5 Tips for starting Hitman: Freelancer (2024)

Hitman: Freelancer is like nothing you’ve ever played from the Hitman franchise, and thus much of what veteran video game assassins have come to know is out the window. Gone is your vast collection of gear, smuggle points, and starting locations. In their place are empty loadouts, random starting locations, and no ability to save your game while you’re on a mission. It’s both punishing and rewarding, but hopefully slightly more rewarding after you read these tips.

What are Merces?

Merces are a new currency introduced in Hitman: Freelancer. Merces are earned in a variety of ways, such as taking down the Couriers on missions, Elimination Payouts, Payout Objectives, Prestige Objectives, and opening Safes. As you earn Merces, you can purchase gear from the Suppliers found throughout the game world. This gear can help you with your current assignment, or perhaps be a favorite item that you plan to use in the future. Merces help fund 47 in his quest to take down the various Syndicates in Hitman: Freelancer.

Gear Capacity

Gear Capacity is a new concept introduced with Hitman: Freelancer. Each piece of gear is given a value in terms of how much capacity it takes up. You cannot leave your Safehouse for a mission if the items you have stored on Agent 47 exceed your overall Gear Capacity score. Your Gear Capacity will be displayed in the top left of your screen while you’re in your Safehouse, as well as how much you’re currently using.

When you approach your Gear Wall, you’ll see a Gear Capacity score next to each item you own. You can only start a mission if the gear you have stored on Agent 47 falls within your Gear Capacity. If you have too much gear on you, you cannot begin the mission until you drop something out of your inventory.

Thankfully, the Mastery track for Hitman: Freelancer does provide some Gear Capacity upgrades, so you will be able to take a few extra (or at least larger) items as you play the mode and progress along the Mastery track.

Mastery

Hitman: Freelancer features a Mastery system that is like the system found at each location in the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy. This track features 100 levels, each of which unlocks gear and cosmetics for Agent 47 and his Safehouse. Even if you do fail a mission, you’ll earn a least some XP and progress towards your overall Mastery of the mode. Some of the unlocks will be weapons, some will be new areas of 47’s Safehouse, and others will be ways to decorate the Safehouse. The whole goal of Hitman: Freelancer (besides doing the world a favor and eliminating criminal organizations) is to build 47 into a successful freelance assassin.

Choose your objectives carefully

Between Elimination Objectives, Payout Objectives, and Prestige Objectives, there’s a lot to consider when you load into a mission. While completing these objectives is the key to earning more Merces, they can also put you at risk of failure. As an example, I often skip objectives that ask me to eliminate guards with shotguns or assault rifles. Right now, I don’t have any of these weapon types with a suppressor, so walking around blasting guards with loud guns puts me at risk of being discovered and failing. Know your own limitations and map familiarity. Prioritize the overall success of the mission, then complete any of the objectives you feel are reasonable as you go.

A new way to play

One of the more challenging things to overcome while playing Freelancer is your old way of thinking. You’re used to trying to keep your Silent Assassin rating and avoiding all collateral damage. In Freelancer, the gloves are off a bit. In some cases you may need to cause collateral damage just to complete an objective. If you’re going after a Syndicate Leader, you may want to kill off their Assassin to make your job easier. While you don’t want to go wasting innocent lives without care or concern, there is a bit more wiggle room to do what’s necessary to get the job done and get 47 back to his Safehouse in one piece.

That’ll do it for your Hitman: Freelancer tips. Hopefully these will help you feel a bit more confident when you set out to take down a few Syndicates, and you can dig deeper into our coverage by visiting our Hitman: World of Assassination topic.