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Gun Mechanics

NOTE: If a certain trick doesn't seem to be mentioned here, please check the other guides here first, or use the search bar. If you still can't find what you're looking for, feel free to shoot a question in the #hitman-3 channel of the Discord: https://discord.com/invite/E45wUBnxBT

Supplemental Videos​

Supplemental video guide with text commentary by BluntznBeatz

Supplemental video guide with voiceover from TJGM

Useful Guns​

If you do not know how to unlock any of the below weapons, check Hitman Wiki's Unlocks/ Mastery guide in Resources.

Ballistic Pistols​

ICA19 and its variants are overall the most accurate silenced pistol. Note that the ICA 19 Silverballer's "precise aim" is a placebo and doesn't actually improve the accuracy of the gun. This is confirmed by multiple renowned speedrunners such as Mendietinha, and Frote7.

Krugermeier can sometimes be useful because both the gunshot and bullet impact are quieter, which can sometimes prevent panic/ getting spotted. This does come at the price of an accuracy reduction compared to ICA19.

HWK21 Pale Homemade Silencer is a decent pistol that is accurate and has less recoil than ICA19, but it also does less damage than any other pistol, so beware if trying to kill with body shots.

DAK X2 Covert and ICA 19 F/A stealth are silenced handheld guns that can shoot open almost any swinging door, physical or electric lock alike. However, since they are also full auto, they are less useful for precise bullet distractions.

Sniper Rifles​

Sniper Properties Data Table from muddye: SniperTable Sniper rifles can also shoot swinging doors open, so you may not need a lockpick or disposable scrambler if you're already bringing a sniper rifle.

Sieger 300 Ghost / Arctic / White Ruby is usually the best all-around sniper to to having fast unpack, maximum zoom, maximum damage (can blow up car in two shots from any distance, OHKO any NPC from any distance), and also being the most silent (subsonic perk).

However, the non-Ghost / Arctic / White Ruby Sieger 300 variants can also be useful for times when you do not want to one hit kill people.

Hackl Leviathan Sniper Rifle Covert is also worth considering if you want a piercing sniper rifle (only silenced sniper rifle with piercing and fast unpack animation).

Dart Guns​

Kalmer does not fire bullets, but its tranquilizing effect is very useful. Besides the obvious application of public knockouts, guards are temporarily unable to frisk you or spot you trespassing while they are looking at a body unconscious from a Kalmer.

Sieker does not fire bullets, but its emetic effect is very useful. Besides the obvious application of making NPC's go to the toilet, it is also useful for just making NPC's blind and leave the area for more than a minute.

Fast Sniper Briefcase Unpack​

Snap Shooting​

Generally speaking snap shooting refers to shooting quickly without aiming much before hand, using the white dot in the middle of screen to help aim at most.

Note that sniper rifles do not have the white dot in the middle of screen by default, but you can install Crosshair V2 (which is legal for Hitman 3 speedrun.com leaderboards), or simply put some white tape on your monitor.

The optimal snap shooting inputs are:

  • Aim Button > Shoot Button > Let go of Shoot Button > Let go of Aim Button
    • Note that you should never let go of right click before left click, that may result in delay, as shown here
    • Snap Shooting example
  • Note that the timings for this are different with Instinct on or off as of May 2023 update:

Buffering with pause / map menu can also be used for fastest timings on single shots or multiple shots, see mudshot section below

Bullet Distractions (1 bullet)​

The most obvious use of bullet distractions is to briefly turn an NPC around, or lure them to a particular spot.

A lesser known application of bullet distractions is to shoot the top of a wall/ ceiling to lure NPC's upstairs. This can be used not only to lure NPC's to another floor, but to just make an NPC leave the area for an extended period of time.

2 shot bullet panic​

A common use of 2 shot bullet panic is to panic civilians so they can't spot you trespassing.

2 shot bullet panic can also be used to keep multiple NPC's looking in the direction you shot at for longer than if you just fired one shot. Beware this is risky, as NPC reactions to two bullets can be RNG.

Triple shot panic​

When you triple shot a surface near a guard, they will home in on where you shot from. During this time they are unable to see you trespassing. Make sure you leave the area from where you shot as soon as possible, or else you may go into combat. Note that triple shot only works on guards, civilians react the same to triple shot as they would double shot. Note that triple shot blinds guards to everything, not just trespassing. You cannot be spotted wielding a weapon by guards panicked by triple shot, for instance.

Disclaimer: this technique can be rather inconsistent and doesn't always work as expected. Sometimes you spontaneously go into combat when running past guard, sometimes an NPC runs an unexpected direction and causes panic.

Body shots​

Unlike triple shot, body shot works both on guards and civilians. Body shot works pretty much the same as guards as triple shot, causing the guard to home in on where you shot from while blinded to any illegal action you perform. Body shotting civilians also blinds them to illegal actions you perform, but they will just run for a nearby guard instead of homing in on you. Note that body shotting makes NPC's blind to all illegal actions, not just trespassing. You can for example shoot a civilian so they can't spot you shooting something else.

Disclaimer: this technique can be rather inconsistent and doesn't always work as expected. Sometimes you spontaneously go into combat when running past guard, sometimes an NPC runs an unexpected direction and causes panic.

Zoomed out aim​

Sometimes you will get strangely zoomed out camera when aiming with pistol (example).

To prevent this, crouch and uncrouch before aiming.

Gun-flashing​

  • Shooting a gun while an NPC is looking at you can sometimes result in a state of blindness similar to triple shot or body shot panic.
  • This seems more related to the action of firing the gun than to wherever the bullet goes
  • Example 1
  • Example 2
  • Example 3

Mudshot​

  • You can open swinging doors with semi automatic pistols if you use pause buffering ("mudshot", named after discoverer muddye).
  • Both pause and map work, although pause seems easier. The timing of the first pause is most important.

Video Tutorial Overview from Fusha: https://youtu.be/tAm527gQTdI

  • Basic Version: Aim at door (or any other target) and hold aim button, pause, hold shoot button (should have both aim and shoot held by now), rapidly tap pause and unpause. You need as tiny a gap between unpause and pause as possible, but you can take a breather between pause and unpause.

  • More advanced version: Shoot the first shot normally, then pause, hold shoot and aim buttons, tap pause and unpause (faster but maybe riskier).

  • Other Notes:

    • To avoid stutter after performing the mudshot, let go of any movement keys or buttons. Then press the unpause button or press aim button to unpause. After unpausing, it is safe to touch the movement keys again.
    • Krugermeier and Hwk 21 Homemade may need more shots to work with this trick.

Miscellaneous Gun Stats (from muddye)​

Non Sniper Gun Stats gun stats

Damage Multiplier values for each Difficulty damage multiplier table