Ghoul Mourning! The October Update for HITMAN 2 brings a spooky Halloween Escalation for all players to enjoy in Hawke’s Bay – but that’s not all! Three Halloween-related Legacy Challenge Packs are lined up for release alongside the 2.71.0 game update which brings a host of improvements to the game, especially for Haven Island.

On top of that, we’ve got a large game update with fixes and tweaks in all areas.

Release Details and Server Maintenance The October Update (aka 2.71.0) will arrive on October 22 and we expect it to be between 1.7 GB and 2 GB on consoles and 900 MB on PC. There will be server maintenance at the usual times between 11:00 and 15:00 UTC to prepare for this release. Stay tuned to the @IOInteractive Twitter page for updates. Please be aware that the in-game version numbering (2.71.0) might differ from the update name that is used by your console.



Game Update 2.71.0: What’s Changing? The Fate of Bartoli the Twelfth

We have made a final resolution to the Bartoli Saga. The Bartoli 12G is an unlockable weapon in New York and will retain the properties of being concealable on Agent 47 but it can no longer be selected as a starting weapon. Instead, it will need to be placed in a stash and retrieved during a mission. We went back and forwards on this issue a few times but ultimately settled on a solution that works consistently without other issues. If you still want to experience walking into Paris and having your invitation checked whilst holding a shotgun, you’d better be quick. We recommend using the Lynch Suit for best results.

Trophies and Tribulations

We have addressed a community-reported issue where trophies and achievements for completing Maximum location mastery were not awarded, despite players fulfilling the requirements. Upon launching the game with the 2.71.0 update installed, players are advised to launch the mission from the menu (do not load a save) and then complete the mission fully.

Location XP

We have made changes that will ensure players unlock trophies and achievements for completing the maximum location mastery, even if the final XP was earned on the Patient Zero campaign missions or a Special Assignment.

Sniper Suppression

We’ve fixed a community-reported issue where the suppressor of the Druzhina 34 Arctic could be misplaced after a load/save cycle.

Sniper Mode Menu

We have made a community-requested change to the Sniper Assassin menu flow. Now, after completing a match, you will be able to return directly to the Sniper Assassin Game Mode page, making it quicker and easier to choose another map to play.

Sniper Leaderboards

We have made a back-end change to the Sniper Assassin leaderboards to ensure the current high scores are legitimate and put measures in place to prevent further unattainable scores.

Druzhina Perk

We have updated the description of the Druzhina 34 ICA Arctic to accurately describe the perks that it has. “Marksman”, “Suppressor” and “Versatile Scope” have been added. For the sake of clarity, no gameplay changes have been made to the weapon.

Sniper Render

We have fixed an issue in the Sniper Assassin Mode that could cause characters to appear in low resolution when viewed at the lowest zoom level.

Rifle Reload

We have fixed a community-reported issue in Mumbai where the Kashmirian’s rifle can disappear after a save/load cycle.

Discover Paradise

We have fixed a community-reported issue where some players were unable to complete the ‘Discover Haven Island’ challenge and would get stuck on 40/41.

Trick or…

We have fixed a community-reported issue where the Banana on Haven Island was considered an illegal item on Casual Difficulty, but not on other difficulties. Now, it will be considered illegal on all difficulties.

Paradise Lockdown

We have made some changes that could cause some unexpected AI behaviour during a Target Lockdown in Haven Island.

What Did the Chef Say?

We have fixed an issue where the Chef in Haven Island was missing subtitles for their dialogue.

Haven Animation

We have made several fixes to animation issues on Haven Island, including when 47 gets a massage, NPC’s typing on keyboards, guards sitting and standing and NPC’s eating food.

Butler Blunder

We have fixed an issue where the Butler would ask 47 to wait for Tyson Williams, even if Tyson is already in the room when 47 enters.

Jetski Explosions

We have fixed an issue where using explosives on an unused jetski in Haven Island would make it disappear entirely.

Deck Chair Protection Incorporated

We have fixed an issue where Agent 47 isn’t removed from a ‘hiding in plain sight’ (HIPS) spot on the deck chairs despite entering the combat state.

Fishy Remains

We have fixed an issue in Haven Island where picking up a fish would leave a invisible collision box that would impede 47’s movement.

Toilet Collision

We have fixed an issue where it was not possible to throw items into the toilets in the Haven Island gym and restaurant. We look forward to players now being able to fill all of the toilet bowls with all sorts of items. Upvotes inbound.

ClipMan

We have fixed an issue where there was severe clipping on Agent 47’s head when under the pier in Haven Island.

Invisible Inflatable

We have fixed an issue where the [REDACTED] required for an easter egg exit in Haven Island could disappear after a save/load cycle. The exit cinematic or functionality wasn’t affected by the issue.

Wall of Glass

We have fixed an issue where Agent 47 was not visible through a glazed door near the doctor’s bathroom in Haven Island, despite being in a trespassing state.

Elaborate Attire

We have fixed an issue that would cause certain parts of Ljudmila Vetrova’s attire to clip with her body during specific animations.

Haven Target Routine

We have fixed an issue where the targets in Haven Island could suspend their routines if they are distracted under certain circumstances.



…Treat

Only kidding, we’ve made the banana legal on all difficulties. Happy Halloween!

A Bitter Sweep

We have fixed several issues on the ‘A Bitter Pill’ Special Assignment, including animations when ringing doorbells and a guard that can walk through a closed door in certain circumstances.

Social Media Addict

We have fixed an issue in Isle of Sgail where Sophia Washington would have a phone attached to her hand permanently, caused by specific players actions.

Casual Charge

We have fixed a community-reported issue where the Remote EMP Charge was considered an illegal item on Casual Difficulty, but not on other difficulties. Now, it will be considered legal on all difficulties.

Batty is Back

We have fixed an issue where it is possible to get stuck in the Batty Tranquility Escalation Contract. For example, destroying the mailman outfit does not fail the mission and it is not possible to acquire another one, which is required for an objective.

Yay, News

We have fixed a community-reported issue where a small part of the garden belonging to Janus / Janice / Янус / Yahnus (other pronunciations are possible) in Whittleton Creek was not considered a trespassing zone, regardless of disguise.

SA Tracker Camera

We have fixed an issue where some cameras in Master Difficulty do not affect the SA Tracker and it does not change state when it should.

Guard Team Carry

We have fixed an issue where guards would carry remote devices in an unusual way.

UI_Prop_Emetic

We have fixed a community-reported issue where the Detonator for the Remote Emetic Gas Device is not localised in non-English languages.

Fusil X2000 Desc

We have fixed a community-reported issue where the description for the Fusil X2000 Assault Rifle was missing in the ‘A Bitter Pill’ Special Assignment.

Sieker Danke

We have fixed a community-reported issue where the Sieker-1 pistol had an incorrect description in German.

Gunrunner Silhouette

We have made fixed the image for the Gunrunner Elusive Target to be in the H2 style, rather than the H1 silhouette.

Florida Fit Fix

We have fixed an issue with corrupted textures on the trousers of the Florida Fit suit, the default suit for Miami.

Minimal Challenge Changes

We have fixed a community-reported issue where setting the Challenge Description to ‘Minimal’ will also result in the description of already-completed challenges being minimal. Now, you’ll be able to read the full description of any completed challenges.

Legacy: Who is The Herald?

We have fixed a community-reported issue where the names of the challenges for eliminating Eric Soders and Yuki Yamazaki in Hokkaido were switched around.

Cloth Render [PS4 only] We have fixed an issue where some cloth items that could be affected by wind effects would visually flicker when 47 is near. This only occurred on PS4.

Expansion Pass Store Check

We have made a back-end change to how the in-game store displays ownership of the Expansion Pass. The checkmark was set-up to check for whether a player was able to download and play Hantu Port in Expansion Pack 1. This was causing an issue for owners of the Silver Edition who would then see a checkmark for the Expansion Pass despite only owning Expansion Pack 1. Now, the checkmark will only show if a player is able to download and play Haven Island, which is only available through the Expansion Pass.

Reports (aka What’s Not Changing in 2.71.0)

In addition to the above changes, we also investigated some community-reported issues that we have deemed to be either ‘as designed’ or ‘won’t fix’. Here is a non-exhaustive list of some of those reports;



Report: Gold Bar Category

The gold bar is placed in the melee category because we consider that to be it’s primary function. Some reports suggested it would be better placed in ‘Distractions’. We disagree.

Report: ICA Flash Phone Category

Similar to the above report, some players have suggested that the ICA Flash Phone be placed in the ‘Explosives’ category because that’s where the other Flash devices are. However, phones are considered as tools and so will remain in that category, regardless of their function.

Report: Lethal Food

The apple, cheeseburger and muffin items have the ‘non-lethal’ tag because that’s how they will be experienced for the overwhelming majority of players. Whilst it is technically possible to land a final killing blow with any of these three items, it would be misleading to label them as ‘lethal’, which some players have requested / reported.

Report: No Bodies Found

The Silent Assassin rating is currently lost when a player kills a target with an accident or poison and then drags the body, which is found by an NPC. As soon as the body is found, the No Bodies Found bonus is lost and the SA Tracker will turn red. The key part here is that the body is dragged after the kill. This has been the case for as long as we can remember and we have no intention to change it in the near future.

Known Issues (2.71.0)

We’ve listed some of the game’s known issues below, so that you know we’re aware. We’ve always got eyes on the Technical Support and Bug Report threads on the Forums and Reddit too, so if you’ve reported something there, we almost definitely know about it. To save us from writing it repeatedly, “We are aware of an issue where…” PC players are experiencing “0x8000000_” (and related) crashes

Status: We recommend that players who have been experiencing this issue use DX12, as this has been reported to fix the issue. This remains an open issue that we are continuing to gather data on to pinpoint the cause. At this time, we don’t have a specific fix planned.

Players can encounter problems when dropping items needed for specific exits in Contracts Mode

Status: This issue is caused when using specific items that are required for ‘hidden’ exits. Currently, the game is unable to detect the status of the item when dropped and so defaults to a fail state. We’ve placed this issue into the HITMAN 2 backlog as we won’t be fixing it in the immediate future.

Players can get stuck in a situation where it’s impossible to exit some Contracts in Bangkok

Status: This issue is caused in Contracts Mode when the Tuk-Tuk is set as a Required Exit. If the Tuk-Tuk is destroyed, the Contract will not fail and players will then be unable to complete the contract. We’ve placed this issue into the HITMAN 2 backlog as we won’t be fixing it in the immediate future.

Area Discovery challenges, in some particular edge cases, do not unlock properly

Status: We are confident that this has been fixed on all locations, including Haven Island with the ‘Discover Paradise’ fix mentioned above. If you do continue to have this issue after completing a clean completion of the affected mission with the 2.71.0 update installed, please get in touch with us with specific details.

The SA rating is not failed when a dead body is found, if a tranquilizer was used before the lethal kill

Status: This is an issue with many components and we are still investigating a fix that doesn’t have other impact on the systems that are affected.

Fire extinguishers (and propane flasks) no longer explode when an explosive is detonated on them

Status: We’ve made progress on this issue and have had success with fire extinguishers exploding when using a breaching charge, propane flask and a gas canister. However, the issue seems to be situationally dependent on certain factors – including how many items there are in the room / radius of the potential explosion. We are investigating a permanent fix.

‘Hold my Hair’ challenges are difficult to complete due to emetic poison causing NPCs to find the nearest trashcan (rubbish bin) instead of a toilet

Status: We have identified the issue that seems to be causing NPC preference to trashcans rather than toilets and made some progress on solving it. We are continuing to work towards a permanent solution that would involve having NPC’s strongly favour a toilet over a trashcan.

Players are unable to complete the ‘Mission Mastery’ challenge in Marrakesh (House Built on Sand) and unlock the Janbiya.

Status: We have brought this issue back under the spotlight and working towards a final and definitive fix following player reports that previous fixes have not worked for them. The set-up for these particular challenges are more complex under-the-hood than they look. We will share a renewed status update next month.

Terminus Suit (Elusive Target unlock) is not unlocked immediately after completing an ET with a Silent Assassin rating

Status: This is a known issue that will potentially affect a small number of players for each Elusive Target. Unfortunately, we are not able to reproduce the issue and therefore fix it to prevent it from happening. However, we will ‘fix’ the issue at the end of each Elusive Target by awarding the suit to everyone that unlocked it. This process can take up to 48 hours from the end of the Elusive Target ending. October Content Roadmap

The October Roadmap is almost wrapped up – but not quite! We’ve still got the huge drop of THREE Legacy Challenge Packs plus our Halloween-themed Escalation Contract plus a new Elusive Target on Whittleton Creek starting on Friday 25th October for 10 days! We round the month off with a Hawke’s Bay Challenge Pack that will unlock the Red-Tie Kiwi.