I can't even remember where the APC keys are.
In an upstairs office, but there are a couple of enforcers in the room so I didn't want to risk it.
Where do you get a screwdriver in the embassy?
You don't. Open the door, put a bullet in the lamp - same effect as screwdrivering it.
Ah. Okay. Never thought of that.
I guess the question is, would grabbing the APC key save more time than it takes to get it?
It feels like it should, but it depends how lucky you are with the enforcers; in, grab and out, then the APC is just downstairs, rather than having to run through that bloody crowd at the TV.
A distraction would be helpful.
But I've not tried it yet, and I'm unlikely to get to it tonight, so I'm sure you'll have beaten that time before I get a chance to try out.
Only by 6 seconds, but I'm sure I can shave more off.
EDIT: down to 2:49. Much quicker'll involve wizardry. I certainly don't think there's a quicker way to kill Strandberg than that.
4 days to Elusive Target #3, and I don't think I've spent anything like enough time on the Isle of Sgàil to be prepared. Still, as long as I can switch out of speedrun mode and exercise some restraint and caution, I should be okay.
…right?
New patch notes:
https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-2-game-update-2-13/
(Looks like they've fixed the "crash from rest mode" bug, at least).
Blurred scope fix is good, but I don't see anything on psychic guards while sniping… still no black suit.
Season pass content! Even if it is mostly stuff I'm unlikely to use, the suit looks cool (just need more cold locations so there's an excuse to use it, or the Winter Suit). No screens of the event gear, though? Guess we'll see it soon enough.
I've just done SASO on Colorado, on my second finished attempt.
Bodies discovered on the first run - I forgot those broke it, since the time trial stuff doesn't tend to have much collateral - but that one went pretty smoothly. Even discovered a few shortcuts that I'd not known about before!
31 minutes is shocking, though.
If nothing else, it's now canon that 47 can hand-pack a snowball hard enough to knock a grown unconscious.
I have some ideas about how to speed up my effort, but I'll be damned if Rose isn't being a pain in the arse.
I managed to get three of them down in under three minutes, but Rose was the problem. He just covers so much ground.
Does his start point/route vary based on where you start? Sometimes he sent to head straight for the test range, other times he seems to just meander about, going nowhere in particular.
I think his route is also very dependent on who else is still alive when he reaches various checkpoints. He can end up at the car assault, but I've only seen it happen once or twice (except when I'm disguised as the Point Man).
I guess I’d better play Hokkaido then. Guess there’s no reason why I can’t, even if I haven’t played any other Legacy levels apart from Paris and Sapienza?
Spent most of lunchtime trying to cut Colorado down, but a combination of my dreadful aim1 and not noticing that I'd set the difficulty to Master prevented me from making any real progress. I think that I can scrape to just under four minutes with this route, but getting any shorted will be difficult thanks to Rose's awful schedule.
1The PS4 pad is pretty bad for this, though. I can't get the sensitivity to the sweet spot where I can reliably line up shots, thanks to the massive deadzones and poor acceleration curves.
Shit, just deleted most of Ninchilla’s post above by accidentally editing it instead of quoting it. Sorry.
#ThanksObama
Spent most of lunchtime trying to cut Colorado down
Have you looked at Hokkaido yet, or are you still working on Colorado mastery?
I just wanted to give Colorado an efficiency run before moving to a totally new place - although I have actually spent an hour or so bumbling round Hokkaido. (As usual, it ended in a hail of bullets after I got spotted loitering somewhere I should have been.)
Shit, just deleted most of Ninchilla’s post above by accidentally editing it instead of quoting it. Sorry.
Just because it's true doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. 
I was only trying to point out that you can knock people out with muffins in Whittleton Creek.
Those must be some stale muffins.
Mind you, the woman who makes them does have Spoiler - click to showa murder-basement, so maybe they're primarily intended as weapons?
Had a quick go of the Snow Festival last night. Nice little self-contained challenge, much more fun than Holiday Hoarders and I unlocked the suit with little difficulty. A few levels of Hokkaido mastery are probably required if you want to do all the challenges, though, as a few of them seem to require smuggled-in items.
Oh, are the loadout slots restricted? That could be a pain.
How do you unlock the Rieper's Suite starting area? It's greyed out and says "complete more challenges", but none that I can see list it as a reward…
I think that’s dependent on Hokkaido mastery, so if you haven’t got that location unlocked in the main game, you won’t have it for this. You could possibly try some of the Feats that are available in the Snow Festival in order to raise your XP but playing the main level is going to be quicker.
It's the initial default starting location in Hokkaido. And I have mastery 20.
Right. In that case: no idea. You can get into the suite easily anyway.
Yeah, I know. Just don't get why it's greyed out, is all.
/shrug
Colorado, as quick as I can manage.
Dozens of attempts abandoned over that one f—king shot of the hay bale, but I got there in the end.
Sean Rose continues to be the bane of this route, though it generally feels like there's a lot of "dead air", waiting for targets rather than actively hunting them.
I always feel a bit… clumsy? on Colorado. I can't ever find that thing where you feel like an awesome assassin, even when I did manage SASO; you're always just two steps from Compromised.
The whole thing's just so tight on security, and there are so many people looking in so many directions that any action you take is liable to get you spotted.
Anyway, I'm happy with that, even though I've already identified a couple of ways to maybe speed things up. I need to get on with Hokkaido at some point, so that I can eventually play some of the actual Hitman 2 levels.
The worst thing about Colorado is that you can't disguise yourself as Berg.
That does seem like a massive oversight.
Elusive Target 3: Silent Assassin.
I don't know if these are easier than the Season 1 targets, or if I'm just getting (marginally) better.
Is it on Sgail? I’m kind of dreading it to be honest.
It is, yes. Like the others so far, though, it's in a fairly contained section of it, and not even a particularly aggressive section.
My run: Spoilers, obv.
SASO on Hokkaido, 8:30. Yamazaki is the time sink, though I've got an idea of how to maybe speed up her demise. No idea if it'll still count as Silent Assassin, though. Poison can be a bit funny.
How are you getting Soders? I think I've got a pretty quick approach, but I'm sure there must be a faster one.
Well, I know there's a faster one, because I saw it on YouTube, but it's cheating.
How are you getting Soders?
Spoiler - click to showThere's a drainpipe in the garden that takes you into the doctors' quarters, where you can pick up a brain chip interface thingie; sneak through the morgue, optionally taking out the guard and the cameras in the security room; zap the brain guy and hide near the room with the replacement heart until the guards leave, so you can duck in before the door closes behind them; take out brain guy and squish the heart.
Okay, yeah; I started out that way, but there's a faster route when you get some of the later mastery unlocks.
Still involves an infuriating wait for the later, though. I have an idea for a faster run, but her bodyguard is a pain and I keep getting spotted.
I'm struggling to boost my mastery. It seems to have gotten progressively tougher to max out with each level.
Yeah, I'm still only 14 or something on Isle of Sgàil. I think after the first couple of runs, they sort of expect you to just check the menu and go after challenges.
As you get to know the level, look for Mission Stories or Challenges you can chain together - most Mission Stories complete (and therefore award XP) for the setup, not the kill, so you can do more than one in a single run.
I think the worst return on investment for XP has to be escalations; you get fuck all for the first four runs, then maybe 4k for the last one - which you could have gotten for just knocking people out with a fish, or something.
Never even occurred to me to play the other modes - I've just been looping the story missions on everything so far.
Some of the bonus missions are really good. I like Landslide better than The Icon for Sapienza, and A House Built on Sand in Marrakesh is cool. The Patient Zero mini-campaign is good, too, though the last mission (in Hokkaido) is maybe the hardest thing in the game; I've never managed to complete it even once.
Elusive target down! Hurrah. Finding that damn notebook was the hardest bit.
I spent long enough following her about that I was able to narrow down where it might be (though the lighting in the target image, of all things, helped too).
look for Mission Stories or Challenges you can chain together
Case in point:
Took a while, but that got me from 14 to 20 mastery on Isle of Sgàil.
Fascinating video on the sniper mechanics - one part of the game that's completely perplexed me so far.
I don't know if this is the best or the worst I've ever managed in this game, but I'm mostly just annoyed that I still haven't hit Mastery 20.
Spoiler - click to showTurns out if you get yourself into the operating room, you can basically barricade a door with guards' bodies.
Played Hokkaido "properly" for the first time last night. It's surprising how much the game is changed by not being able to take any items in. Managed to identify (but not carry out) a couple of opportunities for the first target, and didn't really get close to the second. Really atmospheric level though and again I'm impressed by how every single location in this game manages to feel so different. It's quite the achievement.
The news today is full of some Brexit plan called The Malthouse Compromise and that’s definitely a Hitman escalation waiting to happen.
