Introduction
When doing a run, make sure you run the game in offline mode (if possible). Also do the run on easy difficulty. If you’re on PC, download the patch in Resources. That patch allows you to do the A2M8 glitch. It does not seem to work on later versions. The console versions may or may not need to use alternative strategies for that mission.
The save files for PC are located somewhere like C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\savegames\ or Steam\userdata(your_user_ID)\243470\remote\savedata . You can download the saves in Resources and use them for practice. If you don't have the correct weapons when you load a save, you probably loaded a save from later in the game with those weapons, and then loaded a save earlier in the game. You might need to exit out the game and then replace the save again to fix this.
There is also something interesting about the cash run challenges in this game. The cash run challenges can carry over from a previous playthrough. So make sure you delete them before starting a new run. That means it's possible to do a NG+ category with the teleport points already created.
For the guides, abbreviations like A1M1 mean Act 1, Mission 1. Use the videos of the runs (in the links) and/or my WR run to help you understand what is going on.
The hacking puzzles (except for the last one) are barely mentioned in this guide, but you can find them in the hacking puzzle tutorial. You can also use my runs as a reference, but it is hard to see since I do them so quickly.
I will also mention robberies (as well as locations to obtain money) in the any% guides. Money is needed in this run to obtain the Sayonara (priced at $10000 with no discount DLC). The Sayonara is probably the best vehicle in the game. If you want to do the robberies, I recommend memorizing all locations and practicing them well if you don't want to lose any time doing them. Here is a guide of all the news stand locations. If you don't want to obtain the Sayonara, you can ignore all this.
You can use this map as a reference as well as the General Knowledge guide to supplement these guides.
Lastly, if you are doing a fullgame run (on PC), it is recommended for you to be playing in Japanese because it saves 20-25 seconds throughout the run. If you are on console and have access to Portuguese, it is probably the faster language there.
A1M1 Bottom of the Eighth
After exiting the locker room, you can go diagonally through the doors of the small room and sprint across.
At the dumpster (before the door), you can do a parkour move to use it to jump over the railing.
When you reach the door with the objective (before the first camera), don't aim your gun until Aiden begins his dialogue there. You can aim your gun to position yourself slightly behind the door (but don't aim too long because that can delay the ability to hack the camera) to make it so that Aiden will phase through the door when you are finished hacking the terminals. For the very first camera, you don't hack it immediately. Wait a sec until your camera stops moving to hack it so that the camera will face the correct way when it's hacked. https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxJrAERY5NxhcNnh3YnH6bpOWT9xAO07xa
In the room with the lone guard, run close to the wall on the left before going up the escalator so that the guard won't detect you. If you jump diagonally at the escalator, you can just jump onto it.
Use the cover system again after running up the escalator to slide to the wall near the door. Again, use the vault button to exit cover and go through the door.
You can profile the guard with the access code faster by by not profiling the other guy or terminal.
When hacking the place for the blackout, it is always in the same position in the bottom right of the weapon wheel, so you can select it quicker.
Use the cover system to slide in the bar area at the exit.
After exiting the building, take the car that is parked near the sign. You can hack people here for money if going for the Sayonara strat. So now you go left and straight. Drive to the right of the first police car. For the second police car, go through the gas station to avoid it. Try to avoid crashing into any objects. After escaping the police zone, reload autosave to spawn at the motel.
Motel (Bottom of the Eighth)
You can also hack people at the motel for money if going for the Sayonara strat. You can turn climb at the stairs to get up to the second floor quicker:
Be sure to collect all items inside the hotel (system key, electronic parts, chemical component, and unstable chemical component) while talking on the phone. Spam the phone button right before the phone conversation is finished to get into the skill tree menu faster. Get these skills: Gates & Garages, Bridges, Car Unlock, Frag Grenades, and Focus. You can also get blockers instead of bridges at this time (you can get the other one during A1M5). Or skip one of these and get the precision aim skill instead (You can then get the other skill later during A2M8). The animation for Aiden getting out of the bed can be skipped by exiting out of the sleep menu the first time. Go back into the sleep menu again to sleep, and Aiden should already be out of the bed when the dream cutscene ends. Just make sure you do this quickly for it to work.
They Can't Hide
Potential Crime Intro - They Cant Hide
This hacking part is interesting. Generally, you have to get money and a system key first before you can get the random event to continue. Hack one person as soon as you get control (you should get money most likely from this). Because you can’t hack anyone while Aiden is talking, jump down to the street. Hack either the person on the balcony or someone on the street; that should give you a system key.
Run to the other side of the street to the sidewalk. You should profile people near the fixed performance car spawn instead of the sidewalk for the potential crime (unless you see a performance car on the road). The benches nearby seem to always have people. There might also be some people behind a fence. It is faster than getting a good spawn on the road. If there are two people close to each other, you can cycle between them to get the potential crime. You can also do this with one person: move the cursor on and off them repeatedly until you get the potential crime.
You can skip the cutscene, pop-up, and wait for the potential crime introduction. Shoot the person whose phone you hack into for the crime to start, and the crime will be instantly placed on the map. Throwing a grenade after that will fail the potential crime and complete the objective. The potential crime can also be skipped without needing to shoot the person to skip the potential crime call. You can also skip the potential crime call by hacking another person, a lure, or blockers (at 101+ fps only). If you want to hack another person, don't throw a grenade next to them because that will scare them.
When driving to the next mission, try to not run over anyone to avoid having to create jam coms to stop callers from calling the cops. When driving to the next mission, you can also do some power turns. Power turning is using focus to help you turn vehicles.
A1M2 (Big Brother)
This is where the mission restart trick is first utilized. After triggering the mission, immediately restart the mission to skip the beginning cutscene thing where Aiden talks to himself. Sometimes you’ll also teleport closer to the next objective like in this mission. Not every mission uses this trick, so try to look for that.
There is a strat here called the phone call skip: just walk between Nicky’s room and the hallway before the call. You’re successful if she says: “Listen. The police can trace this call.” There is also an easier/alternate way to do this skip. Just wait in the kitchen and walk behind Nicky when you see her pull the phone out (see the glow of the phone): https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxfQV-7Oy-LJdtuuj3eYX040EjAx_WSysg
After hacking her phone, walk towards the backyard of the house. There can be someone on the other side of the fence who has a system key.
When you skip the cutscene, there is a fade. Try to spam sprint as much as you can during the fade. What I would try to do is skip the cutscene and spam the buttons at the same time (sprint button is the same as skip cutscene for me). Moving forward can be held as you're spamming the other buttons. So spam sprint and skip cutscene, and hold forward. This is with sprint toggled to off, so your inputs may be different in that case. If you did that successfully, then you should be close enough to enter the car. Drive the car forward before the map shows up. When that finishes, get out of the car and use your focus to shoot the guy in the car.
Another method with toggle sprint off is this:
- Hold sprint and w (forward)
- When the fade appears, release sprint but still hold w
- You skip the cutscene and spam interact (or whatever button you use to get in the car), while still holding w
If you have toggle sprint on, you can do this instead. Just make sure to be sprinting before the cutscene and don't spam "skip cutscene" too hard.
Route if you Don't Hack Another Person To Skip the "Damien" Call
You can drive forward to about 12-15m away from the car to hack the guy. Try to find your own distance to be safe. Go left after going through the gate to the fixed bike spawn. See images below for a fixed spawn.* Make your way to the start of A2M4 (One Foot in the Grave) after getting the vehicle. Be careful not to run over any pedestrians.
There is a way to skip part of phone conversations, so we try to use that during this part. By bailing out of a vehicle, you can skip Aiden’s lines (only his lines) when he is talking on the phone. So bail out of the bike near the A2M4 start. Try to find your own reference part for bailing out of the car. I jump out after Badboy finishes saying “easy” (This reference point may be different in Japanese). The speed of your vehicle can strongly affect the skip, so try not to go too fast while doing it.
Another new strat is introduced here: cash run challenges warp. Access it by going to the cash run challenges app on your phone. Create a new challenge. You can either place down one or two coins for your preference, but one is generally faster. If you are doing two, make sure to turn off the auto-drop before you place the second coin because it makes it a lot easier. Place the two coins down while going towards your location. The first coin can be placed anywhere, but the second one is dropped where you want to teleport to. After placing the coin(s), go save your challenge. This teleport point will be for A2M4 and A2M5.
Here’s a fast strat to get out of the cash run challenges menu. When the challenge is done saving, go to publish and options (middle mouse button for mouse but different for controllers). Then delete all coins and confirm (two left clicks for mouse). That should leave you at exit editor. Confirm again and close the phone menu.
Route if you Hack Another Person or Lure To Skip the "Damien" Call (Faster)
If you hack another person, make sure you use the silenced pistol to kill the guy instead (so that you don't scare anyone) and go back into the car. Then hack the camera in the gated community to find someone to hack to skip the "Damien call". There may be people on the sidewalks or on the street somewhere. This skip works because the audio is "intercepted audio".
You can also hack a lure instead of hacking somebody, so you have to have at least one electronic part to be able to do it. The Gold D50 can be used to shoot the guy if you are doing the "lure way".
After hacking someone or the lure, you want to go to the fixed bike spawn to get a bike. Then head to the bunker spot to create the cash run.
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxui6Kdzill6HfQGahw88F98nYMp2n9Gm0
Foresight/Gun Shop
Go to the gun shop and park your car/bike close to the door. Exit and shoot your gun (make sure it's not the silenced pistol) outside the gun shop (make sure the autosave for the mission comes in first) to scare the gun shop owner. This will skip the rifle purchase (you don't need it). After scaring him, you can rob the gun shop and go back to your car/bike. Make sure to not leave until Aiden finishes saying “Better double my weapons.” A good reference point is the flower pot; don’t go past that until Aiden finishes that line. Also be careful not to run over pedestrians because they can call cops.
If you want to go for the GL strat in Breakable Things and don't want to buy it during Not the Pizza Guy (A1M7), then you want to make a CR at the gun shop to teleport to later (wait until the autosave appears first before you can make one).
A1M3 (Backstage Pass)
My reference point is to crash into the crate and then angle my camera to hack the camera inside the building (with the car). With the bike, just drive a little bit past the crates and angle the camera. You might also be able to switch to the far camera to make the camera a bit easier to hack. Hack the attract and then hack the guard. Be careful not to hack the steam inside the building. If you still struggle with this, you can switch to the far camera in the vehicle to make it easier to hack the camera inside the building.
A1M3 to A1M4 (Hacking Contract)
A1M3 to A1M4 - Hacking Contract
When driving to this mission, you can make a cash run challenge to teleport next to the prison to use for A1M9 (Dressed in Peels) after A1M8 (Wrench in the Works).
For the fixer guy, if you have a car, just get out of the car and shoot him instead of running him over because they have trouble going up the stairs. Use the silenced pistol here because you don’t want people to call the cops (the scans can interrupt you). With a bike here, it is probably faster to run him over. You will have to kill the guy quickly (can't get the line where Aiden says, "There you are! You're mine now.") if you want to do the dialogue skip at the end of this mission.
After the guy is killed, you can rob some news stands if you're going for the Sayonara strat, but only do the last one (or none) if you are doing the Aiden dialogue skip.
You can skip the line at the end of the mission when Aiden says "Well someone's taken an interest in me..." if you were able to kill the hacker quickly. Do this near the next mission location so that you can rob the news stand as well.
2.5-3 seconds after Aiden says “grid” or if the dialogue is skipped, access the online contracts app; this is so that you don't have to wait for the game to tell you to do so.
A1M4 (Backseat Driver)
There is a chance for some fast cars to spawn if you restart mission, so it is worth it to restart mission here because of that and due to the opening cutscene being skipped. If other fast cars (sports cars/performance cars) do not spawn, take the fixed Kirschenbaum to the next location. Try to drive on the stairs to the right when going past the first police car. That should make the police guy less likely to detect you.
Power Turning can also save a few seconds on this mission.
For the new route, you need to use some power turning to get past the cops. Then you need to wait until the guy says, "Oh fuck man, they said you were good. You did it." in the cutscene to skip it and avoid the softlock. This new route is risky because you can sometimes lose your speed and not have enough to get past the cops past the bridge. However, if you go slow enough and don't fly over the policeman, you can do a backup strat to run him over.
It doesn't matter if people call the cops on you heading into the alley cutscene. You will lose the call once the cutscene starts.
On the way to A1M5, bail out of the car two times. I do it around when Jordi starts to say “Finish that job yet?” The second bail out is when he starts to say “Driving gigs.” These reference points may be different in Japanese. Again, try to find your own reference points for the bail outs.
At the end of the mission, you can rob the news stand if going for the Sayonara strat.
A1M5 (Open Your World)
Restart mission.
It is possible to get on the bike before the skills menu pops up. If you manage to do that, gain a little speed first before opening up the menu. Get blackout, improved focus, blockers/bridges, and disable helicopter.
When you reach the ctOS place, you can decide to run over the guard in front or drive past him (Running over him might give you more time before the guys start shooting at you). Past the entrance, you can decide to drive towards either side with the bike, but it's preferable to go towards the side near the terminal. From there, you can decide either to run over the first guy or just drive past him to go towards the second guy (right next to the door) instead. That guy can also be run over by the motorcycle. If you need an extra system key, you can get the one here on the way in. This system key will respawn if you reload the autosave later. You can also drive up the stairs with your bike to kill the guard right next to the door, but that can be risky. If that guard keeps shooting you, you might have to kill him to be safe.
When you reach the room with the boxes, you can grab the unstable chemical component without losing time. You can also grab the electrical components at a slight time loss instead if you feel that you will need them later in Act 2.
Use the cameras to hack the access code and the access point. After hacking the laptop, reload your autosave to skip the rest of the phone conversation.
Old Strat (Evading Scans) - Slower
On the way out, collect all the items: unstable chemical component and three electronic parts. This does not waste any time because you have to wait for the yellow circles to disappear anyway/dialogue. Also get the system key on the way out. When the objective for "Escape the Police scan undetected" shows up, you can use an early jam com to skip the slomo that shows up when Clara asks you to use them, saving 1-2 secs.
The scans have RNG. If you get stationary scans, that is perfect and you can save 30 seconds or more. Moving scans will cost you that 30 seconds. Sometimes there can also be a mix of both moving and stationary scans; this can be a varying amount. Being in the yellow circles does not actually waste any time unless it’s the last scan or you get detected by the cops. You can also try profiling people to see if they have system keys or money. In this section, you can also rob news stands if you're going for the Sayonara strat. But you have to be careful of the scans and rob only 2 (if you get good scans) or 3 (if you get bad/hybrid scans).
Faster Strat (Escaping Police)
If you don't want to deal with the scan RNG, you can go for the alternate strat that is faster. Before reloading the autosave, you can change the difficulty. I also use the RMB for exiting the menu quickly.
On the way out, collect all the items: unstable chemical component and three electronic parts. This does not waste any time because you have to wait for the yellow circles to disappear anyway/dialogue. Also get the system key on the way out. When the objective for "Escape the Police scan undetected" shows up, you can use an early jam com to skip the slomo that shows up when Clara asks you to use them, saving 1-2 secs.
The new police escape strats are pretty consistent and should eliminate the scan RNG on this mission most of the time. They work whether you get moving or stationary scans. The only problem this strat causes is fewer robberies in the run.
Drive over to A1M6 start.
A1M6 (Thanks for the Tip)
Restart mission. Also, you can collect the unstable chemical component before climbing up the ladder, but you can skip it and collect some later. Then you want to do the fastest strat in this video. You can use the grenade to destroy the explosive box or hack it (and the regulator/steam at a convenient time if you want.
It is faster to skip the sniper rifle here. You can still get it if you want to, so you would need to kill the sniper with the explosion and pick up the rifle off the ground.
Make sure to craft a blackout/switch to it for the part with the fixers.
A blackout can sometimes be not necessary to evade the fixers, but it makes it 99% consistent. So you can use the blackout after the enemies detect you. When driving to the next location, be careful not to crash into any of the fixer cars because that will make them detect you even if you used a blackout.
Make sure you are not inside your car and inside the cutscene area when you meet Damien because that can despawn the vehicle.
At the end of this mission, you can rob the news stand near the train station if you're going for the Sayonara strat.
Go to the closest train station to fast travel. Before the option opens up, you can try to see if you can get more system keys/money from random people.
Cemetery (Remember) and Post-A1M6
After you reached the other train station via fast travel, create a cash run challenge near the train station map as soon as you climb over the fence (if you spawn on that side). There should be a bike on the street. If there isn’t, take a car instead.
While driving to the cemetery, create a teleport for Act 3 start. Then create another teleport point for A4M8 (No Turning Back Pt.2) close to where the fixed SUV/truck spawns near the cemetery (don't make it too close or else the vehicle won't spawn).
You might also have to worry about police car spawns on the road to the cemetery. Reload autosave at the cemetery if they spot you to get rid of them.
At the cemetery, activating the trigger can sometimes cause an annoying white screen to show up. You can still move and open up your phone during it.
After waiting for the dialogue to finish, use the cash run challenge you created earlier to teleport to the train station. Use the fast travel at the station to teleport east of A1M7 start. This is where you need to rely on RNG because there may or may not be bike spawns on the street. You can use the Car on Demand app to spawn the Kodachi bike if there are no bikes on the street. Drive the bike to the mission start and hack the bridge if you are going for the bridge strat.
A1M7 (Not the Pizza Guy)
Don’t restart mission here because you need to keep the bike.
If you jump the bike into the rail yard by going through the gate, I recommend not to go straight. Try turning left as you are jumping in instead to avoid the wooden pole. You can also hack the bridge and use it as a ramp to jump into the rail yard. When turning onto the bridge, make sure that you are not going too fast or else you might fly past it. And when on the bridge, stick to the right first then go left:
Down at the rail yard, you can try running over the guys so that they don't shoot you. Don't run into or over any explosives. Make sure to actually hack the terminal. Park your bike near the fenced door. Make sure not to block the entrance. Don’t park too close, but also don’t park too far away because you will want to get on the bike during the helicopter cutscene.
When the cutscene is done, collect the AK-47 and system key on your way out. You can also craft the blackout here if you’re quick enough. If you want, you can also get grenades in the back. But grenades will probably not save any time.
Try getting on the bike before the helicopter cutscene triggers. You can drive the bike forward during the cutscene if you manage to get on.
After exiting the rail yard, you can craft the blackout if you haven’t already. If you crafted the blackout, use the blackout when the helicopter moves on the map/when Jordi says, "Always gotta do things the hard way, huh?" (Might be different in Japanese). Be careful to avoid crashing into any vehicles, especially the fixer cars.
If you didn't create the cash run at the gun shop earlier, you would go to the gun shop to buy the GL after getting the escape circle. Make sure to buy the GL quickly and exit the exit circle (or else it will expand).
At the end of this mission, you can rob the news stand if you're going for the Sayonara strat.
A1M8 (A Wrench in the Works)
Restart mission. The fastest strat here is to get a car on the road and use that to profile Helena. You can profile her by switching to one of the first person cameras (The hotspot or bollard might be used as a reference). However, this strat can be difficult to do if you don't know how to control the vehicles that well yet. So do the regular on-foot strats if you aren't comfortable with the car strats.
After hacking Helena Tucci, run to an optimal range where you’re still in range of her (about 20-21m).
There is a small skip here. After hacking Helena a second time, you can hack a person talking on the phone to skip that phone conversation with the Tuccis.
My vehicle of choice for the drive is the fast motorbike.
For the fixer cars, I try to park in front of the first one. Then shoot the two in that car. Use focus to kill Angelo Tucci as he begins to move. You don’t actually have to kill the driver of Tucci’s car, but it is safer to kill him if he drives past you. If he doesn’t drive past you, then you might be able to ignore him because the other fixer car can block his shots. Try to kill the last two fixers in the other car after killing Angelo Tucci.
If you have the GL instead, you can park your bike further away and shoot the cars with it.
After this mission is over, you can use the cash run that you created earlier to teleport to the next mission or drive there. If you CR teleport, you can get into cars (while waiting for the mission to end) to get crafting components.
A1M9 (Dressed in Peels)
You can hack people for system keys/money before the mission starts (if you did the CR fast travel).
Restart mission. For the guards, you’ll just have to wait for them to walk around before you can get the hack to unlock the doors. You can get a system key during this time.
On the lower level, there is a dialogue skip with the two guards in the next room. By running close to the wall before you enter the next room, the guards will stop talking (this strat does not work if you have stealth sprint). Make sure to stop sprinting a couple of steps before you enter the room with the terminal. That should prevent the first guard from detecting you. Then you hack the second guard to open the doors/hack the terminal.
You can orient your camera to face the elevator before the stadium survivor is dragged away. Take out the guard/pick up the shotgun on your way out. While waiting for the elevator, you can get a system key in the room where the other guy is (This is optional). In the elevator, reload the autosave when the blue save icon pops up.
You can pick up a focus boost while running to the laundry room. In the laundry room, pick up the M1014 shotgun. Watch closely how I kill the corrupt cops in the room. The order in which I kill them is the optimal way. Pick up the OCP-11 from one of the dead guards. This will be used along with the focus to kill the enforcer. Make sure to shoot him in the head for extra damage.
This shows a small skip that may or may not save a few seconds. Shoot and kill the prisoner before he is able to get away.
For the last two guards, make sure you reload/have enough ammo to kill them.
Before you enter the room to get the "package" from Jordi with Aiden's weapons/clothes, there is a chance for the door to not open (this is not a softlock). This may be caused by you moving too quickly because if you go back to the previous room, you can trigger the door to open.
The helicopter in this mission will spawn opposite of the direction that you are looking when you reach the checkpoint, so I look west to spawn it east. This makes it possible to hack the helicopter as soon as you run outside, saving you a couple of seconds. Disabling the helicopter will help you escape the cops quicker and more consistently.
Down on the road, try to get a bike because that can help you save over 20 seconds in the start of A2M1. If you can't find a bike, try looking on the side streets to see if any spawn or spawn one using the car app (after the mission completes).
Runs on the leaderboard are now timed with loads removed. The autosplitter is recommended to be used if you are running on PC to obtain the time with loads removed. Console runs will also be split from PC now because of this.
