HITMAN - May Patch Notes
Here we go with the HITMAN World of Assassination May Patch notes. We’ve packed in more than 80 improvements, tweaks or fixes that improve the gameplay experience across all modes, with a heavy focus on Freelancer – and especially many frustration points reported by players.
INTRO
The May Patch also brings several new unlockable items, a new ‘Prestige’ feature for Freelancer and an expansion of Contracts Mode with support for the ICA Facility. There’s something for everyone and we’re excited to share how we’ve improved the experience of the game 27 months after launch.
PATCH DETAILS
HITMAN World of Assassination will be updated to version 3.150.1 on all platforms; PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Switch.
Maintenance: Starts at 10:00 UTC and is expected to run until at least 13:30 UTC . If maintenance is extended, updates will be posted to the official @Hitman Twitter account.
Patch Release Time: 11am UTC (This is when the download will roll out, but servers will not be available until the above Maintenance period has concluded)
Patch size: Expected to be between 1-6 GB on all platforms.
Cloud: Switch players do not need to download or install the patch. They will get access to the latest version when they launch the game after maintenance has concluded.
NEW CONTENT
Black Bruiser Suit
Complete any Freelancer campaign on Harcode Mode and the Black Bruiser is yours to keep.
“Why take an aspirin after a rough night, when you can flip the coin and make it a look? A classic black suit with a bloody white shirt, to show the world that no one messes with you.”
If you’ve already completed a Freelancer campaign on Hardcore, you’ll automatically complete this challenge and earn the unlock once you launch the game post-patch.
Exploding Pen
As the old phrase goes, ‘explosions speak louder than words’. That’s never been more true with the Exploding Pen you can unlock by heading back into the Patient Zero campaign and eliminating Craig Black under some specific and fitting circumstances.
Contracts Mode – ICA Facility
We’re expanding the offering of Contracts Mode to now include the ICA Facility location. More specifically it’s the Freeform Training mission that takes place on the yacht.
HITMAN Freelancer – Prestige
We’re adding a new ‘Prestige’ feature to Freelancer that will give you more reasons to play.
On the Mission Control table, there’s now a ‘Prestige Laptop, which allows you to progress through five Prestige Levels. Once you’ve collected all the weapons that can be stored in the Safehouse, you’ll be able to use the Prestige Laptop to advance your Prestige Level.
- Increase the Prestige Objective Merces payout and grant an XP bonus for completing missions.
- These bonuses increase from level 1-5 and do not change once you reach Prestige Level 5.
- Add a Prestige trophy (a single trophy will display your current Prestige Level)
- Remove all items in your inventory, all Freelancer gear, all weapons on the weapon walls and all Merces.
The design of this feature is very much focused on it being fun to collect all the weapons again, and being able to optimize the way that you collect them, based on your previous experiences.
*Some small details about Freelancer - Prestige listed here are different to what we published in our recent Patch Notes Preview. The preview was accidentally based off old information.
TECHNOLOGY
With the 3.150.1 patch, we’ve fixed an issue with GPU memory leak (VRAM) with DLSS enabled. There’s also been some updates to Nvidia DLSS from version 2.4.3 to 3.1.1.0 and Nvidia Streamline from version 1.4.6 to 1.5.2.
FREELANCER IMPROVEMENTS
These improvements are all directly linked to Freelancer mode. We’ve added this little paragraph so that we don’t have to put (Freelancer) after each and every one.
Timed Prestige Objectives
All timed prestige objectives will now complete once all targets are eliminated (as opposed to when you exit the mission). This should give players more time and freedom to continue exploring a location, for example to visit a vendor or locate safes.
Item Unlock Identification
We’ve added a small objective marker to the weapon wall to help players quickly find and identify a newly unlocked item.
Redecorate Prompt
We’ve changed the ‘redecorate’ prompt to ensure that 47 can access all Safehouse items and redecorate at his leisure. This was only affecting PC players, where the prompt to redecorate and interact with a nearby item was the same, which could cause the game to softlock in the worst cases. Now, the redecorate prompt has been remapped to Q by default to prevent this.
Fuse and Nail
We’ve made it possible to drop a nail that you have equipped in the Safehouse, so that you’re not forced to take it with you on a mission, or reload into the Safehouse to get rid of it. In the same vein, we’ve also added a fusebox in the garage right next to the fuse, so that you can store the fuse there after you’ve picked it up. For technical reasons, we can’t make the fuse ‘droppable’ but this solution won’t force you to keep it once you’ve picked it up.
Open and Close
In the Freelancer Safehouse, it’s now possible to open and close the wine shelf and the garage door.
Freelancer HUD Options
Under Options>Gameplay, we’ve added four new options for ‘Freelancer’ which allows players to customise specific HUD elements for this game mode.
The following HUD elements can either be toggled ON (default) or OFF:
- Lookout Proximity Indicator
- Assassin Proximity Indicator
- Alerted Territory Indicator
- Merces Indicator.
Safehouse Spruce
We’ve updated the location image for the Safehouse Location in the menu. When browsing the Freelancer game mode, the background image (behind challenges, etc) will display an exterior shot of the Safehouse, rather than the artwork featuring 47.
Lie Down
We’ve made it possible to lie down in (some of) the beds in the Safehouse. We don’t have fitting animations for all of them, so we’ve enabled the lie down animation where it makes sense.
Target Jingle
We’ve removed the ‘target nearby sound effect’ for Showdown missions, to avoid this being an easy way to identify the Leader. It will still play in other missions where you know the identity of the target.
Spycam Improvements
We’ve added an option to “Hide UI” when using the Spycam. This was in response to player feedback that the UI elements can make it difficult to identify the finer details of a character with the elements permanently visible.
Also, we’ve made the Spycam more precise, which should make it easier to target the correct NPC.
Perfect Shooter Tweak
We’ve made a change to the ‘Perfect Shooter’ objective (Do not miss a shot, you will fail if any shot misses a person), that will make an exception for security cameras or recorders. The objective text has also been updated. In short, you can now shoot security cameras and recorders and still earn the Perfect Shooter objective.
Do Not Change Suit
We’ve changed instances where we use the “Do Not Change Disguise” wording to “Suit Only” to remove confusion and revert to established terminology.
SA Reward
We’ve adjusted the Payout objectives and Prestige objectives to make Silent Assassin (SA) SA, Suit Only (SASO) and Silent Assassin / No Firearms (SANF) objectives more rewarding. These objectives are now rewarded as follows, with values in Merces:
- SA: 5,000
- SANF: 5,500
- SASO: 6,000
On a related note, we’ve adjusted the parameters of SANF, so that firing dartguns will prevent players earning the NF rating.
Alternate Function Four
When playing Freelancer, quitting the game through the menu or by the use of Alt+F4 on keyboard will result in a Mission Failed status upon restarting the game.
SA Recorder
We’ve updated the Prestige Objective description for SA/NF and SA/SO to mention “Destroy Surveillance Recorder” if the player gets recorded. Previously, this wasn’t mentioned and the objectives would be failed on mission completion if the player was recorded but didn’t destroy the recorder.
Walk the Bulldog
We’ve added the “Walking Cane” item back into Dartmoor. It was unintentionally excluded from the ‘FreelancerificationTM’ of the location and has an impact on navigation and certain gameplay possibilities in the location.
Not-so-safe House
We’ve added a small delay to when players can exit a Freelancer mission after starting it, to prevent several issues including lost items. In brief terms, this is down to the fact that player gear is ‘loaded’ at the start of the mission. In rare cases, it’s possible to exit the mission before the gear is fully ‘loaded’, which results in the game thinking that the items haven’t returned to the safehouse and are therefore lost.
Crate Shot
We’ve added a slight delay to when 47 can fire a weapon after closing a crate. This is to prevent accidental deaths that can occur if a player opens a crate with a weapon equipped and then ‘double clicks’ to pick up an item. This would result in them retrieving the chosen item and potentially firing their weapon into the crate and possibly setting off an explosive (if the crate contained an explosive item) and killing themselves. And we don’t want that.
Vault Trigger
We’ve adjusted the vault security in the New York Bank so that it’s no longer triggered by NPCs, even when disabled.
Nobody Shot
We’ve resolved an issue where some characters in Freelancer missions could only take damage from headshots.
Prestige Objective Picks
We’ve tweaked the logic of Prestige Objectives to ensure that you cannot get more than one from the same category (Silent Assassin, Timed, Multikill).
Urgent Call
We’ve resolved an issue where some characters would ‘teleport’ to Agent 47’s location in certain circumstances. It’s now impossible to arrange a meeting in places that are inaccessible to AI characters. We’ve also fixed a related issue where the ‘Arrange Meeting’ Prestige Objective would not complete under certain circumstances.
Bat Crazy
We’ve resolved an issue where the Collectors Baseball Bat found in Santa Fortuna would not complete the ‘Pacify – Baseball Bat’ Prestige objective. Now, it will.
No Silencer For You
We’ve removed a couple of Silenced Pistols from guards in Dubai and Dartmoor. It’s not in their remit to have silenced weapons.
Cleave Knife
We’ve made a change to allow Cleaver kills to progress the “Knife Kill” objective, either melee or thrown.
Collateral Kills
We’ve made some backend changes to make the “Collateral Kill” Prestige Objective variants complete more reliably. This includes broadening the window of opportunity across ballistic kills, accident kills, fire kills and explosive kills to register.
Extra note: A collateral kill won’t register if two targets are eliminated together. A non-target kill as ‘collateral’ with the target is required for this to complete.
Illegal Gold Idol
We’ve made it ‘legal’ for 47 to pick up the Gold Idol after first retrieving it from a stash crate and then dropping it.
Tattoo Tweak
We’ve resolved an issue where some tattoos on possible Leaders would disappear during certain animations, making it difficult to identify them.
Breaking Bread
We’ve resolved an issue in Dartmoor where it was impossible for 47 to interact with the bread on the table in the Library.
Train Exit
We’ve removed the moving train exit in Mumbai (Freelancer mode only) to prevent an issue where the game would softlock following the cinematic and then consider the mission to have failed upon a forced restart.
Slipped Past You
We’ve resolved an issue where the “Make Target Slip” objective was not completed when a target would slip on a puddle after moving a ‘wet floor’ sign. These particular puddles were being tracked with a different identifier, but now both count towards completing the objective.
Excess Alcohol
We’ve resolved an issue where certain targets, who interact with drinks, would duplicate the bottle they were drinking from, making it difficult to poison them.
Possible T?rget
We’ve resolved an issue where a potential target in Miami had a question mark in their name when viewed on the map.
Open Safe
We’ve resolved an issue where the “Open Safe – Explosive” Prestige Objective would not complete once all clues have been scanned and an explosive was used to open it.
Poison Trap
We’ve updated the definitions for the “Poison Guard” payout objective to include poison used in ventilation traps.
Correction Recuired
We’ve updated the item text written on some pill bottles. They now read “refill requires prescription” whereas before they read “literally unplayable”.
Stuck
We’ve resolved an issue where 47 could get stuck between the safe in the Morgue Security Room when taking cover there. We’ve moved the safe a bit to give him some more wiggle room.
Hook, Line and Hammer
We’ve resolved an issue where changing some decoration options in the Safehouse would make certain items appear that were not there before. Changing the Pier from default to the Mastery 69 cosmetic and back to default, would make a fish and fishing line spawn on the pier. That’s now removed.
Also, when loading the Safehouse with the Mastery Level 42 or Mastery level 87 cosmetic in the Garage, a hammer was not spawning. Now, it will.
Heli Heli Copter
We’ve resolved an issue where using the Passport Exit could result in two helicopters being visible in the cinematic.
Bedroom Lock
We’ve locked the Bedroom door from the inside to prevent Mastery Level 12 players from sliding their way into the Mastery Level 31 exclusive area.
DeathHouse
We’ve fixed an issue where it was possible for 47 to die in the Safehouse by collecting gunpowder from the garage, dropping it near the shooting range and shooting it. Now, the gunpowder won’t react to gunfire or explosions.
Down but Not Comfortable
We’ve resolved an issue where 47 would return to the Infirmary in a Wounded state and not even make it back to the bed. In reality, it was possible for players to briefly control 47’s movement during the start of the scene, thus resulting in his starting position to be slightly askew.
Ancestral Discount
We’ve adjusted the price of the Ancestral Sniper Rifle to meet current market inflation rates. This 9,900% increase is now in effect, raising the price from 389 to 38,900 Merces.*
To offset this price increase, we’ve made it more clear that this rifle comes equipped with the “Piercing Damage” perk, even though the description doesn’t tell you.
*Jokes aside, this weapon was erroneously excluded from the pre-launch change in prices, where we added a few 00’s to all currency values. This fix is just about bringing it to the level it should have been at launch.
Potato Potato
We’ve resolved an issue where a safe clue on a bag of potatoes in Santa Fortuna could not be scanned, causing the safe to be impossible to open.
Tell You What
We’ve resolved an issue where the ‘Eliminate Leader – During Tell’ Prestige Objective would not unlock if the Leader was a smoker and eliminated using an oil trap. The trick here was that the target would start burning and would then stop doing their ‘tell’, which lead to the inaccurate calculation of the challenge completion. We’ve now added a grace period after they stop their Tell animation, within which the objective will still unlock.
Stash Dump
We’ve removed the option to ‘dump’ a target in a very specific place on the Pier in Sapienza to prevent an issue where 47 could get stuck or fall into the abyss. There will be dump options either side of where the stash is.
Campaign Bonus
We’ve added a small delay between opening a reward crate and interacting with the Campaign Map to ensure that the Campaign Completion Bonus is correctly awarded.
Target Text
We’ve resolved some issues with overlapping text on the screen displaying opt-in objectives.
New York Sweep
We’ve adjusted some parameters of the New York location in Freelancer to balance several areas, including reducing the amount of Merces that can be collected from the vault, removed the button to turn off the lasers, replaced legendary items in lockboxes with Merces, removed some NPCs from spawning if they are not targets and fixed some issues with NPCs pathing.
How to Play
We’ve added the ‘How to Play Freelancer’ video into the game for PS4 and PS5 players.
Stock Market
We’ve changed the prompt on the Stock Market computer from “Check the Stock Market” to “Play the Stock Market”, to imply an element of risk involved. Whilst this is only a minor change, we’re exploring more options to improve this experience and prevent player frustration.
Shed Load
We’ve resolved an issue where the “Check Gun Parts” (Mastery Level 76) animation isn’t always available in the Shed.
Not Worthy
We’ve resolved an issue where the “A Worthy Sacrifice” challenge does not unlock in Hardcore Mode.
WORLD OF ASSASSINATION FIXES
Whilst these fixes aren’t directly related to Freelancer, many of them will have an impact on gameplay opportunities on those levels, as well as improve the other game modes.
Stability
We’ve resolved exactly 20 issues that were related to players experiencing instability or crashes, across all platforms.
Puddle Paradise
We’ve done a huge sweep across many, many (many), puddles so that they can be used to electrocute NPCs more reliably. This was triggered by a change we made to how the game registers pacified NPCs that are placed on an electrified puddle.
Along the way, we found inconsistencies with puddles or pools of water that look like they should be electrocute-able but weren’t. Now, there should be fewer cases where this issue occurs.
Berlin Walls
We’ve resolved an issue where 47 could be spotted between gaps in walls or through curtains in Berlin.
Wet Suit
We’ve resolved three issues where the Gauze Suit, Master Freelancer Suit and Golden Contender Suit were not visibly affected by the rain in Chongqing.
Dramatic Suspense
We’ve resolved an issue where large, falling chandeliers would pause for a couple of seconds in mid-air (mind you) to allow an NPC to finish being scared before ultimately being crushed. With this fix, there shouldn’t be such a noticeable pause in their death.
This issue was caused when NPCs would bend down or kneel during their ‘scared act’ when 47 pulled a gun on them. As a result, their hitbox would move and the chandelier wouldn’t register as hitting them until they had stood up again, at which point the kill would occur. We’ve adjusted the hitbox to make the game register this impact better.
Ultimate Assassin
We’ve resolved an issue where 47 could get stuck behind an open cabinet door in New York, causing the player into a restart.
Quack Crash
We’ve resolved an issue where triggering a large-sized Easter Egg in Santa Fortuna and then shooting at the end result would cause the game to crash.
Sieker Subdue
We’ve resolved an issue where carrying the Sieker 1 dartgun and approaching an NPC from behind would result in the ‘Eliminate’ prompt being shown, rather than ‘Subdue’.
Cover Issues
We’ve resolved several issues in Mumbai and Chongqing where 47 could take cover against invisible walls, clip into the environment and potentially get stuck.
Endless Decontamination
We’ve resolved an issue where the prompt to ‘stop blending in’ in the Sapienza decontamination showers disappears once the Biohazard Team leave the lab. This can cause players to be stuck in an endless shower and therefore lose progress in Freelancer.
Table Flip
We’ve resolved an issue in Berlin where the Sawed-Off Shotgun under the table couldn’t be retrieved in certain circumstances.
Suit Count
We’ve resolved an issue where the Golden Contender Suit, Lucky Ducky Suit and Ancestral Hunter Suit do not count as a ‘suit’ with regards to challenges or ratings involving suits, i.e Suit Only or SASO.
Get Rich or Dart Moor
We’ve resolved an issue in Dartmoor where some NPCs would walk/stutter through a bush near the entrance to the house when investigating a distraction.
Cliff Dive
We’ve resolved an issue where 47 could get stuck in Mendoza, after climbing and ‘dropping down’ near the Shrine.
Neon Outfit
We’ve toned down the excessive lights of the Neon Outfit to be more consistent across all locations and areas, dark and bright. This should remove the absolutely overblown blinding effect in some dark areas.
Flawed Floor
We’ve resolved an issue in Ambrose Island where 47 could get spotted through the floor during the ‘Slapping Contest’ Mission Story.
Aqua Man
We’ve resolved an issue where 47 would refuse to put down his briefcase when starting the fishing ‘blend-in’ setpiece in Ambrose Island. Now, he’ll put it down first – but players should expect the unexpected. If the briefcase falls into the water as a result of 47 dropping it, he will be able to summon the briefcase from whatever murky depths it may have reached when he stops fishing.
From Hollywood with Love
We’ve resolved an issue where taking a specific disguise from a Cook in Ambrose Island will result in Agent 47 having hair. And as we all know, that should never be the case.
Carpathian Laboratory
We’ve removed the disguise restriction on the Laboratory Starting Location in Carpathian Mountains. This will allow players that have reached Mastery Level 2 to play the mission with any unlocked disguise, but will still enforce the default (and narratively thematic) disguise for first-time players.
Night Fox
We’ve removed the forced disguise restriction on the Club Entrance Starting location in Berlin for the main campaign.
Patient Zero-Suit Restrictions
We’ve removed the forced disguise restriction on the default starting location of the Patient Zero mission in Hokkaido.
Throw Camera
We’ve made it possible to throw items at surveillance cameras to disable them.
Note: In some situations, NPCs may react to this in an unusual way with dialogue that doesn’t fully match the situation.
Dead Man Talking
We’ve resolved an issue where players could eliminate the target in the Embrace of the Serpent Special Assignment from a distance and THEN Diana would introduce the dead target as if they were alive when players get close to their body.
Hold On
We’ve resolved an issue where some NPCs who get tranquilised would keep hold of whatever they were holding (sometimes in very unnatural ways).
Door Blocker
We’ve resolved an issue in the Carpathian Mountains where certain doors wouldn’t open if 47 was standing too close to it, despite the prompt functioning properly and 47 performing the ‘open’ animation. This issue could also occur if a weapon or item was on the floor and close to the door.
This was caused by the way that the doors would slightly ‘pop out’ before sliding to open, which meant that any physics objects (like a gun or 47) that were in the way would prevent the animation from completing and the door would stay closed. There was also a very small collision object on the door, that would make the impact worse when 47 was close because he was clipping into that collision when interacting with the door and disabling it.
To fix this, we’ve added a separate wider collision that animates separately from the door to make it smoother.
Bank Boy
We’ve resolved an issue in New York where it was only possible to interact with the target’s computer and reschedule a meeting if you approach her office chair from particular side or angle.
Envy Contention
We’ve resolved an issue in the Envy Contention (7DS Escalation) where the bag of gunpowder didn’t count as an explosion kill, despite players being awarded XP for performing one.
Illegal Gum
We’ve resolved an issue where the Bubble Gum item was considered to be illegal, only on Casual Difficulty.
Infinite Pickup
We’ve resolved an issue where guards would attempt to pick up invisible items and get stuck in an infinite loop in the following scenarios:
- Detonating a Remote Emetic Device inside a briefcase
- Using a Goldbrick Proximity Mine
- Having a Goldbrick Proximity Mine explode in a briefcase you are holding and then dropping the now-invisible briefcase somewhere guards would find it.
Back In Time
We’ve resolved an issue where taking Craig Black’s disguise in The Author mission would result in Agent 47 turning into Benjamin Button and reverting to the 2018 HITMAN 2 version of his own face. Now, he’ll age as expected and look identical to how he did in 2021. Perfect.
The Speaker
We’ve resolved an issue in Marrakesh where the protester would run straight into the embassy after being poisoned. This had a big impact on the difficulty of the Public Speaker Challenge, as well as just not making any sense that the protester would be allowed to run straight past all the guards without consequence.
Down but Not Quiet
We’ve resolved an issue in Mendoza where an NPC in the main bathrooms would still talk out loud, even though 47 had previously subdued them. This was caused by the dialogue trigger being set to 47 arriving in the room, without a check for the NPC actually being conscious being in place.
Bubble Burst
We’ve resolved an issue in Landslide where an Easter Egg (which was found a long time ago, before you go looking) was impossible to trigger due to some changes with our water tech.
Ice Cold Death
We’ve resolved an issue in the Siberia Sniper Assassin map where some icicles would not consistently kill NPCs that they fall on.
Slow Sniping
We’ve resolved an issue where the Marksman perk of the Druzhina 34 ICA Arctic Sniper Rifle (unlocked by reaching Mastery Level 20 in the Siberia Sniper Assassin map) does not function as expected.
Speedrunner’s Delight
Back in the 3.140 Patch Notes, we made a mention of the so-called ‘Muffin Trick’ being inadvertently patched out of the game. As it was an unintended change, we’ve remedied that so that it will function as it once did.
Well I’ll just uh… Disconnect my wifi. 
Though you can easily get the same effect in HCCE for any suit you like.