The ICA got themselves a well-deserved bloody nose when trying to take out Olivia Hall and 47 in Berlin during Mission 3, Apex Predator. But Olivia and 47 aren’t finished yet. They infiltrate Chongqing, China, to eliminate the two ICA operatives protecting the organization’s precious files. The goal: Expose the ICA without compromising 47 and his handler, Diana Burnwood. The targets are Hush and Imogen Royce.

Hush is a cyberterrorist turned cyber-security guru. He runs experiments on the homeless in a derelict district of Chongqing. He is not beneath experimenting on himself, either. Egged on by Sister Lei, he pushes himself to the limit. Can 47 push him over the edge in a contest of impulse control? Also, he occasionally recovers in his litte secluded meditation chamber, or would, if his underlings finally managed to repair it. That setup offers opportunities for the classic kills Tasteless, Traceless, Piano Man and Hold My Hair.

Imogen Royce’s background story is pretty fascinating, so be sure to read the intel on her. Imogen is in charge of the ICA analyst division and resides in a very secure underground facility. She also pursues what she calls the machine-state. Which means she is connected to her creations, in this case drones, which you can exploit to kill her and Hush both in a rooftop showdown.

SPOILER-ALERT
I have already played though HITMAN 3 on Professional difficulty, but I will only be detailing the missions in these posts. Nevertheless, there may be SPOILERS for the story itself.

The Story Missions

Story missions are back and I have played through all of them. There is “Certainty Principle”, which features a very clever way to take out Imogen Royce in her super max facility. Then we have “Impulse Control”, another nice way of taking out a target, Hush this time. And last but not least there is “All-Seeing Eyes” which is the easiest way to accomplishing this mission suit-only. The drawback? You will have to snipe down a handful of drones, which is not an easy feat, but do-able.
Let’s start with that one, shall we?

All-Seeing Eyes

Your starting point is the Train Station or the Riverside Walkway if you want to do this suit only. I choose the latter. And I always let the conversation with the NPC play out. I don’t know why, but I really like it.

Then, turn around and walk into the district. Turn left at the next crossroad and walk down the street. You will come across three people discussing the homeless and their woes, dropping clues as to where Hush is hiding out in The Blocks.

Walking past them you will see a large pink neon sign atop a taller building. That is where you need to go. Walk up the stairs to your right and into the laundromat. Use the locked backdoor (the combination is 0118 as is pretty much any other lock combination for the doors in the district). Since you will be trespassing beyond that point, be sneaky. Atop the stairs you will be hearing a conversation that will trigger the mission story. Accept it.

Sneak past the two guards to the next level of the tower and silently take out the sniper. Hide his unconcious body, pick up his rifle and gun and climb the stairs to the top of the tower. Use your camera to scan the downed drone and follow Olivia’s instructions.

Now for the fun part.

You will have to shoot down all five drones patrolling above the rooftop of the secure facility. And then some. To tackle the first five drones, I find it best to position myself on the far left corner of the balcony. Then max out your rifle’s scope and find the positions where the drones stop at each end of their patrol. They will hover there for a second before turning around. That is your window of opportunity. My advice: Take it slow. Observe and adjust your scope until you have the drone’s middle securely in your crosshairs whenever it stops to hover. That’s when you can take them out. Also, keep that scope maxed out.

Now once the five drones are taken care of, security will check on your position. Avoid them and stay hidden. To do that, drop down by the downed drone and hang-glide to the left. Wait until the guards are gone.

Two more drones will launch near the building where Hush is working. Shoot them down and Imogen will challenge Hush to a showdown on the overpass connecting the buildings, called the Lotus Passage. This is your chance to take out both targets. Once you are done, find the exit and that’s it for “All-seeing Eyes” and the “Suit-only”.

Impulse Control

From the starting point, turn around and walk straight ahead until you come across the mission story given to you by a trio of homeless persons huddled around a dumpster fire. There is also a bamboo ladder right next to them. You could use that to infiltrate silently, but you will need to find a crowbar before you attempt that.

If you do that, disguise yourself as a scientist first chance you get, find a fuse cell and a poison vial or emetic rat poison. Using those tools, you can repair Hush’s meditation chair and then either dose him with lethal poison via the ventilation (Tasteless, Traceless) or dose him with emetic rat poison to lure him to a bathroom (take out the occupant of that bathroom first, though) to achieve the classics Piano Man or Hold My Hair. Be warned, though, there are a lot of people inside this building, as well as cameras.

But, let’s play the story mission. Pick up the crowbar nevertheless, though.

Disguise yourself as a homeless person and have a first chat with the research staff. You will learn that there sre no more slots for the day and you are told to leave. Look for a locked metal grid door and use the crowbar to open it. Then sneak your way up to the upper level. Use windows and drain pipes to remain unseen. The next test subject has closed himself inside the bathroom on the top level. You will have to infiltrate through the window and take him out.

Prepare for your first round of the experiment. Hush will want to take a break, unfortunately, but you can use that time to get rid of his personal assistant, who prevented him from going too far. Wait until he is ready to go again and resist every time, until it all becomes a bit too much for Hush… And that’s that.

Certainty Principle

I have yet to find a way to infiltrate the secure facility in my suit and take out Imogen Royce. Though, did you know that, once inside the facility, you can use a screwdriver to open the panels?

This story mission story is the easy way to do just that. From the starting point, find the restaurant. Listen to the conversation triggering the mission story and prepare for some breaking and entering. Also, find some emetic rat poison.

First, you need to find Mr. Pritchard’s apartmet. To enter, you can use an open window in the back of the building to get in unseen, then walk up the stairs and use the familiar code 0118 to enter. Find the form P-41 half-hidden under Pritachard’s bed. Return to the restaurant. Walk into the bathroom, climb through the window and to the next one, which leads into the kitchen. Wait until the chef is distracted to prepare and poison the soup for Pritchard. To be honest, the safest way to do that is to disguise yourself as a dumpling cook in the first place.

Wait until Pritchard has tasted the soup and heads for the bathroom. Take him out there, hide his body and take his clothes. Then get rid of every offensive weapon and object and follow your guide to the facility. You will need to follow her instructions, until you need to follow those of Olivia to prevent 47 from being found out. Use your camera to hack the window panel before hacking the laptop, though!

Also, I adore the slightly offensive comments of the guards during frisks. Oh, and don’t lose sight of your guide or the mission story will be terminated. Be mindful of the security cameras, too, and avoid them.

At the end of the tour of the facility you will meet with Imogen Royce. Imogen will pitch her vision of the ICA’s future to Pritchard. And to prove it, she lets him conduct a little experiment. During that experiment you can fire three people and the sequence in which you fire them will not only gain you the Console Cowboy-trophy but also get rid of Imogen Royce as accident kill. This is the sequence:

Fire the guard, Jeremy Bolt, first, who will immediately call his mom and then his best friend, Imogen’s bodyguard. That way you avoid collateral damage. Also, it will allow the next person you fire, the possessive engineer, Alicia Reynolds, to sabotage the safety mechanism of the core chamber while he is busy on the phone. Wait until you see her leave before you fire the last technician, Sharon Reed, who will then dutifully trigger the cleaning process that will take out Imogen. Mr. Pritchard will then be escorted out of the building.

And you are done!

Next up is Mission 5.

Until then, keep on playing!

Cheers
Vanessa