It was fun figuring out all the glitches from the videos of runs on this site and I wanted to create a conprehensive list of everything I found for any new runners, since there isn’t one place for all of these glitches. I did not discover any of the glitches in this guide so let me know if I got anything wrong, missed something, etc! Enjoy!

Silent Assassain

SA Rating: In order to achieve a Silent Assassain rating, which is necessary for most Hitman: Contracts speedrun categories, the player must exit the level with mostly 0’s in all statistics. This is a list of what is acceptable, while still achieving SA rating.

-1 Alert (Warning messages on top left of screen, radiation damage in Bjarkhov Bomb counts, I’m fairly certain)

OR

-1 Close Encounter (Guard raising their weapon after seeing you, but you neutralize them before they raise an alert. Only Asylum Aftermath requires 0 CE’s for SA)

Having both of these in one run will lose SA rating

Shots Fired: 1, 2, or infinite amount at surfaces (depending on the next few categories)

Civilian Kills: 0 - Any civilian kill will ruin SA. Civilians can be silently pacified with syringes without ruining SA

Enemy Kills: 1 - One non-target enemy is usually allowed to be killed. However, this reduces the amount of shots fired to retain SA rating to 1 shot (unless they are headshots on targets). For instance, if you kill a non/target enemy with fiber wire, and another with a pistol headshot, you will lose SA. If you kill an enemy with fiber wire, you still have one shot left to use anywhere else (this is slower, though)

Enemy Harmed: If an enemy is harmed (using a panic shot, for example), this reduces the shots fired limit from infinite to 2. This does not show up at the end of a level, however.

Enemy Kill: 2? - I have not tested this personally, but apparently 2 enemy kills is allowed in some cases. There cannot be more than one Alert, and everything else needs to be 0 across the board. These would then assumedly both need to be fiber wire kills since 0 shots can be fired

Suspicion Meter: The suspicion meter is located in the bottom left corner, to the right of 47’s health bar. This meter will fill when NPC’s are becoming suspicious of 47.

Cover Blown: Having your cover blown ruins SA almost every time. Your cover will be blown if any NPC sees you hold an illegal item such as a gun, fiber wire, or syringe. Preforming an illegal action such as shooting, killing an NPC, syringing an NPC, etc will also blow your cover. Running past enforcer NPS (covered later), usually guards, will tend to blow your cover as well. Your cover will not be blown unless your suspicion meter becomes completely full, a red bar is okay. However, since your cover being blown counts as an alert. You can have your cover blown once and still preserve SA rating as long as you don’t enter combat.

Animation Skips

Pickup Animation Skip (Orthmeyer keycard and other items): When 47 is equipping his pistols, he cannot preform pickup animations. However, if an item is picked up immediately after 47’s pistol equip animation ends, followed by opening/closing the map, the pickup animation can be skipped. In Asylum Aftermath, if you instantaneously equip your pistols upon loading into the level and start running forward, you will arrive at Orthmeyer’s keycard exactly as the equip animation ends. If you spam the use key, which I have bound to “F”, and the map key while sprinting, you can skip this animation without needing to stop running. I personally set my map key to “G”, and equip to “MMB” to make this a bit easier.

“Take Clothes” Animation Skip: With some practice, you can do this pretty quickly and reliably. First, select the “take clothes” option while standing over an NPC. Next (as fast as possible and in this exact order), hold “W” followed by the binoculars key + the inventory key to close the binoculars. I have those keys bound to “C” and “Space” respectively. This works for the “Change Clothes” prompt as well. You need to have “W” held down before opening binoculars or this will not work.

Fiber Wire Animation Skip: If 47 and another NPC are on different height levels, such as on stairs or sitting down, most of the fiber wire strangling animation will be skipped. It is possible to recreate this on a level surface by bumping into the NPC first before strangling them, but I find it to be inconsistent everytime I try.

Window Vault Animation Skip: Equip a syringe before you climb through a window. As soon as your left foot touches the windowframe, press the “fire” button to skip the rest of the animation. If you do this too early, you will need to restart the process

NPC Behavior

Head Turns: Keep track of where a NPC’s head is turned, they can spot you while picking locks and other illegal activities this way. To the best of my knowledge, these head turns aren’t random for most guards and can be predicted consistently

Sliding: Usually in Hitman: Contracts, NPCs will react to 47’s sprinting footsteps by turning in his direction, but they will not be as aware of 47 while he is walking. Also, when 47 is transitioning from a running to walking animation, he stutters backwards slightly. If you repeatedly tap “W” during this stutter, 47 will “Slide”, moving at the (slightly slower, I believe) pace of a sprint while producing the same noise/suspicion of walking. Therefore, this allows you to bypass areas or enforcers you would usually need to walk through much faster. The most effective way to “Skip” is to find the rythym of tapping “W” where 47 freezes in place and seems like he is gliding across the map. This is probably the most useful and easiest trick in this guide.

Enforcers: Similar to the modern Hitman Trilogy, there are certain NPCs in Hitman: Contracts that seem to be more aware of their surroundings than others. It is possible to memorize which NPCs are more suspicious of 47 as they will not change and therefore use “Sliding” to get by around them quickly. You can identify these NPCs pretty easily, as the suspicion meter will turn red just by being near them.

Panic Shots: This isn’t as reliable as in the modern Hitman trilogy, but sometimes if you shoot certain guards in the body or feet, you can skip checks. This works in Traditions of the Trade by shooting the guard in front of the hotel. I am not sure if you retain SA from doing this. I think it may cause you to lose SA but I have not investigated this enough.

Distraction Shots: Also not as reliable as in the modern Hitman trilogy, but guards can be moved by shooting at surfaces near them. This works well on Traditions of the Trade. Shooting the nearest crosswalk marking to the ID guard, causes him to run inside the hotel, bypassing the check. This can also work in Meat King’s Party by shooting the wall behind the frisk guard before you turn the corner.

Briefcase Past Metal Detectors: On Traditions of the Trade, if you drop your sniper case right before the metal detector, and allow the second guard to check you. You can pick it up and run through afterwords.

Syringe Glitches

Priming Syringe: Hold the “use” button + “Fire” button while holding a syringe to prime it. If the syringe is pointed in the air, it is primed

Ladder Teleport: While 47 is touching the top or bottom of a ladder, you can prime a syringe. If you keep this syringe held out (you can release “use” but keep “fire” held), 47 will teleport back to the point where you were touching the ladder as soon as you let go of the “fire” button. You can place items like the submarine bombs while holding the syringe out.

Balcony Anywhere: This glitch allows you to do a balcony jump anywhere. First hold out your syringe near the balcony. Then, similar to priming a syringe, Hold down the “use” key and make sure “Jump from Balcony” is highlighted. Next, hold down the “fire” key and release the “use” key. You can now walk any distance from the balcony and once “fire” is released, you will preform a balcony jump animation from where you are standing. This can be used in Traditions of the Trade to hop down to a different balcony or in Hunter and Hunted to fall to the ground quickly.

Syringe in Beldingford Manor: For whatever reason, having your syringe equipped in Beldingford Manor will make all guards less suspicious of you, allowing you to run freely through most the level without needing to Slide. This only works on Beldingford Manor, unfortunately.