General Tips
- Get used to hacking. Although there are combat skills, driving skills, and other upgrades available, almost all story missions require some form of hacking.
- Stealth is a great option for players out there who know how to remain undetected. You can go in guns blazing, but quietly taking out enemies is a lot safer.
- Stick with the story missions for a little while. The game almost immediately lets players tackle side missions, but you'll want to do story missions first to familiarize yourself with the game's mechanics.
- When trying to escape the cops, look for alleys and other secret locations and hold the B button to turn off the car and duck. With luck the cops will give up their search.
- If civilians are acting weird around you, take a look at your hand. Are you holding a gun? If you answered yes, put it away.
- Feel free to purchase lots of cars, as money doesn't have many other uses in the game and is easy to accumulate.
Guides
Walkthrough
- Act 1: Bottom of the Eighth
- Act 1: Big Brother
- Act 1: Backstage Pass
- Act 1: Backseat Driver
- Act 1: Open Your %_%
- Act 1: Thanks for the Tip
- Act 1: Remember
Cheat Codes
Invisible Drivers
Hack the blockers at the right time and you can flip a car so that it is resting upside down. When you do that, a driver will exit and leave the scene. Flip the car again, though, and it should drive away after a few seconds (without a visible driver).
Easy Shell Game Win
Begin playing the shell game and let the hustler finish moving the cups around. Without indicating which cup you believe hides the shell, pause the game and access the Options menu. Under calibration, set brightness to 100 and then unpause the action. Next, pause it once more. For a brief second, you should see the outline of the ball in one of the available cups. Choose that cup to win the round.
Skill Points Exploit
Buy plenty of ammo at any store that sells it, and earn yourself a wanted level. Hide out in your safe house, in the bathroom. After a cooldown, you can fire your weapon outside and your wanted level will return. Let your wanted level experience another cooldown, then fire your weapon out the window again. Repeat as desired.
Unlockables
Extra Outfits
You can unlock additional outfits by completing each of the Digital Trips, as indicated below.
Madness - Survive all phases
Spider Tank - Clear all missions
Alone - Hack all towers
Psychadelic - Clear all 17 tracks
Unlockable Weapons
You can unlock the weapons indicated below by satisfying the corresponding conditions.
Chrome Revolver - Successfully intervene in 20 crimes
Destroyer Sniper Rifle - Finish 10 criminal convoy events
Gangster Tommy Gun - Scan 17 QR codes
Spec Ops Goblin Assault Rifle - Investigate all 9 weapon crates
Wildfire Assault Rifle - Investigate 6 missing persons cases
Secrets/Easter Eggs
Pawned Ubisoft Games
In any pawn shop, look for a cabinet with a stack of DVDs. If you examine them closely by zooming in using the sight on your sniper rifle, you can read their titles and find out that actually they are Ubisoft video games.
Assassin’s Creed Connection
A final Fixer contract in Watch_Dogs asks you to kill a certain target, named Oliver. If you have played Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, you may have made the acquaintance of a man named Oliver Garneau. He eventually leaves for Chicago, to attend a meeting with shareholders. While he is there, he falls out of contact and no one at Abstergo knows why. Thus, his appearance in Watch_Dogs is an Easter egg that explains the man's disappearance in the other game.
Digital Trip Barrier Trick (Alone)
There is a Digital Trip you can activate, called Alone. In it, you must free numerous districts. The robots within each district cannot pass beyond certain barriers or they will die. Use that fact to your advantage. Enter a district, wait for a group of robots to spawn, then lead them on a chase that ends outside the barrier. When they follow you, they'll die as they attempt to pass through the barrier. You don't receive any points or equipment as a reward, but there's a delay before more robots will appear and you can use that to engage in more meaningful activities within the districts, before the threat level increases again. That makes it much easier to approach the generators.
Forrest Gump Reference
When you run into people they say random lines of dialogue. There is a chance if you "run" into a person, someone will say "Run, Forrest, Run!" It's a famous line from the movie Forrest Gump.
Aisha Tyler Appearances
In the Campaign Mission Wrench in the Works you'll find actress and Ubisoft press conference spokesperson, Aisha Tyler, talking to another NPC. You can also see Aisha in what appears to be a hotel room or lounge talking on the phone. In the City Hall building in the Loop district, there is a City Hotspot. Nearby is an unmarked 'intrude' console which Aiden can hack. Doing so accesses a camera where you can watch Aisha on the phone telling someone not to worry about her being followed, and humourously discussing her fart
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon Easter Egg
During the mission "Grandma's Bulldog" in Act II, you'll head through an area that includes an arcade. Players are gathered around an arcade cabinet. Look closely and you'll see that they are playing Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, a reference to the downloadable content of the same name that was released for Far Cry 3.
Assassin's Creed Easter Egg
In Aiden's Bunker hideout, accessed during Act II, you can discover a video log. A son plays through an execution scene and its aftermath in Assassin's Creed while a confused father watches and asks questions.
Rabbids Easter Egg
In the mission "Big Brother," while you're inside the house, walk into Jack's room (it's on the end of the hall to the left) and you can interact with a Rayman: Raving Rabbids toy. Turn it on and it will make the characteristic scream for which the rabbids are known.
Achievements/Trophies
Achievement/Trophy | Description |
Hello World | Take down Maurice |
End of Line | Complete 40 Fixer Contracts |
Basest Base | Complete every Gang Hideout |
They Call Him the Vigilante | Complete every Investigation |
Peephole | Complete every Privacy Invasion |
Road Rage | Complete every Criminal Convoy |
Enforcer | Use the Crime Detection System to take down 20 confirmed criminals |
Hard Crash | Perform 10 vehicle take downs |
Communication Fail | Using non-lethal takedown, stop 10 civilians from calling to report you |
Bookmarked | Tag 100 enemies |
Power Cycle | Participate in 5 different City Games |
Magic Smoke | Kill 4 enemies within a single instance of Focus |
Escape Loop | Escape 15 police chases |
Free Radical | Escape a level 5 police chase |
White Rabbit Object | Escape 15 police scans |
Scanproof | Escape a level 5 police scan |
Hardware Fail | Shoot out a tire on 15 different vehicles |
Black Hat Trick | Kill 3 enemies with a single IED |
Revoking Client Privileges | Complete the final mission in the Human Traffic Investigation |
Saturday Night Special | Complete the final mission in the Weapons Trade Investigation |
Sanity Check | Collect all 8 Burner Phones |
Read-only | Complete the final mission in the QR Code Investigation |
Darkness Looms | Complete the final mission of the Missing Persons Investigation |
Geolocated | Check in at every Hotspot |
Disk Space Full | Unlock every song with the SongSneak app |
Social Lubricant | Complete level 10 against all 3 Drinking Game opponents |
Hackification | Invade and successfully hack 10 enemy Fixers in Online Hacking |
Piggyback | Invade and successfully observe 10 enemy Fixers in Online Tailing |
Superhighway | Complete 10 Public Online Races |
System Mangler | Complete every ctOS Breach |
Stealth Cookie | Complete an Online Tailing without being detected |
Freeware | Unlock every Skill in the Skills Tree |
Clear Signals | Unlock every ctOS Tower |
Family Man | Complete Act 1 |
Who Is Raymond Kenney? | Complete Act 2 |
One Down, One to Go | Complete Act 3 |
Vengeance | Complete Act 4 |
Log Off | Complete Act 5 |
Traced | Get tailed 5 times |