[H2SA] Hitman 2 rating system explained

Hitman2 Scoring System Described
by K.C. Nash

To get the rating 'Silent Assassin', your rating table at the end of the mission has to be mostly zeros:

• zero alerts,
• zero kills,‡
• zero close encounters,
• zero harm done to a character‡,
etc.

‡ Your mission target (e.g. Don/General/Terrorist) isn't added to the Enemies Killed section of the chart, but if you shoot them, then the *shot* is added. As is *where* you hit them (i.e. If you score a headshot it's counted on the result/ranking table)

The Best Way to Control the Ranking You Get is to Use a Points System to Track Your Progress:

Imagine that we use the 'shot' as a basic unit to measure the number of Alerts & Close Encounters sustained, guards & civilians killed, and bullets fired.

Using the 'shot' as the basic unit, one bullet used would equal one unit (one 'shot'):

1 bullet fired = 1 shot,
2 bullets fired = 2 shots, etc.

Here's how to apply the points system:

To get S.A. you can't use more than 3 shots (if you get through the whole Anathama mission and find yourself standing outside of the villa grounds with no Alerts, no Close Encounters, no shots fired (let's say instead of shooting the Don you wired him) etc., then your results/rating screen would look like this:

Shots Fired: 0
Close Encounters: 0
Headshots: 0
Alerts: 0
Guards killed: 0
Civilians killed:0
Guards Wounded: 0
Civilians Wounded: 0

Rating: Silent Assassin

Imagine that at that point (outside the villa grounds), instead of running to the exit to complete the mission and view the ratings screen, you fired 4 shots from your 9mmPistolSD into the air, and then ran to the exit. Your results/rating screen would look like this:

Shots Fired: 4
Close Encounters: 0
Headshots: 0
Alerts: 0
Guards killed: 0
Civilians killed:0
Guards Wounded: 0
Civilians Wounded: 0

Rating: Professional

If you only fired 3 shots it would look like this:

Shots Fired: 3
Close Encounters: 0
Headshots: 0
Alerts: 0
Guards killed: 0
Civilians killed:0
Guards Wounded: 0
Civilians Wounded: 0

Rating: Silent Assassin

The reason for this is that to get the Silent Assassin rating (S.A.), you can't fire more than 3 shots.

How I know this:

I went through the entire Anathema mission without a single bullet fired, Alert raised, guard or civilian harmed, or bullet fired, but instead of running to the level's exit, I saved the game so that I could keep re-loading it to experiment with the result/ratings. This is what I found (all shots were fired into the air using the silenced 9mm pistol from the top of the hill outside the Villa Bourghese side entrance after killing the don and opening the room with the key):

Up to 3 shots = Silent Assassin,

4 --> 25 shots = Professional,

26 --> 40 shots = Ninja Extraordinaire,

41 --> 75 shots = Ghost,

76 and up = Sociopath(I fired 356 shots and still got sociopath (go figure:P))

((***Note:To win the bonus weapons complete the level using only 2shots or less.))

Now Here's the Tricky Part

Say you loaded the saved game (where you've killed the don, opened the room in the basement etc.) but instead of shooting into the air, you wired the guard that pees against the tree, shot *2* bullets and ran to the exit without incurring a single Alert or Close Encounter. Well, then your results/rating screen would look like this:

Shots Fired: 2
Close Encounters: 0
Headshots: 0
Alerts: 0
Guards killed: 1
Civilians killed:0
Guards Wounded: 0
Civilians Wounded: 0

Rating: Professional

Q. Why?

A. Because killing one of the guards is counted as an unnecessary kill and costs you the equivalent of 1.5 bullets fired:

1 guard killed = 1.5 shots

So if you wired the guard, as above, but only fired 1 bullet into the air instead of 2, your results/rating screen would look like this:

Shots Fired: 1
Close Encounters: 0
Headshots: 0
Alerts: 0
Guards killed: 1
Civilians killed:0
Guards Wounded: 0
Civilians Wounded: 0

Rating: Silent Assassin

Q. Why?

A. Because:

1 dead guard = 1.5 shots,

1 bullet fired = 1 shot,

Making a total of 2.5 shots
(so, you've used *less* than three shots, and so get the 'Silent Assassin' rating.)

In the example before that last one, you wired the guard and fired 2 shots into the air, so:

1 dead guard = 1.5 shots,
2 bullets fired = 2 shots,
Making a total of 3.5 shots (which falls into the 'Professional' category (4 --> 25 shots), i.e. 0.5 or 1/2 of a shot over the 3-shot-limit for the 'Silent Assassin' rating.

This information should help you to plan your approach, e.g.:

Do you want to fire a bullet and to take out a tricky guard (if you could wire the guard you could save the shots for say, shooting out a light to increase your stealth (tricky guard wired = 1.5 shots. Shooting out a light = 1 shot. Total = 2.5 shots (still within the 'Silent Assassin' limit)))

e.g. Say you need to snipe your mission target-- then you can't use a bullet to take out any of the guards-- if you need to take a guard out you have to use either the wire, the anaesthetic, or the knife (Sniping the target = 1 shot. Taking out a guard with a second shot = 2.5 shots (bullet = 1 shot. Guard = 1.2 shots (2.5 shots)), so the total would be 3.5 (0.5 over the 3 shot limit for 'Silent Assassin' rating)-- I'll work through that example again to explain it:

Sniping the target = 1 shot,
Firing 1 bullet at the guard = 1 shot,
1 dead guard = 1.5 shots,
So the total equals 3.5 shots (0.5 shots over the 3 shot limit for 'Silent Assassin'. This would give you a rating/results screen like the following:

Shots Fired: 2
Close Encounters: 0
Headshots: 1
Alerts: 0
Guards killed: 1
Civilians killed:0
Guards Wounded: 0
Civilians Wounded: 0

Rating: Professional

So, again:

The *Ratings* Table

Silent Assassin = up to 3 shots,

Professional = 4 --> 25 shots,

Ninja Extraordinaire = 26 --> 40 shots,

Ghost = 41 --> 75 shots,

Sociopath = 76 and upwards (I fired a total of 356 shots and it still gave me the 'Sociopath' rating)

((*** Note: To win the bonus weapons complete the level using only 2 shots or less. ))

So Here's:

The *Scoring* Table

• 1 bullet fired = 1 shot,
• 1 dead guard = 1.5 shots,
• 1 dead civilian = somewhere between 1.5 & 2 shots,

• 1 Alert due to unconscious guard or civilian found = 1.5 shots (so 2 Alerts due to unconscious guard or civilian found = 3 shots)

• 1 Alert = 1 shot (but 2 Alerts and you lose 'Silent Assassin' status (that's just the way it is))

• 1 Close Encounter = 1 shot (but 2 Close Encounters and you lose 'Silent Assassin' status (just the way it is))

So:

Combinations You Can Use and Still Get the 'Silent Assassin' Rating

(assuming you 'wire' or 'pig-sticker' the Don/Terrorist/General):

• 1 guard killed with a bullet to the head,

• 1 guard wired, and 1 bullet fired (maybe to break a light for cover of darkness)

• 2 guards wired (worth a total of 3 shots (1.5 each))

• 1 alert, 1 guard wired,

• 1 alert, 2 bullets fired,

• 1 close encounter, 1 guard wired,

• 1 close encounter, 2 bullets fired,

• 1 civilian killed, 1 bullet fired,

• 2 people (either civilian or guard) found unconscious = 3 shots ('Silent Assassin' status retained).

***Note: 1 civilian killed, 1 guard killed = 'Silent Assassin' rating lost ('Professional' rating gained (guard =1.5; civilian = somewhere between 1.5 & 2 shots (total = somewhere over the 3 shot limit for S.A.))

((*** Note: To win the bonus weapons complete the level using only 2 shots or less. ))

So How Do The Other Ratings Break Down?,

It seems that the scoring can't be worked out exactly, because the way it's set up makes adding bullets & bodies a little like adding and subtracting numbers from different bases-- so the borderlines between the ratings are a little fuzzy.

I've found that each dead guard is the equivalent of about *2* shots (1.89 is closer) [If you're playing for the 'Silent Assassin' rating, still count each dead guard as the equivalent of 1.5 shots (you can kill 2 guards and still get S.A.)]

Professional (4 --> 25 shots) equals:

• 12 wire kills [ 12 x 2 = 24 or 25 ? 2 = 12.5]

• 8 bullet kills, [ (8 x 1) + (8 x 2) = 24 ]

Note-- Every 2 bullet-kills cost you 6 shots:

2 bullets (one for each guard) = 2 shots,
2 dead guards (2 shots each) = 4 shots,
Total = 6 shots

((Shots may sometimes be important to save, because they can be used to break lights for extra stealth (cover of darkness), and can be used to distract guards with arm and leg shots, [it would be cool if a leg shot would make them limp and slow them down & if you could shoot a wall to create a sound to distract them, with certain guards taking cover, and others just being confused]))

The Two Scoring Systems

If you kill *over* a certain number of people on a level but 4 of your bullets miss the target (so that you waste four bullets/shots), then you're automatically dropped down a rating (this *doesn't* happen when you have a low body-count, so I imagine it's to penalize the player for shots wasted in the "Aggressive" approach.)

So if your aim is to kill *everyone*, then hopefully you *wont* rank 'Sociopath' just for a high number of clean kills, because that would mean you could achieve the same ranking just by killing fewer guards and being careless with your bullets, or worse, dropping a couple of civilians to bump your points up (meaning the only logical explanation for scoring 'Sociopath' for a body-count *over* a certain number, would be if IOI either *hasn't* designed the scoring sytem to cater for 'big-hitters', *or* that they've allowed a margin for error as the number of kills grow.(more on that as I work it out)).

((Don't forget the game is set up so that you can approach the missions in two ways: the "Stealth" approach & the "Agression" approach-- they're probably as difficult as each other to complete totally efficiently (Efficiency is the baseline standard for both the "Aggressive" & "Stealth" approaches (Don't forget you can drop down a ranking for careless fire) -- So there may very well be a ranking that's just as prestigious as 'Silent Assassin', for the "Agressive" approach.)))

I tested out the '4-bullet automatic-level-downgrade' by using a combination of headshots and bullets fired into the air, and came up with the following:

'Ninja Extraordinaire' with 12 clean headshots, no Alerts, no Close Encounters etc. (Score = 36 'shots') is down-graded to the 'Ghost' ranking if four of your bullets miss the target.

'Ghost' with 24 clean headshots, no Alerts etc. (Score = 72), drops down to 'Sociopath' if you miss your target with four of your shots.

So it's possible that if you continued to score clean headshots with no alerts etc. then you should eventually hit the 'Sociopath' rating (going by the 'Shot' scoring-system I've described, this should be at around 26 or 27 *'clean'* headshots-- but as I say, the actual scoring for bullets & bodies don't match each other exactly, so the boarderlines between rankings are fuzzy (on the boarderline between rankings, seemingly similar combinations of bullets & bodies will give you differing results)).

'Mass Murderer' hopefully replaces 'Sociopath' to give us a new target to play for when replaying the missions, but I've not killed enough guards on a single mission to varify that.

But don't forget: four wasted bullets and you're dropped a ranking-- So, sloppy shooting where you're spraying bullets everywhere will get you dropped way down the rating table-- in short: the more efficient you are, the better you're going to place in the rankings (hopefully), regardless of which of the two approaches you use.

There is an exception to this rule however: If you shoot the guards in the legs or arms without them finding you, you'll still score an Alert, but you'll start getting cool ratings like 'Shadow' and 'Iceman'.

I scored the 'Iceman' rating when I had a close encounters but still dropped all of my targets with a single headshot. I also got 'Iceman' when I was playing around shooting the guards in the leg from a hiding place in an effort to score some alerts to see what rating I'd get.

I got the 'Butcher' rating with 26 clear headshots, and 3 alerts when the guards found three of the ninjas I'd shot. I've also had the rating 'Cleaner' when more of my bodies were found, but I think that's probably a sarcastic rating:P (Cleaner should be when you wipe out the entire complement of guards and dispose of their bodies without being detected;)).

You can get dropped down to 'Executioner' if you score 2 to 4 alerts; 5 alerts and you're dropped down to 'Expert'.

I've scored 'Expert' and 'Button Man' when I've had quite a mixture of Alerts, Close Encounters, body-shots, head-shots, and kills.

The Main Rankings

In this order:

1. Silent Assassin,

2. Professional,

3. Ninja Extraordinaire,

4. Ghost,

5. Sociopath,


Predicted Rankings

If you look at the patterns that are being revealed you might imagine the rankings to break-down something like this:

Core Rankings:

Silent Assassin,

Professional,

Ninja Extraordinaire,

Ghost,

Sociopath,

Rankings That Override the 'Core Rankings' Based on Amount & Combination of Alerts, Encounters, Woundings, etc.:

Rankings Related to the "Stealth" Approach:

• Executioner
• Expert


• Butcher
• Cleaner

• Iceman
• Shadow

Rankings Related to the "Aggression" Approach[?]:

• Psychopath
• Postal

• Mass Murderer
• Slayer

• Henchman
• Hatchet man

Rankings Possibly Common to Both "Stealth" & "Aggression" Approaches:

• Natural
• Button man
• Hired gun
• Thug

I've not tested this however, so this is sort of just a guess based on the logic of what I've been able to reveal so far.

It's very possible that the 'Postal' & 'Mass Murderer' rankings exist *in place of* 'Sociopath', and are scored based on the number of 'clean' kills (i.e. not wasting bullets or being spotted etc.,). This would give extra replay value, because we'd have a new incentive to play for on subsequent attempts.

I've been assuming that the scoring system is symetrical for both approaches, but for the "Agression" Approach, it could be - and I'm hoping it is - linear, instead of lateral.

It may even be the case that ratings like 'Iceman' & 'Shadow' might apply to both approaches (which I now imagine is the case).

If you want to check out any of the above, I could email you some good savegames that make testing easier wink.gif

K.C. Nash