So you’ve probably watched a few HITMAN speedruns and you’ll often see the runner shoot what seems like random walls or positions and wonder what they’re doing that for. But in the latest HITMAN games, gun shots can be used to distract NPCs just like a coin or another thrown object.

So let’s go over the different type of bullet distractions and how they work, as they’re not as simple as normal distractions and there’s different ways to use them to your advantage.

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I've also created a video covering how bullet distractions work, if you prefer that over text and gifs.


After viewing this guide, I'd recommend reading my guide on how sniper rifles work in HITMAN, which is also relevant to this guide. https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2964294830
The HitRuns Wiki[hitruns-wiki.vercel.app] contains the best guides regarding HITMAN game mechanics, so be sure to check it out if you want to further your HITAMN skills even more.

This is when you shoot once near an NPC, and they’ll go to investigate exactly where you shot.



If there’s another floor above an NPC, you can often shoot near the ceiling and this will cause them to go upstairs to investigate.



If you shoot something directly in front of an NPC, they can sometimes see the bullet impact, but not always, this can cause NPCs to panic. So for one shot bullet distractions, it’s best to shoot behind them or beside them.

Once you’ve distracted an NPC with a bullet distraction, they go on a cool down for one minute before they can be distracted again by a bullet distraction.

In the gif below, I distract the guard at 20 seconds with a bullet distraction, and then distract him again at 1 minute 19 seconds. He immediately spots the bullet impact even though it was behind him, and goes into a panic state. This is because it's been less than a minute since he was last distracted using a bullet distraction.



But if I distract him at 1 minutes 21 seconds instead, he’ll just investigate like normal, as the one minute cool down on bullet distractions will be over.

This is when you shoot twice in the cool down period to panic NPCs, this will make them instantly spot the bullet impact and panic, even if they couldn’t see it.

Some advantages of two shot bullet distractions can be seen in the gifs below.

There’s two civilian enforcers in your way. If you shoot behind them once, they’ll simply turn around and one of them will investigate the bullet distraction, they’ll remain enforcers and they can see through your disguise.



Shooting near them twice, however, will instantly cause them to spot the bullet impact and put them in a panic state. Doing this means they’ll lose their enforcer status, and you can pass by them safely as long as you haven’t got an illegal item in your hand.



If you panic them and then try to run by with an illegal item, they’ll remain enforcers and will catch you committing a crime.



Guards are a bit different when it comes to two shot bullet distractions, if you shoot twice near a guard, they’ll panic and investigate the area you shot, plus they keep their enforcer status if they had one.



If you panic guards that weren’t enforcers when you shot, they will be when they’re in a panicked state and they’ll blame you if they spot you too long.



This can still be useful however, panicking guards can get several of them to move out of position to investigate, which can allow you to move into some areas freely if you’re able to sneak past them.



Keep in mind, panicked civilians and guards will cause other nearby NPCs to panic, which can cause a chain reaction.



If a target sees another NPC panicking, they’ll go into lockdown.

Three Shot Bullet distractions are a bit more complicated.

In HITMAN, if you kill an NPC with a sniper, even if nobody sees you do it and even if the sniper is silenced, guards will track where the bullet came from and run to that position. If you’re in the area where the sniper was shot from when they get there, you’ll get compromised and they’ll become hostile to you.



If you kill an NPC with a sniper and then leave the area, guards will still run to the location you shot from, but if you’re not in the area where the sniper was shot from when they get there, they’ll just ignore you and run by.



Three Shot Bullet Distractions or shooting NPCs work the same way and can be very useful for a few reasons.

If you shoot a guard from a distance, he’ll go into a panic state, treat it as a sniper shot and run to your location, any guards near him will also go into a similar panic state and at least two or three will follow him. When these guards are running to your location, they lose any enforcer status they had, even in trespassing areas. The only way the can spot you is if you’re in the location where you fired the shots from, or if they see you with an illegal item.



The same also works when shooting three shots near NPCs, this causes any NPC in the vicinity to panic, and any guards alerted to the three shots will treat it as a sniper shot and run to your location.



Keep in mind, three shot bullet distractions or shooting NPCs isn’t perfect. It’s quite buggy and the behaviour is likely only intended for snipers. Guards will point their guns at you before running to the location you shot from and still won’t spot you, but it can be useful for getting into plenty of areas.



On some maps like Isle of Sgail, three shot distractions or shooting NPCs can sometimes randomly cause you to lose Silent Assassin even if you haven’t been compromised.

So while bullet distractions can distract NPCs, the actual sound of the gun firing will also cause distractions.

All non-sub-sonic silenced pistols make a fairly loud noise when fired, and if an NPC hears, it can cause them to investigate your location when firing. One thing to keep in mind is, the sound of the gun firing also counts against the cool down period that causes guards to panic from bullet impacts.

So in the gif below, I use the Silverballer in an attempt to distract this guard. When I fire, he hears both the bullet impact and the sound of the gun firing, this causes him to panic, as he’s heard two gun related distractions within the one minute cool down period.



However if I use a sub-sonic pistol like the Krugermeier 2-2, which makes much less noise when being fired, the guard will only hear the bullet impact and not the sound of the gun firing, so he won’t panic as he only heard one gun related distraction.



Weapons that have no ammo left also make a small amount of noise when attempting to fire and this can also be used for distractions.