Chapter 16: Operation Sledgehammer

When we rejoin 47 he is now the prisoner of Skurky/Dexter, and Dexter wants to know where his son Lenny is! Dexter starts tuning up on 47, thinking he can beat the information out of him. Dexter points to Victoria and implies that he will withhold the necklace from her unless you tell him what he wants to know. Skurky urges Dexter out of the room, assuring him that he will get the information out of 47. The CS ends with the sound of a brutal beating.

County Jail Suit Only and Infiltrator Run-through

Primary Suit Only and Infiltrator Run-through

As we regain control of 47 you need to break free of your bonds then activate the fire alarm to lure in a Guard, who you then incapacitate and hide the body in the crate in the hallway. Remember to take the Guard's pistol, since you are completely weaponless at this point. Grab the Metal Pipe in the hall at the other end before you proceed from here as you will need it in a moment.

Ninja to the Guard Station and grab the power cord, incapacitate the Guard here, then hide him in the crate in the corner. There is a checkpoint in the hall outside of the back of this room.

Now use the heating duct to move from the backroom, stopping for a brief look outside the duct, and then arriving at the office on the far end, where you may need to wait for the patrolling Guard to leave. The main objective is to recover your Silverballers, so with that in mind incapacitate the Guard here, and hide him in the closet, then grab the STG 58 and some ammo from the nearby desk.

Your Silverballers are in the next room on the counter to the left as you enter but there are two Guards and a civilian – the Guards behind the counters here, the civilian on the other side of the right-hand counter. If you are going to get detected chances are it will be the civilian who sees you, so it would be an idea to open the door leading to the lobby and toss the pipe on the far side of the room to distract both the civilian and the desk Guard, then quickly slip in and grab both Silverballers and some ammunition from the left counter, then get back into the previous office and go through the heating vent again to the previous area.

You can then slip from the hall with the checkpoint into the inner office, then move from cover to cover until you reach the hide with the file card cabinet. Now wait until the desk cop walks to the left and back to the right, then quickly sneak to the half wall by the swinging door, then through, and ninja your way from cover to cover in the lobby and go through the door to end the County Jail Level. You will have unlocked Suit Only and Infiltrator for this level.

Outgunned Level

The stand-out item in the CS is the massive ICA invasion of Hope... Oddly the ICA does not have a budget to pay ransom this year, but they do have a budget to send out armies of... Right, sorry, I keep forgetting this is a game heh.

You start out right outside the jail, and you must now ninja your way past the collected army of ICA Grunts and special forces! That means moving from cover to cover until you reach the first of the tactical trucks, where you can obtain an assault rifle and ammo. Head from there into the grass by the rubbish bin and grab the Bottle to use as a distraction, then lure the Grunt into the grass around your side of the truck so you can take him out without his buddy seeing you.

There are dumpsters nearby in the grass side to hide the body once you have them incapped and hidden, work your way around the back of the truck and incap the other Grunt and hide his body with his mate. That clears the immediate area of threats so you can make your way along the back of the line of vehicles, taking care not to run head-on into the patrolling Grunts at the far end!

When you reach the bushes near the end you will need to wait for the Grunts through the opening to the right to begin patrolling, and then quickly slip through to cover when the Guard on the left has his back to you. Work your way along the right edge of the next area, using the cover that is available, slipping to the right to witness a nice explosion!

You are within an easy run to the exit for the level, all you need to do is distract the bloke across the street and then head in almost a bird's line run to the exit, using the cover that is available to keep the guys farther down on the right from detecting you. Once you reach the exit go through to end the level! You will unlock the Suit Only and Infiltrator portion for this level.

Burn Suit Only and Infiltrator Run-through

Burn Level

There is no transition for this level, you exit the street into the burning building and you immediately change active levels. Simply follow the obvious path through the building to the lower level then avoid the enemies in the smoke/fog here.

The trick to this level is to use the ladders and improvised upper walkways to get past the clusters of enemies and through to the exit for this area, after which you head through a couple of doors to the outside, and then up a set of stairs past a sick civilian and to the actual level exit. Once you activate that you will unlock this portion of Suit Only and Infiltrator.

Hope Fair Infiltrator Run-through

Hope Fair Level Infiltrator

Because of the complexity of this level we are dividing up the Suit Only and Infiltrator sections for it to two run-throughs. This is the Infiltrator run-through so you WILL be using disguises in it.

From the entrance move through the bar and follow Rabbit, the Agency Sniper, and incap and hide his body, then grab the Sniper Rifle and ammunition. There are also Proximity Mines you can grab in the cases on the floor. Wait for two Grunts to pass through the area by hiding in a container – or you can use a mine on the stairs if you like and give them a little surprise - either way after they depart or are dead, you can use the Sniper Rifle to take out the other sniper on the far rooftop, removing his potential as a threat.

Note that there is no silencer on the rifle, so after each shot you will need to hide in the box until the enemy leaves. You can use that to your advantage since you can wait for them to leave and then incap them on their way out!

After you take out the first Sniper and change into his Disguise, use the sniper rifle to take out the Sniper on the far roof and then head down the back stairs, ninja your way along the right side of the street, using the available cover and then cut across to the left side just before the blocked off area and make your way to the exit. This should be a very quick level for you. It also completes the Infiltrator Challenge and Unlocks the Achievement “Hour of Reckoning” (10G) You caught up with Skurky. Now to do Suit Only.

Hope Fair Level Suit Only

As with the previous run-through follow and incap Rabbit, then take out the second Sniper, before you start thinning out the troops below. It really does not matter now if you are spotted so have some fun with this - use the Proximity Mines creatively!

One method is to lay a mine at each of the entrance/exits to the upper level, then start using the Sniper Rifle to thin out the troops below. Now simply take out all of the ICA troops and walk to the exit, easy-peasy!

At this point you can go ahead and complete the last very brief level now, and then you can return to complete the rest of the Challenges as you like during replays.

Outskirts Level

After exiting the Fair Level you make your way to the Church where Skurky has taken refuge, and you have a nice gun battle of sorts. As you enter you need to do an Instinct head-shot on him, and that triggers a CS in which you interrogate him and learn that Victoria has been taken to Blackwater Park.

This will unlock the Suit Only and A Cleansing Fire Challenges.

Clean-Up Replays

You will very likely be doing a number of Clean-Up Replays for this level in order to collect all of the Weapons as well as the Challenges – which we will now cover:

Item List

• Z&M Model 60 (obtained from Hope Police)

• Silverballer (County Jail)

• Jagd P22G (obtained from the Sniper at the start of the Hope Fair level)

• Aries 24-7 (only available on Hard or higher difficulty level)

• Agency ARZ 160 (obtained from Agency Grunts/Troopers)

• STG 58 (obtained in the County Jail)

• Agency Dynamic CPW (obtained from Weapon Crates during Outgunned)

• Black Kazo TRG (obtained in the perch area of Hope Fair)

• Agency Heavy Trooper Disguise (obtained from Heavy Troopers)

• Hope Police Officer Disguise (obtained from Hope Police)

• Agency Tanto Knife (obtained from Weapons Crates in Outgunned)

• Bottle (various locations)

• Brick (various locations)

• Hammer (various locations)

• Cleaver (obtained from food stands)

• Gasoline Can (various locations)

• Knife (obtained from food stands)

• Proximity Mine (the perch area at the start of Hope Fair)

• Plunger (obtained from the bathroom in County Jail)

• Metal Pipe (various locations)

• Police Baton (County Jail)

• Power Cord (County Jail)

• Remote Explosives (several in the back of the Sniper Perch room on the floor)

• Screwdriver (various locations)

While completionists will want to have collected everything, technically for the Challenges you really only need to collect the disguises and the Evidence, and for the other collection the Weapons.

Challenges Strategies

Unlocking the Chameleon Challenge

Chameleon

Pick up all of the disguises in the level. These consist of the Agency Grunt, the Agency Heavy Trooper, and the Hope Police Officer disguises. This is best accomplished during a Rambo play-through.

Unlocking the Evidence Collector Challenge

Evidence Collector

Find all of the Evidence in the level.

Evidence 1: The County Jail

Collect the dossier from the desk next to the computer, in the opposite corner of the office area.

Evidence 2: On the Road Outside the Jail

Collect the dossier from the weapon crate next to a truck.

Evidence 3: The Burning Warehouse

Collect the dossier from the boxes on the cart inside the Burning Warhouse.

Evidence 4: The Hope Fair

Collect the dossier from a weapon create next to the last red-and-white striped tent.

Infiltrator

Avoid being spotted. This is part of the Primary Run-through.

Suit Only

Avoid using disguises. This is part of a second Rambo-style run-through.

Vigilante

Subdue all of the policemen in the County Jail level. Unlocking this requires a fair bit of patience, since you have to catch these guys alone basically. Basically what you want to do is subdue the first cop in the lower cell where you start and hide his body, then go to the next area and subdue the cop there, hide his body, go through the heating vent and subdue the cop there and hide the body, then use the Metal Pipe to lure the cops on this side of the building, one at a time, into the room, subdue them and hide their bodies behind the desk.

Once you get all of them head back through the heating vent and out the other door, subdue the cop on the left, then use the pipe to lure the rest over one at a time and subdue them, hiding their bodies in the room with the heating vent. After that the rest are easy to pick off.

Unlocking the Misty Eyes Challenge

Misty Eyes

Kill a total of 11 Heavy Troopers in the haze of the warehouse fire without being detected. You do this heading through the burning warehouse, and you can use pretty much any kill-style provided that you do not get discovered.

Heavy Armor

Use an Agency Heavy Trooper as human shield and kill four enemies. You can do this on a Rambo-style run-through, bearing in mind that you will have better success in the street then inside the starting building.

A Cleansing Fire

Clear the mission.

Surgical Precision - Part 1

Kill three enemies with headshots without alarm. Basically this means without being spotted and having the alarm officially sounded and without missing... Getting these three shots will be relatively easy compared to the next Challenges.

Unlocking the Surgical Precision - Part 2 Challenge

Surgical Precision - Part 2

Kill five enemies with headshots without alarm. The easy way to do this is to shoot targets that are at the far end of the zone from deeper inside the sniper's perch at the beginning, as that reduces the risk of detection considerably. The rub to that is that the ICA will occasionally send in a patrol to check that perch, so you have to hide when they do. If it is a single ICA Grunt you can take them out with your knife when they pass by.

Unlocking the Surgical Precision - Part 3 Challenge

Surgical Precision - Part 3

Kill seven enemies with headshots without alarm. Basically repeat the tactics use in the previous Challenge, bearing in mind that you cannot miss. Missing resets the count. You should easily be able to unlock this before progressing through the rest of the run. If you are doing this on the Hope Fair level avoid shooting the bald guys who look like Rick from Pawnstars because for some odd reason the counter resets whenever you shoot them...

Mastery

Complete all of the Challenges in the level.

Conclusion Notes

I don't know about you but I took particular pleasure in putting down Skurky. He is such an evil and easy to hate character that it just felt good. That and of course having him tell us where we needed to go next made it all worth the effort :)