch, vault, climb, drop down, and turning the entire map into a hostile area.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When 47 reveals to the Constant that he controls the killswitch to his suicide chip, the Constant doesn't even try to resist. And when he's interrogated by Diana and Lucas, he gladly cooperates since he knows the Partners will want him dead anyway at this point.
• Meaningful Name: "Isle of Sgàil" means "Isle of Shadows" in Gàidhlig, or Scottish Gaelic.
• Mad Lib Thriller Title:
  • "The Scarlett Deceit" is about killing and pacifying the butler in the keep (Scarlett in this context referring to blood).
  • "The Marinello Motivation" is named after Peter Marinello; a Scottish footballer, and the core premise is to kill the archelogical researchers with increased enforcers each time.
  • "The Babayeva Dissonance" is named after the folk tale of "Baba Yaga", and the dissonance refers to the explosions causing Mood Dissonance within the party.
  • "The Aelwin Augment" is named after the Welsh name "Aelwin" (which is a Gaelic language), and "Augment" refers to the Ark Society and its desire to improve on humanity with various kinds of augmentations, which itself is a reference to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and its themes of bio-augmentation.
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: See Knight's Armor Hideout above. 47 can blend in on a number of plinths as a knight armor.
• Non-Standard Game Over: If the Constant is killed. If you do so by deliberately triggering the killswitch, you get the "Couldn't Resist" challenge. Otherwise, the Washington twins will activate it if his security is compromised, or Sophia will do so after confronting him and if Zoe is killed before her.
• Playing Possum: 47 can pretend to be Janus in order to lure Zoe Washington close in and alone for her to Speak Ill of the Dead, and get a dagger to the chest from the supposedly-dead body.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The Washington twins display some very elitist and classist sentiments. Zoe talks about the importance of pedigree during Janus's wake, and Sophia derides the Constant as "reek[ing] of middle class" if her attempt to test his loyalty leads to a confrontation between them.
• Rich Bitch: Sophia and Zoe Washington, big time. Their method of raiding ruins is to just hire a bunch of thugs and lay waste as they make their way to the treasure, without any regard for cultural preservation. They're also Politically Incorrect Villains.
• Sequel Hook: The Constant names the families conspiring behind the scenes and mentions they're now out for Diana. As 47 and Subject 6 set off after the families, the audience is shown that 47 killed Diana's parents.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the unique NPCs in the level, "Blake Nathaniel", is a very unsubtle nod to Nathan Drake, whose parent series itself references Indiana Jones constantly. Hearing him recount his exploits is basically him describing the plot to an Uncharted game.
  • Indiana Jones gets a direct shout out with the "It Belongs in a Museum" Mission Story.
  • The level and the Ark Society as a whole feel like a love letter to the Deus Ex games. Ark's members discuss various things we've seen in the Deus Ex series, such as brain uploading and clone bodies, and you can even obtain a Killswitch. The society consists mainly of people who wish to extend their lives or ensure their survival if a world-ending scenario were to happen, so Bob Page would fit right in. The stage in the public bar in the location also uses the triangle-y aesthetic prominently featured in Mankind Divided. One of the escalations there is called "The Aelwin Augment", so considering the important role bio-augmentations play in the that universe, the chances of it being a coincidence are pretty low.
  • The Ark Society's masks, fancy costumes, and blindfolded musicians are clearly inspired by Eyes Wide Shut. One member even wonders if the musicians think they are "somewhere with a lot more nudity". Despite only being blindfolded, musicians have curiously poor hearing and will not react to gunfire or NPC panic in kill 'em all runs.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Zoe talks poorly to Janus (or "Janus") about his pedigree when she (thinks is) alone as her personal parting words to her predecessor at Janus' wake.
• Sunglasses at Night: Blake, Sophia and Zoe all wear tinted sunglasses, and while Blake never usually goes outside, Sophie and Zoe definitely do, so it's a wonder either of them can see a thing.
• Take That!: The Washington twins are said to be "fortune hunters" with an extremely wealthy father who travels the world in search of thrills and artifacts and show no regard for native life or the destruction they cause. Sounds an awful lot like a certain franchise owned by IOI's previous owners...
• Timed Mission: If the Constant is spooked into fleeing the island, 47 will then have 5 minutes to assassinate both the Washington sisters before they activate the kill switch.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • One Mission Story involves Zoe thinking it's a good idea to place herself inside a massive effigy and set it on fire to impress her audience. All it takes is one locked door for things to end horribly...
  • Zoe can also be taunted into standing on top of a puddle with a live wire during an Electric Torture interrogation just as she demands that the machine be turned to full power.
  • Sophia attempting blackmail after having sent her guards away and facing towards an open iron maiden.
• Wham Shot: A big one; The Constant teases to Diana that 47 is not one she can trust, and the audience is shown exactly why; 47 was the one that detonated the car bomb that killed Diana's parents. Also a case of All There in the Manual as this was revealed in the Birth of the Hitman comic in late-2017, but it was never directly addressed in the games until now.
• White Mask of Doom: The vast majority of civilians in the level wear some sort of white masquerade mask, with the Original Five having a gold skeleton mask at the front and a full face mask on the back of their robes. Among the exceptions are both Washington twins, the Constant and Blake Nathaniel.

DLC Locations

New York: "Golden Handshake"

With the Constant captured, the "Partners", the true powers behind Providence, start to cover their tracks, starting with the staged deaths of members of its three ruling families, Marcus Stuyvesant, Carl Ingram and Alexa Carlisle. Luckily for 47, Diana Grey, and Olivia, the coverup is recent enough that their names are still recorded in the New York City branch of the Milton-Fitzpatrick Bank. 47 is tasked to retrieve the data by either carrying out the data core from the vault, or taking three backup drives from branch director Athena Savalas, head of security Mateo Perez, and head of accounts Fabian Mann. Crucially, Savalas is also a Providence operative, so as a bonus 47 is also tasked with killing her to cover their tracks.

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• Air-Vent Passageway: Lampshaded and averted; if you loosen an air-vent's grate, Diana will comment that she knows what you're thinking, but that "you won't fit." Items, however, can be dropped into vents and retrieved from wherever they emerge.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The mission was made with two ways of getting the data on The Partners' accounts. You either break into the vault and steal the data core, or you steal partial backups of the data core from Athena, Mateo, and Fabian individually. This was even an Invoked Trope by the developers, who mention that this was done because they wanted to avoid the problem of the ETHER Virus in 2016's "World of Tomorrow" mission, as it was a mandatory objective that funnelled people to the caves to destroy it, and it was a constant player sore point.
• Bank Robbery: You have to steal data by either stealing three backup drives or by entering the bank vault and stealing the banks data core. There's also a group of unrelated bank robbers that you can come across. Despite not being a heist mission per se, the level gives off a strong vibe to that effect. Furthermore, one of the escalation missions is a straight-up robbery, with no deaths required.
• Big Red Button: Pressing one is the final step in opening the vault doors. The button is located on a freestanding pedestal directly in front of the vault doors, shielded under a metal guard that can only be raised with a one-of-a-kind keycard - itself kept locked in a safe...
• Bland-Name Product: The "MuchTalk" company mentioned by an NPC to Ruby Red, the reporter seems to borrow its name from "TalkTalk", a broadband company in the United Kingdom. However, Haven Island reveals it’s actually a social network similar to Twitter.
• The Caper: The mission entails 47 stealing data from a highly-secure bank vault.
• Callback: Jason Portman, the tech genius and founder of Quantum Leap from Hokkaido, gets mentioned by an NPC talking to Ruby Red, the reporter, about the "MuchTalk" data scandal that he apparently was involved in.
• Caper Crew: 47, Diana, Lucas Grey, and Hall all plan to rob the titular bank. Also the Constant if you're feeling generous.
• Conspicuous Trenchcoat: 47 wears one as his starting outfit, coming in from the rainy streets of New York.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The briefing is shot in the style of the "Patient Zero" cinematic, which includes not only the plane that 47 uses to get around, but 47 disassembling and reassembling his pistol (something he did during those briefings). It also appears to be rendered in-engine, as it ditches the moving comic-book-esque stills, and has gone back to using 2016-style full motion video.
  • The IT department has various posters and other junk referring the past games' levels:
    • There’s a "The Icon" poster showing off Dino Bosco's "Icon" superhero from the mission of the same name from 2016/Legacy Pack.
    • One of the IT technicians is wearing pink slippers, identical to the ones worn by the flamingo mascots in Miami.
    • A level from an old IOI game; "Freedom Fighters", is being played on the TV in the IT Office that both Technicians play on, a shout out to both the game itself, and a similar gag where the hackers in the Colorado level play "Kane and Lynch" with the Colorado mission itself being called "Freedom Fighters".
  • Two of the commemorative tokens from the Isle of Sgàil can be found on display in Savalas' office, while a third can be found inside the vault.
  • A pair of burial daggers identical to the one used in Janus's funeral can also be found in the level; one is inside the vault while the second is in a safe deposit box.
  • The TV's on this level show a baseball game in progress, specifically the New York Tigers against the Hokkaido Fowl Play. The latter is the baseball team that is shown in the office of Akira Nakamura, the Director of the Hokkaido GAMA Facility.
• Destination Defenestration: One of the ways Savalas can be killed is to either sabotage her office window so the pane of glass she leans on gives way, or 47 can take matters into his own hands and push her through it.
  • Additionally, one of the secret achievements is called "Defenestration" and if its conditions are met (cause a stock market crash; throw Savalas out her office window) 47 can exit the map by opening a window and leaping out of it.
• Developer's Foresight: The dislodged section of Savalas's office window functions like a falling object, and thus can kill an NPC if they happen to be underneath the window when it's pushed off. In fact, if you position 47 correctly, it's possible for him to be crushed to death as well.
• Disc-One Nuke: The new recruit disguise gives you the run of pretty much the entire level, excluding zero access areas such as the vault and the CEO's office, with no enforcers who can recognize you (since, as a new recruit, it makes sense that no one would realize you're not who you're supposed to be because no one actually knows you). You do have to pass a fairly easy logic puzzle side quest to use the disguise, though.
• Easter Egg:
  • Getting a golden idol from deposit box 557 by using that deposit box's original specific key, while wearing the levels' trench-coat attire, then placing it on a black stand nearby, and entering, then exiting the crate next to the stand will make the screen get tinted grey, 47 will now be wearing a fedora, and the music will change from the normal music to music from The Icon, reminiscent of the Film Noir genre.
  • Crashing the stock market while disguised as an investment banker then pushing Savalas out of the window in her office while disguised as the fired employee will unlock a secret exit, in which 47 jumps out of a second floor window. This will net the player the "Defenestration" achievement.
  • Stealing all of the gold bars from the bank vault while disguised as a bank robber will cause a stack of such bars to appear out of a golden mist in the center of the vault, with a golden sawed-off shotgun sitting on top of the pile. The bank robber disguise's bunny mask will also turn gold.
• Evil Is Petty: The investment banker Savalas fires met all his quotas - the primary reason she gives for his termination is his dress sense, since this particular employee wore a knitted sweater to work.
• Gimmick Level: Sedatives/ sedating people is a common theme in this level^note making the buff to sedatives in update 2.21, which was three months prior to the Bank releasing, make a whole lot more sense, oddly enough. The only silent way into the vault relies on you using sedative poison or chloroform to sedate guards watching the vault entrance via pouring the stuff in a nearby air ventilation system. A Kalmer 1 tranquilliser dart gun can be found in the IT Department, seemingly to use on the two IT guys in there, the water puddles with caution signs sedate people when they slip on them.
• Inhuman Resources: The H.R. Department of the Milton-Fitzpatrick Bank under Athena hire the most cutthroat employees they can. 47's interview would leave most running for their lives, but the two interviewers are nothing but impressed and hire him on the spot.
• Inkblot Test: One extended method of getting past the security measures in the bank is to get legitimately hired there, and in a crucial part of the interview process, you're given a series of inkblot tests to determine your personality and where you'll fit in. This is important as there's a correct series of answers to give that will get you the highest-level clearance, and they're actually hidden in plain sight^note Specifically, the three portraits in the background of a pile of money, a bullseye, and an eagle represent the correct answers to give towards which prompt. Nonetheless, whichever ones you pick, Agent 47's interpretations are... interesting.
  47: [I see] a carcass. The scene is reflected in a pool of blood flowing from the body. It's a vulture, feeding on someone else's kill.
  Interviewer 1: That's... very graphic, Mr. Thomas.
  47: Yes. Brutal, even.
  Interviewer 1: Riiiiight...
  Interviewer 2: Hm, very interesting observation, Mr. Thomas. Not what we expected, but that's perfectly fine!
• Intrepid Reporter: One known as Ruby Red can be found in the bank's atrium. Giving her the Cronkite report will result in her exposing the documents online, resulting in Milton-Fitzpatrick's stocks crashing instantly.
• Irony: A vault guard mentions his father, a member of the Freemasons, believing that Savalas is part of a secret group controlling the world, but believes its too farfetched. Freemasons have often been subject to conspiracy theories about being a Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy.
• It's Personal: Placing the Cronkite report next to an investor looking for signs of fraudulent activity will cause her to discover that the bank had foreclosed on her mother's house years prior. She decides to expose the bank, even after Savalas threatens to shoot her for doing so.
• Knockout Gas: This quickest and easiest method of pacifying all the elite guards in the vault security room^note a necessity in order to access the vault undetected is to pour a sedative into the HVAC system and turn on the room's air conditioning. There's even a bottle of chloroform conveniently stashed in a nearby cabinet.
• Meaningful Name: The mission is named after a "Golden Handshake", an expression derived from a "Golden Parachute", in which a leader is compensated heavily for stepping down from their position.
• Mythology Gag: The mission plays similarly to the mission "Traditions of the Trade" from Codename 47 and Contracts, in that 47 has to kill his target(s) and carry a suspicious item out of the building. While there are exit options that don't require one, using a briefcase to smuggle the data core out of the building is very much an option.
  • One of the obituaries of the Partners shown in the briefing contains a take on one of the series' memetic sentences: "Allan, please add more details."
• Real-Place Background: The interior of the bank's lobby is very clearly based on the iconic interior of the Central Savings Bank in New York City, with its high arched ceiling, central enclosed area for tellers, massive chandeliers, and so on.
• Plot Device: The data core server rack. They need to track down the names of The Partners accounts, and so need the data on that server rack to know where to look and find all The Partners' assets. Interestingly, the internal name for the data core lists it as a "Macguffin", which by this wiki's definition, it doesn't qualify for (the data rack is not a random object that could be swapped out easily for anything else, and while it is obviously valuable, it's only desirable to them as it contains specific pieces of data needed to track The Parners' assets, and is thus unique and necessary to further the story).
• Plot Coupon: The partial server backup disks Athena, Fabian, and Mateo carry individually, and all three partial backups are needed if the player goes this route of collecting the backup data of the bank. When combined, they make up the full data backup of the Bank's records, which Olivia can use to track down The Partners' accounts.
• Retirony: Possible depending on the player's choices, as two characters are depicted as about to leave the bank's employ. Both can of course be killed, and both also have mission stories and/or challenges that involve messing with them to varying degrees on their last day.
  • For a classic example we have Frank, the hatless, curly haired guard. A bottle of vodka specifically described as being for his retirement party can be found in one of the break rooms.
  • For a less traditional example we have the investment banker about to be fired for nothing more than his poor fashion sense.
• Ripped from the Headlines: One death for Athena involves an "accident" where she leans on her office's window, and the glass panel just happens to be loose. This is similar to 1993 Darwin Awards winner Garry Hoy, including how the frame breaks, instead of the glass itself, and how the dead person is a critical senior member of their company. Also, the real-world building was built for and named after its anchor tenant: TD Bank.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Both Athena and Fabian have tried to orchestrate a break-in to hide a file containing incriminating details on what the former has done before someone else can expose the bank. 47 can find the file and hand it to an investigative reporter, resulting in the company being exposed and instantly dropping in stocks.
• Shout-Out:
  • The "Space Conflict" movie posters have a Darth Vader-like character on the background and a Composite Character of Luke Skywalker and Star-Lord on the foreground.
  • Successfully breaking into the bank's vault will net the player the "Ocean's 47" challenge.
• Smug Snake: Athena is hugely smug about her position, and muses about how everyone below her is just cattle. She even watches her staff from a window to keep an eye on them all. All she's missing is a Reverse Arm-Fold.
• Slippery Skid: Taking away the "Caution: Wet!" signs and causing a distraction with the sign will make anyone slip up and get knocked out, similar to the rakes in Whittleton Creek. They will act sedated, not knocked out, so anyone found when they slipped up will not void Silent Assassin.
• Take That, Audience!: A person is constantly badgering a security desk about missing his briefcase, and keeps asking for him to check again...and again....and again. He seems really fond of it.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: In this level, specifically, Athena has her favorite vodka that is sitting in the security office on ground level.
• Tick Tock Tune: The music for the level has various sound effects relating to clocks, especially when you're in the vault area.
• Treachery Cover-Up: The traitor being the Constant of course. Members of the three families the Ingrams, the Carlisles, and the Stuyvesants quickly fake their deaths as a contingency plan not even the Constant was aware of.

Haven Island: "The Last Resort"

Now that Olivia has managed to extract the data 47 retrieved from New York, the "Partners"' money has been traced to "HAVEN", a service specializing in creating new identities for wealthy criminals, based on the same-named resort island in the Maldives. 47 infiltrates HAVEN under the alias "Tobias Rieper", a 90s jewel thief, in order to assassinate three of HAVEN's higher-ups: Tyson Williams, the tyrannical CEO; Steven Bradley, the technical expert; and Ljudmila Vetrova, conwoman and client handler. Killing them will allow Olivia to obtain the Partners' names, as well as their potential plans.

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• Ambiguous Situation: What exactly is in the USB drive is unknown. While Vetrova says it contains her information during her final meeting with 47, she tells Bradley that it contains "Tyson's personal data", meaning she's lying to either one, or both of them.
• Animal Motif: Stingrays. The HAVEN promo video heavily features a stingray as part of their logo, while the decor is also furnished with stingrays as well. It's also the internal codename for the level.
• Artistic License – Biology: One way of forcing Portman out of his hut is to place food on a plate and taking away the gluten-free placard next to it, resulting in him feeling ill and heading to the clinic. This works even if an apple or a fish (neither of which contain gluten) are put on the plate.
• Ascended Meme: The subtitles for Diana announcing the targets in this mission have her signature "That" written entirely in capital letters to denote the emphasis she has on the word in her character introductions.
• Banana Peel: Bananas can be found throughout the map and can be dropped or thrown to become banana peels on the ground, causing people to slip and end up unconscious. However, unlike the Wet Floor signs from New York and the Rake from Whittleton Creek, bodies aren't sedated and will therefore void Silent Assassin, although this has been fixed in Hitman 3.
• Big Storm Episode: Killing any two targets or waiting long enough will unleash an oncoming storm onto the island.
• Call-Back:
  • One way of killing Steven Bradley involves crushing him with a bench press while he works out, which was one of the ways 47 could eliminate Carmine DeSalvo in Hitman: Blood Money. Both levels also take place in private facilities catering to criminals.
  • Tyson Williams can be drowned in his hot tub while he's in a speedo, similar to the canonical way of killing Fritz Fuch in Hitman: Codename 47.
• Coconut Meets Cranium: You can do this to several NPCs on the island, either by shooting down a pile of coconuts from a palm tree (which kills them), or by throwing a singular one at their head (which knocks them out). Do this enough times to unlock an Easter Egg that unleashes an ice anvil instead of coconuts from above.
• Collection Sidequest: There are a few challenges in this mission involving collecting specific things; Finding all 11 Haven Pamphlets, finding all 8 Pieces of Intelligence, and finding all four Hut Keys.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Once again, Jason Portman makes a return, and the previously hinted at MuchTalk controversy from Golden Handshake is elaborated on here. The poor guy also has Ljudmila and Steven trying to steal his code from his computer.
  • The Red Light Room in Tyson's private villa has a load of "The Icon" merchandise, such as a large figurine of Dino Bosco, various posters, and mugs.
  • There’s a small callback to the Birth of the Hitman comic series, where 47 and Subject 6 say the below as the last words of the cinematic, which was essentially their mantra from when they were younger to free themselves (and others) from "The Institute":
  Subject 6: "Time to fulfill our purpose, 47"
  47: "To take them all down..."
• The Cracker: Steven is attempting to hack Jason Portmans computer in-between his fitness routine.
• Double-Meaning Title: The mission name refers to the titular Haven Island resort, in addition to 47 obtaining the Partners' new identities before Haven removes them.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A pamphlet advertising an island retreat in the Maldives called "HAVEN" can be found in the teller offices of the Milton-Fitzpatrick Bank in "Golden Handshake". HAVEN was also listed as one of Ken Morgan's clients in his briefing.
• Easter Egg: Stepping on the scale in 47's hut will cause the display to read 47.00, a gag lifted straight from Bangkok, Hokkaido, and Hawke's Bay.
• Elaborate Underground Base: A server farm sits underneath Tyson Williams' villa that hosts all the capabilities that Haven needs to manage their customers' image.
• Empathic Environment: As you assassinate your targets, the initially idyllic weather of the resort shifts to a cloudy storm.
• Enemy Mine: Ljudmila is unintentionally doing this with 47. She knows that "Tobias Rieper" has talents related to theft and wants him to retrieve a USB stick from Tyson's mansion. If 47 does this, Ljudmila promises him 50% off the island's services, and throws in a free massage, granting 47 access to the spa in his normal attire and allowing for several assassination opportunities.
• Evil Plan: Ljudmila intends on conning HAVEN by killing Tyson, stealing a USB stick full of information, hacking into Jason Portman's computer with the help of Steven, wiping her and Steven's names from every database, then cutting off Steven to meet a man in Paris.
• Fictional Province:
  • The Maldives consists of lots of small islands, but none called "Haven Island".
  • An inebriated woman loudly complains to her husband about their shoe business going under, and mentions that some of the shoes that were sold went to a shoe shop in Sapienza, and mentions that she's never heard of the place, and makes fun of the name, among other things. This is a nice In-Joke, as Sapienza isn't a real place in Italy in the real world, though IOI based Sapienza in large part by other Italian fishing towns that do look similar.
• Foreshadowing:
  • On the Isle of Sgàil, you can open a safe in the castle and read the stashed letter, which reveals the Constant's real name; Arthur Edwards. This comes up at the end of this mission's cinematic as Olivia discovers that Providence's financial assets have been transferred to Edwards, who has just escaped from captivity.
  • Pamphlets for Haven Island can be found on the whistleblower's desk in the Milton-Fitzpatrick Bank in New York.
• Jerk Jock: Steven balances his hacking of Jason Portman's computer with his jogging and fitness routine, and boasts about it to everyone.
• Laughably Evil: Some of the clients are so odious and idiotic that it's hard to take them seriously, despite the heinous crimes they have committed. The clients include an elderly couple who set up a pyramid scheme selling toxic clay from their yard as ancient cosmetics, a woman who killed her assistant for suggesting to put down her chronically-ill cat (who ended up living another six years "in excruciating pain"), and a serial killer with an incredibly monotonous voice whose girlfriend is completely dismissive of his heinous acts.
• Lighter and Softer: To "Golden Handshake". The level is much more relaxing and less condensed than the bank and the targets are more goofy and comedic than the loathsome Savalas and the NPC's are more Laughably Evil than the ruthless, greedy, or naive dezizens of the New York bank, meaning that the atmosphere is less depressing, regardless if shit hits the fan or not.
• Mad Lib Thriller Title: "The Bartholomew Hornswoggle" is named after Bartholomew Roberts, and "Hornswoggle" means to get the better of someone by deception or cheating. The escalation is all about being a pirate and shooting unsuspecting targets with a cannonball.
• Meaningful Name: Asides from being a very common title for resort-themed media, it's also in reference to how Grey considers killing the targets a last resort as, while they are all bad people, they only get killed because of pragmatism as Olivia needs to hack their serves, and them being alive halts that goal.
• Palmtree Panic: Agent 47 goes to the tropical destination of the Maldives this time around to assassinate three targets around an idyllic island surrounded by white beaches.
• Pool Scene: As expected from an ultra-luxurious tropical resort, there's a pool complete with a swim-up bar. Ljudmila often passes this area to take a sip from a tiki cup on her usual route.
• Shout-Out:
  • The idea of a tropical luxury resort which is secretly an underworld operation for wealthy outlaws to obtain new identities seems to be a direct reference to the James Bond film Die Another Day.
  • Once again, Freedom Fighters (2003) seems to be the game of choice the guards play in the security rec room, similar to the IT department in Golden Handshake also playing the game.
  • Under specific circumstances, a Moosenado can appear near Steven Bradley's private island.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: The "Don't Try the Buffet" achievement requires getting all three targets to eat some form of ingested poison. Ljudmila can be served a poisoned drink or a squid dish can be prepared in the restaurant^note The player must knock out the chef after he calls her. If any chef is present, Ljudmila will have him taste the dish first, similar to how Vanya Shah in Mumbai has her assistant taste her tea before drinking it herself. Steven must be served a poisoned drink, Tyson can be served a poisoned cheeseburger or have his medicine poisoned.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: This level is the only one to have double-length sightcones on all the guards. Word of God said this was to combat the maps' small size and archaic, windy nature, and noted it looked quite silly for 47 to not be discovered trespassing in places where guards should really be able to see him.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene: Justified, as the vast majority of the vacationers, Ljudmila, as well as Tyson all wear swimwear throughout the very hot climate present in this level. 47 is also offered a swimsuit in his quarters consisting of pink trunks and an open shirt^note This allows him to act as "Tobias Rieper" if the player picks a starting location that begins the game in a disguise.
• Wham Episode: Olivia finally tracks down the names of the Partners but also notices that all their shares in Providence's financial assets have been transferred to the Constant, who’s just escaped from captivity. Meanwhile, Lucas lies to 47 about Olivia having told them everything has gone according to plan, implying that he and the Constant might be in cahoots.
• Wham Line: "Who is Arthur Edwards?"

Ghost Mode

Ghost Mode

• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Killing 100 targets in Ghost Mode netted you the "Phantom suit", a black suit with purple shirt, grey tie and black gloves. As the multiplayer servers shuttered on August 31st, 2020, it's not possible to obtain it legitimately anymore.
• Announcer Chatter: Lots of it. You and the other player heard an omnipresent announcer who comments on everything. When your enemy did certain actions, such as when they changed disguise, when they died, or if they took the lead, then you can be sure that she'd let you know about it.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • All the doors were unlocked in this mode, making getting around a map significantly easier than in the main game.
  • The supply drop cases never changed their location from game to game, and some supply drop cases consistently gave out the same items. For example, the case in the parking garage in Miami always gave out disguises (Normally Ted Mendez and/ or the Kronstadt Engineer).
• Alternate Universe: You and one other person raced against each other to kill the same person in separate parallel universes, while an overseeing announcer announced your progress to one another.
• Competitive Multiplayer: The first form in the series. Players had to race each other to silently kill random targets in parallel universes of the same map while remaining completely unnoticed.
• Continuing is Painful: Even if the player was killed after entering combat with guards, the disguise they wore will continue to be compromised for the duration of the match.
• Cosmetic Award: The "Phantom Suit", as described above, which was yours for killing 100 targets in this game mode.
• Cosmic Plaything: There were five people who were able to be targets in Ghost Mode, and once they get killed, they didn't stay dead for long, and return to a randomized location, only to be hunted down by you and the other player again:
  • Adam Utkin: an albino haired man wearing yellow tinted spectacles and a heavy light grey trench coat.
  • Ankit Adesso: a dapper albino wearing a blue dinner jacket and a white suit.
  • Darnell Hunt: a grey flat cap wearing a grey shirt, flat cap and wearing modern glasses.
  • Mark Chase: a white hat-wearing gentleman, who wears a blue tie, sunglasses, and a dinner jacket.
  • Terou Akahoshi: a white hat-wearing, spectacle wearing, Asian man with a penchant for white suits.
• Cosplay: You got to choose which suit you start with, so you could kill the listed targets above while dressed as Santa 47, or Corky the Clown, or a blue Flamingo if you wanted to.
• Crack Defeat: If you killed any target 4 times in a row, but started losing your lead for whatever reason (someone witnessed pacification of the target, or you got mowed down by guards for example), then you were able to lose the fifth point. And then you lost the match.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: It wasn't unheard of for players to overlook some parts of a map that normally have locked doors, not realizing that doors were unlocked on this mode, including doors that open with keycards, as well as the Delgado mansions' front door. This, naturally caught people off guard, as you may not think of a route that would otherwise be blocked off by requiring the key or keycard due to the game you were otherwise playing.
• Death from Above: There was nothing stopping you from killing your target with a sniper rifle when they're on the ground level, and you were on top of, say, a bridge. So long as the body wasn't found, it was fair game.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Oddly, the game itself was this to Ghost Mode. There was no logical reason for all doors to be unlocked, or for ghost crates existing asides from "It wouldn't be fun".
• I Fought the Law and the Law Won: If (more likely, when) you went openly loud after a particular messy hit, then the local law enforcement/guards would attempt to bring you down rather quickly. They succeeded if you died.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Ghost Proximity Explosive. It explodes when your opponent came close to it, and emitted a smoke effect to tell the opponent where it was. However, as mundane as it appears to be compared to other items found in ghost crates, this was used to block off certain doorways and otherwise hard-to-reach areas for the rest of the game. This was especially problematic on Santa Fortuna, where the game has a handful of tunnel exits and entrances that effectively blocks them off when you place it down.
• Infinity -1 Sword:
  • The Ghost Flash Grenade. It had only one use; to blind you opponent temporarily, which can be mostly avoided by turning away from the source before it goes off. It was more used as a distraction, rather than for any tactical advantage.
  • The Jaeger 7 Tuatara. This was the only sniper rifle in Ghost Mode, and wasn't really all that useful as it's a long range weapon, not great for taking out a target that cannot be spotted for ten seconds. Why take a Sniper Rifle when a handgun is smaller, concealable (there are no briefcases in Ghost Mode to put the sniper rifle in), and could be fired significantly quicker. Amusingly, the weapon can be unlocked in Haven Island to be used permanently by completing all the mission stories on Haven Island, making the original mode it came from completely redundant.
• Loophole Abuse The rules of the mode states that you cannot kill non-targets, or you'll lose a point for each non-target killed. However, you start at zero points, and a viable strategy was killing a person for their disguise, and still gaining the point afterwards should you kill the target. The games' point counter doesn't go into the minus numbers.
• Not the Intended Use: Proximity Mines can be used to block off pathways, which wasn't a huge problem in Miami, where alternate routes exist for pretty much every part of the map, but it's a massive Game-Breaker in Santa Fortuna, where you can deny access to the tunnels by placing one down.
• Only Six Faces: Played straight for the targets, and for good reason. While the targets all looked different face-wise from one another, they are deliberately wearing similar clothes, with them all sharing the same color scheme. Most of them wore hats, they all wore white clothes, and with a blue accessory. This was done for the sakes of identification should either player have Instinct turned off, and also to make it so that none of the targets blended in with the locals of a given map.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Prior to Update 2.11, the security cameras in Miami could be disabled from their normal place on the map, however, after the update, the downstairs security footage box in Miami was removed so that players wouldn't immediately disable it if they started in, or near, the parking garage (which was quite common).
• Perpetual Beta: The gamemode was Still in beta, one year after release before the doors to the game mode were closed at the end of August.
• Power-Up: Six unique items could be found in Ghost Crates:
  • Ghost Freeze Grenade: Slows down your opponent for a short amount of time.
  • Ghost Coin: Created a distraction in both worlds. Afterwards, a classic coin would spawn wherever the ghost coin landed.
  • Ghost Flash Grenade: Temporarily blinded and disoriented your opponent.
  • Ghost Outfit Manipulator: This simultaneously changed both you and your opponent's outfit to a random outfit found in that level (Security Guard to Chef, for example).
  • Ghost Proximity Explosive: This would trigger in your opponent's world if they come near it. It emits red smoke to make it more visible to your opponent.
  • Jaeger 7 Tuatara: The only sniper rifle available in Ghost Mode.
• Punny Name: Three of the names are puns:
  • Mark Chase - as in, you track down your Mark, and Chase them around the level.
  • Darnell Hunt - Darnell could be derived from two old english words for hidden and nook; "Derne", and "hahl". Hunt is obviously referring to you Hunting him down in the level.
  • Ankit Adesso - His first name means "marked" in Sanskrit. Adesso is Italian for "now", meaning the name translates as "Marked Now".
• Respawn Point: In Miami, The bathrooms, of all places. Whether or not it's a nod to 47's memetic phrase of "I need to use the bathroom", or if it's just because bathrooms are away from most of the action is open for guesses. In Columbia it was a random spot on the map, normally bridges or huts.
• Temporary Online Content: Unfortunately, the servers were shut down on August 31st, 2020, about four months before the release of Hitman 3, so anything specifically tied to the game mode, like the challenges, the targets (Ankit, Mark, Terou and Darnell are exclusive to this mode) as well as the unlockable Phantom Suit can no longer be obtained within this game (the suit is returning in Hitman 3, however).
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Encouraged, like in the main game. If (or more likely, when) everything went belly up, it was better to knock out the guards that were attacking you, rather than killing them, otherwise you would lose points. Dying, then respawning does not make you lose any points, so you can use this to your advantage.
• They Killed Kenny Again: The targets were chosen from a pool of five people (see above), and they kept appearing and reappearing in a random order, and a random location on the map each time one was killed.
• Token Minority: Darnell Hunt was the only Ghost Mode target to be black, while Terou Akhoshi was the only Asian.
• Unstable Equilibrium: Any disguises that are compromised during a match would remain compromised and therefore much harder to use until the match ended, forcing players to find other disguises.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: One point is deducted from a player's score for each non-target killed. However, if you kill Non-Targets before you gained any points, the counter wouldn't budge below zero, so you were able to kill a person for their disguise, and still gain a point afterwards if you killed the target.

Sniper Assassin

In General

• Ascended Extra: Of the "Sniper Challenge" Preorder Bonus from Absolution; the original Sniper Challenge featured a single level, and existed more as a way to kill time than anything else. Not only does this Sniper Challenge mode have multiple levels, but it also allows co-op multiplayer as well.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: You can make cars explode, as in the main game, by repeatedly shooting at them. It'll take a lot longer to achieve, but it is possible.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Averted. You only have three rifles, and all are separated from each other, exclusive to their respective maps. The "Sieger 300 Ghost", specific to Himmelstein, the "ICA Druizhina Ghost", exclusive to Hantu port, and the "ICA Druizhina 34 Arctic", specific to Siberia. The latter rifle can be unlocked at Mastery level 20 to be used in the main game, while the Sieger 300 Ghost is a GOTY Legacy Pack unlock.
• Immune to Bullets:
  • Averted. Part of the mission is finding destructible "accident kills", such as breaking lamps that are near water to form an electric puddle.
  • Literally the case should an evacuation start, as guards can't kill you due to how far away you are.
• Level Grinding: Reaching Mastery level 20 on these maps takes a long time, even with a good point multiplier and the silent assassin rating. It's possible — if not likely — that by the time you've completed most challenges in a given level, as well as have learned the level inside out, you'll still have up to 10 mastery levels to go. Eventually even the 1,000,000 points required for a trophy/achievement won't be enough to fill a single mastery level. Usually, the grind isn't a big deal as each map's unlockables are only used in that map, but Siberia awards you a new sniper rifle (ICA Druizhina 34 Arctic) that can be used in the main game at mastery level 20.
• Limited Loadout: You can only choose one sniper rifle for each mission. There are, however, multiple sniper rifles to unlock per location.
• Moe Greene Special: You can invoke this by aiming at a targets eye. That's assuming you can account for wind.
• Moving Target Bonus: A kill shot on a moving target scores extra points. A moving target that gets shot in the head is worth even more.
• Nintendo Hard: The AI in this mode is much, much more paranoid than in the main game. To give a few examples, public accident kills are treated the exact same way as any kill is, the targets spend most of their time in public areas, and, being a sniper mission, the scope is constantly moving about, and you need to lead the targets to various places via distractions. Practically anything visibly out of the ordinary triggers an evacuation. Combined with the 15 minute time limit, obtaining the silent assassin rank - heck, even beating these levels - takes a lot of planning and improvisation.
• No "Arc" in "Archery": Played straight, as you have to take into account bullet drop due to gravity when shooting over the longer distance Sniper Assassin deals with (Unlike in the main game, where the trope is subverted for most weapons). Levelling up the weapon in a level reduces the bullet drop, as well as how much wind compensation you have to account for.
• One-Man Army: 47, naturally. You're pitted against 20 targets (up to 4 of which are your main targets), and you have to kill all of them as quietly as possible. Averted in Co-op mode for obvious reasons, but the odds are still stacked against you.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Averted, as no sniper shot dealt will be treated as a mere injury that can be walked off, even if you aim at a persons left foot, the wound will be fatal and will kill instantly. Curiously, the main games explosion rules still apply, so anyone at the edge of the blast radius of certain explosives will be knocked down or pacified, but not killed.
• Pink Mist: Blood and cartilage shoots out a wound should you kill someone.
• Save Scumming: Averted, as Sniper Assassin levels don't let you save, unlike the main missions the game offers.
• Sniper Rifle: Duh. As you play more of a sniper assassin level, you get new perks for that levels-specific sniper rifle, such as more bullets that can pierce walls, reduced wind compensation, and more.
• Sniper Scope Sway: Played with. When you aim normally, this happens. However, using "focus" mode will slow down the scope sway.
• Sniping Mission: Every Mission in Sniper Assassin is a sniping mission, go figure. You're encouraged to use your sniper rifle to make quiet kills, and to occasionally using it to layout clever traps, such as explosives and creating electric puddles.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Explosives are present in both Himmelstein and Hantu Port, so this definitely counts, and can be used to the players' advantage.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Played with, as ever, but in this case, the AI is more aware of their surroundings, so a noisy kill will make everyone evacuate if everyone sees the body. However, shooting near someone will make them to go to the source of the shot, then go back to whatever they were doing after a short while. You can also string these shots together to lure them away from a crowded area.
• Third-Person Shooter: Whenever you're not scoped into your sniper rifle, the player views the world in a 3rd person perspective.
• Timed Mission: Unlike most other missions in the franchise^note :"The Author" mission from Hitman 2016's Patient Zero campaign is the exception, but you can avert it if you're clever enough, the targets on this mode are only in the level for 15 minutes before leaving. However, the timer actually only applies to the main targets, and the timer can be expanded by killing them and triggering the alarm. If this happens, the mission will end only after every guard dies or escapes, and since all of the guard targets are optional and evacuate one at a time, the mission can be prolonged by a whopping 10 minutes if you just ignore them and, say, look for the various collectables and easter eggs.
• Trigger-Happy: If an enemy sees you kill someone, and starts an evacuation, bullets will start raining your way. However, you cannot get hurt from the bullets.
• The Voiceless: You can't hear any of the guards or targets on the map, because you're so far away from them, but you can hear their guns go off should you go loud. There are exceptions, such as the para-glider NPC once he jumps off one of the mountains in "The Last Yardbird", but that's pretty much it.
• When All You Have Is A Sniper Rifle...: You can use your sniper shots to set up traps around the map, as well as to bait the targets to secluded locations.

Himmelstein: "The Last Yardbird"

Several years ago, a group of five thieves known as the "Yardbirds" pulled off a daring heist at the Shamal Casino in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, their loot belonged to a cartel, which started ruthlessly tracking down the money. Feeling the noose tighten, they agreed to hide the money and lie low until the trail went cold, or until only one Yardbird remains. With the death of Kalvin "The Sparrow" Ritter several years earlier, however, Aleksander Kovak, founder of the Yardbirds, has decided to cash in on the loot, and has thus contracted the ICA to eliminate the three other survivors: Dorian "Red Robin" Lang, Guillaume "Kingfisher" Maison, and Doris "Goldfinch" Lee. The three rarely convene together, but the hit takes place at Maison's palatial home in Himmelstein, Austria, which is hosting the wedding of Lang's daughter Elizabeth, with Lee as a special guest, providing a window of opportunity. In addition, the local security are also to be assassinated.

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• All for Nothing: Aleksander Kovak put out the hit on his former cohorts, but according to a TV news report during "Nightcall", Kovak was arrested almost immediately after the hit because he tried converting all the money at once into Bitcoin, which authorities found suspicious since it matched the total amount the Yardbirds made in their final heist.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Playing this level in Hitman 3 and completing the challenge "Faster than Rocco" nets you the Sniper Challenge suit, which is basically the Signature suit with Gloves, minus the jacket 47 wears. It was likely modelled on the outfit 47 wears during Absolution in the mode of the same name (minus the gun holster).
• Call-Back: The briefing contains two:
  • The targets are three members of the Yardbirds, a notorious team of robbers, of which Kalvin "The Sparrow" Ritter was a member of before his death. A mockup of Ritter's murder was the first tutorial of this game, the previous game, and Hitman 3.
  • The Yardbirds became infamous for their daring robbery of the Shamal Casino in Las Vegas, where they made off with hundreds of millions of dollars. 47 carried out an unrelated contract in the same casino in Hitman: Blood Money.
• Call-Forward: The briefing has an Australian newspaper talking about the death of Kalvin Ritter. One of the columns on that page mentions that Kronstadt just got a new CEO; referring to Robert Knox, who becomes a target of 47 in "The Finish Line", two missions later.
• Caper Crew: The targets are three of five members of a now-disbanded one.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Aleksander effectively stabbed his old crew in the back to take all the loot for himself, and since he was dumb enough to convert the entire score into crypto at once, he's arrested and left without a cent of it.
• Tontine: After robbing a dangerous organized crime group and facing retaliation, the Yardbirds decided to hide the loot and give it to the last surviving member since by then the heat would have died down. Naturally, your client is one of the Yardbirds and wants the others eliminated to claim the money.
• Videogame Cruelty Potential: One of the achievements is to wreck the wedding of Elizabeth Lang by destroying the bouquet, wedding orchestra's instruments and cake, along with wrecking the lighting rig for the wedding photos, releasing the doves early and destroying the priest's glass of wine. The fact you also have to kill her father is just the perfect ending to making it the worst day of her life.

Singapore: "The Pen and the Sword"

Two days ago, Han Ldong, former national poet of Khandanyang turned defector, was kidnapped with his wife Mina from their hideout in the USA by agents of the Heavenly Guard, the military elite of Khandanyang, where they’ll be smuggled back to face public execution as part of the birthday celebrations of Khandanyang's dictator, Sun Po. In the meantime, the hostage group made a stopover at Hantu Port in Singapore, where the Ldongs will be secured by three of the Heavenly Guard's top officers: Col. Jin Noo, "The Blade"; Capt. Lom Khwai, "Dragon Eye"; and Capt. Re Thak, "Spider Lily". The United Nations, which had been the Ldongs' protecting power ever since Han defected during a UN meeting, has now contacted the ICA to eliminate the three officers and the Heavenly Guard agents on site at Singapore, while keeping the Ldongs alive, as they also have standing orders to immediately execute the hostages at the first sign of trouble.

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• Artistic License – Geography: As pointed out here in this reddit thread, there's quite a few inconsistencies:
  • The flag of Singapore is incorrect, being an amalgamation of the flag for Greenland, while containing the stars adorned on the Singaporean flag. This appears to be intentional to avoid some legal troubles with the respective authorities. It's possible it could also be the flag of Khandanyang or the Heavenly Guard.
  • Singapore doesn't have mountains, especially near the coast, which is problematic as that's where the level is set.
• Call-Back: Shooting a certain cargo container in the port sets free Agent "Carlton" Smith, who still hasn't gotten changed from their last meeting back in Hokkaido. Diana seems very surprised by this.
• Death from Above: You can shoot a cargo container from above as it's going passing over some of the Heavenly Guard members.
• The Faceless: All of the mercenaries are wearing ski masks on the level.
  • Han Ldong and his wife avert this for the mission briefing, but it's played completely straight in the mission itself, where they wear a bag over their heads.
• Hostage Situation: Han Ldong and his wife are being transported throughout the duration of the mission as hostages.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Three of them: Captain Re "Spider Lily" Thak, Captain Lhom "Dragon Eye" Kwai, and Colonel Jin "The Blade" Noo.
• No Communities Were Harmed: Between this mission and the snippets we got from previous ones, it's obvious that Khandanyang is one for North Korea, with also a hint of Myanmar.
• Shoot the Hostage: The priority of Colonel Jin Noo, as he will attempt to kill the hostages with a sword if you go loud. Of course, you can do this too, but will result in a Non-Standard Game Over.
• Shoot the Hostage Taker: Played straight as it's this trope essentially expanded into an entire mission.

Siberia: "Crime and Punishment"

Officially, Roman Khabko, a notorious Ukrainian/Russian mobster, is a prisoner at the privately-owned Perm-14 prison on the Siberian tundra for the last decade; unofficially, however, he’s acted as second-in-command to its warden, Vitaly Reznikov. However, Khabko, now itching to break free, is set to bribe Reznikov into giving him an earlier release, which couldn't have come at a better time for the warden, what with Perm-14 increasingly coming under scrutiny from the United Nations Human Rights Council over leaked allegations of violence and bloodshed occurring on a daily basis. As Khabko's release could spark a massive diplomatic row, the clients wants both him and Reznikov dead, alongside the latter's private security, the Siberian Tigers. In addition, the client wants to cover your tracks; and with the agitation of the prisoners reaching breaking point, a prison riot could easily be provoked...

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• Bragging Rights Reward: Getting full mastery in Siberia nets you the sniper rifle used in the level, the ICA Druizhina 34 Artic, which can be used in any level. Its stats are identical to the Jaegar 7 Tuatara, gotten from Haven Island, complete with build animations.
• Call-Back: As with the Hantu Port, you can shoot a particular wardrobe on the west side main building, which sets free Agent "Carlton" Smith, who still hasn't gotten changed, and is once again, rocking the United States flag boxers. In Siberian tundra. He'll help you take out secondary targets if you lead him to the nearby sniper tower. Like in Hantu Port, Diana seems very surprised by this.
• Death from Above: You can shoot a Russian star symbol to take out some Siberian tiger members that will eventually stand underneath it.
• The Faceless: The Siberian Tiger private security force Khabko employs are wearing bright red balaclavas.
• Hellhole Prison: The Perm-14 facility is a former Soviet gulag run by a corrupt warden, with a death squad and mobster prisoner being part of the prison's security, and its stated that violence and the death of inmates is an everyday occurrence.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: The ICA, as a stipulation provided by the client, must cause a prison riot to cover up the assassinations.
• Prison Riot: The client requests that one be caused to cover up the assassination.
• Smokescreen Crime: In order to cover up the fact that Roman and Vitaly's deaths were murders, 47/Knight and Stone are instructed to set off a riot in the prison, which is easy enough since the place has been turned into a powder keg ready to blow.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Several gas canisters and fire extinguishers are located around the prison. This can be used to your advantage by setting alight buildings to kill targets, or hiding the bodies of guards.

Special Assignments

Hokkaido: "The Snow Festival"

Dmitri Federov is a Russian businessman notorious for his infamously unsafe fireworks factories; after narrowly surviving an accident involving said fireworks which resulted in 26 deaths, he’s brought to the GAMA hospital in Hokkaido, intending to flee to the Bahamas afterwards. His surviving workers, however, caught wind of his plans, and has now contacted the ICA to make sure he’ll never leave Hokkaido alive.

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• Auto Doc: The GAMA facility is equipped with a state-of-the-art robotic surgical suite made by Kronstadt Industries, that can perform complicated surgical procedures under the direction of the KAI artificial intelligence, with the appropriate human supervision. Dmitri was put under for surgery in this surgical suite.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: The Snow Festival Suit, a black parka snow coat that was first seen in the tutorial for both this game and Hitman 2016.
• Bad Boss: Let's start with the fact he deliberately has firework factories that violate Russian safety laws, and when an accident did happen, him and his company didn't try to do any kind of compensation to the 26 people who died in the accident in any capacity.
• The Bus Came Back: The entire level is set in a (partially) re-skinned variation of the "Situs Inversus" mission in the Hokkaido level from the Legacy Pack DLC, that was originally from Hitman 2016. This means that Erich Soders is still getting his transplant, Yuki Yamizaki is still waiting on the yoga teacher, and Jason Portman is still berating you for stealing his idea of having facial reconstruction surgery to look like Helmut Kruger.
• Disproportionate Reward: Simply Completing the mission nets you the Snow Festival Suit, a black parka snow coat that was first introduced in the tutorial for both this game and Hitman 2016. It's a disproportionate reward as most other missions with similar requirements and rewards, such as the Holiday Hoarders mission unlocking the Santa 47 suit that makes you jump through a few challenges first. This contract? You get it by just completing the mission, no matter how sloppily the hit actually was, or how quiet you were, or even if you killed him a specific way.
• Easier Than Easy: One of the easiest missions in the game, as Dmitri is only being followed by one guard, and is leaning on a barrier overlooking the mountains... you can see where this is going.
• Hospital Paradiso: The mission takes place at GAMA, one of the most cutting-edge hospitals on Earth. Since it caters to a very wealthy clientele, it looks like a cross between a sci-fi hospital (with an AI overseer) and a Japanese resort (complete with zen garden, hot spring and sushi bar). Dmitri is hanging around the garden and sushi bar for the most part.
• Insurance Fraud: While Dmitri was likely not intending for this to happen long-term, he plans to use the insurance money from the accident to retire to the Bahamas, directly taking advantage of the the lost lives of 26 others who were caught in the same accident, and who didn't survive.
• It's Personal: The remaining employee's took it quite personally when Dmitri and his company didn't help those who got blown up with him. Safe to say, their combined contract to kill Dmitri is quite justified. Even Diana is disgusted with him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Dmitri got caught in an accident involving fireworks at one of his firework factories. Even Diana labels it "Poetic Justice".
• Playing Possum: 47 can lie down on the morgue trolleys and play dead to blend in. You can even get smuggled in as a corpse as a starting location.
• Revenge by Proxy: Completely justified, as Dmitri and his company didn't even try and help the other victims (or their families) after the accident. Of the few employees who did survive the explosion decided to collectively put a hit out on Dmitri as payback, and you of course, carry out the hit by proxy as a paid assassin for hire.
• Save Scumming: Averted. Saving is disabled, much like Holiday Hoarders.
• Snowball Fight: A challenge requires you to knockout 3 gardeners out with snowballs.
• Temporary Online Content: Played straight on release, but averted a year after release. Like with the "Holiday Hoarders" Christmas episode from Hitman 2016 that was added temporarily (but was made permanent in December 2019) into this game, the same was true for this mission too.
• The Voiceless: Played with, as Dmitri does speak in a generic male NPC voice if you agitate him, but he himself has no unique in-game dialogue specific to him or the mission.

Colombia: "Embrace of the Serpent"

Blair Reddington is heir to one of the oldest and most influential families in the USA, as well as the leader of "The Lodge", an exclusive hunting club for the wealthy to hunt down endangered animals and offering protection to its members through bribery and death threats. The client, who has tried unsuccessfully to bring Reddington to justice, turns to the ICA to put a hit on the hunter, currently at Santa Fortuna, Colombia in search of the elusive white anaconda, known to locals as the "cloud serpent". In addition, the client also requires 47 to collect Blair's "Little Black Book", which contains a list of members of "The Lodge".

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• Bad Boss: Blair isn't particularly nice to his workers.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Or, bad people hunt endangered animals for financial gain.
• Beard of Evil: He may be a bad man, but he does look good with a beard!
• Informed Ability: He’s said to be an expert hunter and Diana even warns 47 that he’s used to hunting predators... yet like all other targets, he doesn't carry a gun.
• Karmic Death: Blair can be blown up by a bomb left in his snake trap, courtesy of 47.
• Meaningful Name: The name of the mission was likely used as it complimented the serpent-theme of the original mission ("Three-Headed Serpent").
• Rich Bastard: Blair Hosts hunting parties on endangered animals to make a profit.
• Shout-Out: The mission is named after the film Embrace of the Serpent; it too is set in Colombia.
• Tranquil Fury: Like in "The Snow Festival" and "The Ark Society", Diana is genuinely quite angry at their targets occupations, and has nothing but scorn for Blair.

Mumbai: "Illusions of Grandeur"

47 is sent to Mumbai to assassinate Basil Carnaby, a magician who hypnotized a number of people in upper-class London during the 1960s into stealing for him. He went underground in Nepal for decades, until he was recently recognized in Mumbai by one of his former victims.

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• Ambiguous Time Period: The level's environment is mostly the same as "Chasing a Ghost", but instead takes place during the day instead. Dawood Rangan is missing and his penthouse area is off-limits, but Wazir Kale and Vanya Shah can still be found.
• Bond One-Liner: Diana quips after eliminating Basil:
  "Target eliminated. Looks like no one else needs to worry about falling under Basil Carnaby's spell. Take a bow, 47."
• No-Sell: You can attempt to get hypnotised in-game, but 47, being the super clone that he is, doesn't fall for it.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Basil's neighbor feels he's already overstayed his welcome, but keeps getting hypnotized by him anytime he tries to kick him out.

Miami: "A Silver Tongue"

47 is sent to Miami to eliminate Ajit "AJ" Krish, the head of Atlantide, a multi-level marketing scam based around selling bottled water with supposedly miraculous medicinal properties. He’s currently at the Global Innovation Race, trying to convince a famous race driver into endorsing his product.

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• Karmic Death: One way to kill Ajit is to poison a water bottle he drinks from. Alternatively, you can kill him by electrocuting him with an Atlantide water cooler.
• Ponzi: Atlantide is a pyramid scheme based around selling bottled water with supposedly miraculous medicinal properties.

Whittleton Creek: "A Bitter Pill"

Inspection of Ajit Krish's phone records have exposed the true head of Atlantide: Galen Vholes, an alternative medicine peddler. He’s currently lying low in Whittleton Creek where he’s set up a private practice despite his utter lack of qualifications. You must eliminate Vholes to take down Atlantide once and for all.

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• Asbestos-Free Cereal: Galen advertises Atlantide as being "demineralized saltwater" to his clients. As 47 points out, "demineralized saltwater" literally means regular water.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Galen trusts his security system way too much; it blocks entry through windows, but has no effect on his easily-climbable wooden fence. His basement is left unlocked and unguarded, despite the security system's power being there. Combined with the facts that he has no cameras and keeps only 5 guys with him inside the house, his "hideout" is much easier to infiltrate than those of the other targets.
• Distinction Without a Difference: During Galen's meeting with the mailman, he tells him that his chronic illness can be cured by during "four litres of demineralized saltwater" a day. 47 points out that demineralized saltwater is simply just plain water, only for Galen to continue his ruse and state that it's water closer to how it was centuries ago.
• Elite Mooks: While entering Galen's house is easy, reaching him is fairly difficult. Two of his guards wear civilian thoses and therefore cannot be Mugged for Disguise, and the other three are all enforcers for the police officer disguise. His personal guard also follows him to the bathroom in the event he needs to vomit, so that's not an option either.
• Eye Scream: Yet again can a pen be used to stab a target.
• Karmic Death:
  • You can kill Galen while disguised as the mailman, who he’s planning to have be the latest victim of his scam.
  • Like Ajit, you can also kill him by electrocuting him with a water cooler that dispenses Atlantide.
• Insecurity System: Played With. You can kill the electricity to the windows by accessing the basement's server room, but there are no cameras on the premises to see your actions. The alarms will trigger when 47 goes through a window that is alarmed, or if he shoots the silver circuit boxes on the outside of the house. However, you can use Loophole Abuse to your advantage. If you wait out the mandatory routine of the police sheriff meeting in Galen's office, and wait for them to leave, you can climb through the window, which will trigger the alarm, cause a Target Lockdown, and Galen and all of the guards will head into the basement, meaning you now have about a three minute run of the place, easily enough time to poison his cup on the table (which he will eventually drink from), and scoot back out and climb back down the drainpipe, with nobody the wiser.
• Little "No": If disguised as the mailman, 47 states one before gouging Galen's eye on a pen.
• Properly Paranoid: Galen has received death threats and has a police team on the premises and his house is firmly locked up... in regards to the windows. His garage and basement are hopelessly easy to gain access to, however.
• The Man Behind the Man: Galen is the secret brains behind Atlantide, while Ajit acts as the frontman and face of the company. Even Diana is unaware of his existence until 47 uncovers evidence linking Ajit to him during his assassination.
• Vengeful Ghost: The Ectoplasmic challenge. Bringing Helen West's unconscious body to the room the target normally stays in results in the doors opening and shutting repeatedly on their own. This is the same room her victim in "Another Life", Frank Schmidt, perished.

Other

New Zealand: "The Mills Reverie"

Orson Mills is having a bad dream on Halloween. Some...thing is out to get him. And there's nothing he can do to stop the jack-o-lantern suited man. This level is not a location in of itself, rather, it was released as part of a permanent Halloween escalation for Hawke's Bay, which features a spooky-themed redesign.

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• Butt-Monkey: Orson "Sean Lite" Mills is knocked out and sacrificed repeatedly in the escalation.
• Dream Sequence: The level events are taking place while Orson is having a nightmare.
• Headless Horseman: "47" in this mission. He wears a ragged robed coat, and rather than a head, a pumpkin sits on top of his shoulders.
• Meaningful Name: The Escalation name is called "The Mills Reverie"; "Reverie" meaning to daydream.
• No-Respect Guy: Orson Mills, taken to it's logical endpoint; Repeatedly killing him.
• Serial Escalation: Like most other Escalations, the requirements as to complete each level get harder:
  1. Pacify Orson with the spooky bat...
  2. ...and push him off of the roof and sacrifice him to a circle of angels...
  3. ...then knock him out again, either pacify or eliminate all other NPCs, and stuff him into a closet with you.

Whittleton Creek: "The McCallister Ransack"

47 turns cat burglar in this escalation contract, tasked with stealing items from a number of neighborhood homes.

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• Serial Escalation: As the levels progress, the player must:
  1. Break into 2 (later 3) homes and steal an item inside...
  2. ...while all homes and yards are hostile areas, regardless of disguise...
  3. ...without using an exterior door...
  4. ...and steal all items in a 3 minute span.
• Shout-Out: To Home Alone, given the title and the burglary theme.
• There Was a Door: Enforced in the final level - entering or exiting a home through any door^*front, back, basement, or garage will immediately fail the mission.
• Timed Mission: Zigzagged in the final level. It is initially untimed, but the moment a player steals one of the objective items, they have 90 seconds to steal another, and then a further 90 seconds to steal the last item.

Haven Island: "The Bartholomew Hornswoggle"

An escalation contract in which 47 is tasked with retrieving pieces of a treasure map then locating said buried treasure, including a pirate costume and sword. Subsequent levels transition to traditional assassination objectives, with targets needing to be killed using the newly acquired gear. Awards the Buccaneer outfit upon completion.

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• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Completing all levels of the contract grants permanent access to the "Buccaneer" outfit.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The final level of the contract requires the player to use a pair of antique cannon to assassinate two targets on jet skis; as these are notoriously hard to aim at moving targets, spawn points for unlimited amounts of cannonballs and gunpowder are located next to the cannons.
• Breather Episode: The first level of the escalation involves collecting treasure map pieces and then digging up the treasure - no killing is required, though at least one NPC will have to be knocked out for his portion of the map.
• Call-Back: The "Dig" mechanic previously seen in Whittleton Creek returns.
• Serial Escalation: To complete this escalation, the player must:
  1. Collect 3 pieces of a treasure map...
  2. ...and dig up the buried treasure...
  3. ...then kill several targets with a pirate's sword, while dressed as a pirate...
  4. ...and finally kill two more targets with a cannon.
• Stealth-Based Mission: Since the player cannot take off the Buccaneer outfit once equipped and said outfit is an illegal disguise anywhere on the map, achieving Silent Assassin for the escalation's final two levels requires diligent use of concealment.

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