By: Saint242
Disclaimer 1: Hitman: Codename 47 is a copyright of Eidos and IO Interactive, and I don’t want to infringe. This FAQ was made by a third party, not by either of those companies. It can be posted on websites, printed out, whatever, so long as no profit is made by doing so. In other words, this thing is free for everyone.
Disclaimer 2: If you are stupid or crazy enough to think this is an instructive guide on how to actually kill people or use real weapons, then you deserve what you get. This is a guide to a computer game, not a novice hitman’s guide on murdering people. I disclaim any responsibility if anyone goes out and kills people and claims they found the techniques on how to do it here.
Disclaimer 3: I am not a programmer, and I did not examine the code of Hitman: Codename 47 in order to determine various weapons statistics. These comparisons and judgments were made by me, through careful testing in-game in various situations. In essence, the statements below are just my opinions, although I did repeat some things I have read on various Hitman forums on the web. If you disagree with anything that is written here, feel free to write me some constructive criticism, but no flames, thanks.
Close Combat
Close Combat Tips:
"The knife is the last thing you learn." - Leon, The Professional
Close combat weapons are basically limited to the piano wire and various sorts of knives. Generally speaking, in order to use these weapons, it is necessary to sneak behind an unsuspecting enemy (i.e. not alerted or already shooting at you). This will get you an instant, silent kill on your target. However, against alerted enemies, these weapons are worse than useless. They are true assassination tools, rather than viable weapons. Nonetheless, they are staples of the Hitman’s arsenal and you should always carry at least one weapon capable of silent kills. You never know when it will come in handy.
- Fibre Wire
The fibre wire is very useful in most situations and this author’s particular favorite. It’s a little more expensive than a knife and doesn’t kill as fast, but has two notable advantages. First, when you kill with the wire, the target is pulled backwards, not forwards. This is good, because it allows you to pull targets back into doorways or around corners more easily. Second, it is always silent, unlike the knife (see above). To use the fibre wire, hold the fire button: this will ready the weapon. Release fire to strangle. You should definitely practice with the wire a bit, because it's all you get to use in the mission "Traditions of the Trade."
- Pentagon/Oyabun Knife
Compared with the fibre wire, the knife is significantly faster at silent kills, plus you can use it in straight-out combat, but that’s not really recommended, as it takes a lot of stabbing to kill someone. Bodies of people killed with a knife will fall forward, which may alert nearby guards if they fall into their line of sight and occasionally, a target might cry out before you can silence them, but that's pretty rare.
Pistols
General Pistol Tips:
Generally speaking, pistols are less powerful and have lower rates of fire than submachine guns and rifles. Recoil is often a major factor, as unlike some larger weapons, pistols are too small to have recoil suppression mechanisms, and their shorter barrel makes them occasionally less accurate as well. So why use them at all? First of all, they are cheaper than the bigger guns. Second, sometimes you can’t use the bigger guns on a particular mission, for whatever reason. And finally, despite my assertion that they can be less accurate than some rifles and submachine guns, they are still relatively accurate.
Pistols can also be used arms akimbo; that is, two pistols can be used at a time, one in each hand. This is otherwise known as John Woo style. To use pistols John Woo style, simply select the first pistol while holding down CTRL and then select a second pistol. Or, one could draw the first pistol, drop it on the ground, draw a second pistol and then pick up the first pistol off the ground. Either works. John Woo style has the advantage of, well, shooting two guns at once, doing twice the damage. There is also a semi-bug/loophole with John Woo style in the game; when using the John Woo style, the "secondary" pistol in the left hand reloads automatically! Instead of going through the entire lengthy reloading animation, when the secondary pistol is fired and the magazine is empty, it is automatically reloaded for the next shot. This does not occur with the primary weapon; when it runs out of ammo, the reloading animation is played. Keep this in mind, and always put the gun with a smaller magazine in your left hand.
- Beretta 92/92SD
A 9mm pistol with 15 rounds per magazine. Another staple weapon, this gun is cheaper than the Desert Eagle, with twice the ammo capacity. The stopping power is not great but the accuracy is. The SD silenced version is even better, since you can, in theory, take out lone targets quietly. In practice, however, only headshots will drop a target immediately before they can react and they still often cry out and alert nearby guards.
- AMT 1911 Hardballer
A bit less accurate than the Beretta and with only 7 rounds in the magazine, the Hardballer is generally inferior. It has a bit more stopping power but less than what you'll get in a Desert Eagle. Unless you have no other choice, you’ll probably want to pass on this one.
- Desert Eagle Mark XIX
Probably the least accurate of all the handguns, the Desert Eagle makes up for it with incredible stopping power. You won’t need a headshot to kill with this gun. A round or two fired into the torso of a target will usually send them on their way to the afterlife. Definitely not a subtle weapon. 7 rounds in the magazine.
- Luger PO8 Silenced
This gun only shows up in the mission "Traditions of the Trade", and seems to be on a par with the Beretta, but with only 8 rounds in the magazine. Use accordingly.
- Derringer
This weapon can only be obtained by use of the console command "giveall." See a different FAQ for how to do that. It’s really just a novelty weapon with poor power and accuracy, and only 4 rounds per magazine.
