Watch Dogs has four different difficulties to select from: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Realistic. But like many video games that have such a "realistic" difficulty, it's by no means realistic at all. Aiden can still get shot and not die. HOWEVER, this difficulty just makes it so Aiden isn't a bullet sponge. Aiden will get dropped in two or three shots, depending on weapon. So, enemies with full-auto weapons are going to be real deadly this time.

Needless to say, you need to be more careful to NOT take damage on Realistic difficulty. There doesn't seem to be any differences to detection time, just how much damage Aiden can take. So, if you play this game like a Master Assassin that doesn't get detected throughout the run, than congrats. But just for the record, there will be missions where stealth is not an option.

As for the rest of this guide, it's going to talk about what skills you should prioritize first, a recommended weapon loadout, and a couple of tips to keep in mind. Other than that, that's about it. For veterans of this game, it'll probably sound like TL;DR stuff.

First thing's first; your Skill Tree. You have four types of skills: Hacking, Combat, Crafting, and Driving.

In early game, you do have some skills unlocked right off the bat but not a whole lot. As you progress through the campaign, as well as do some Gang Hideouts, you will be able to gain more skill points.

But what skills should I get FIRST??

Here is the Hacking Skills tree. The ones to the right are Environmental skills. Environmental skills include traffic lights, blockers, garage doors, enemy helicopters, and steam pipes. These are useful because they can help shake pursuers off of you.

The center branch are Disruption skills. These include enemy disruptions (disrupt comms), which can be very useful. There's also the ability to blow up transformers to cause a blackout in the area; so no need to waste a Blackout hack to do just that.

And to the left branch are Economy skills: battery life and ATM boost. It's best to just get one battery boost to start things off.

So, which ones do I get first? Well, some skills are locked until you get to the mission, Open Your World in Act 1. Getting some Environmental skills, a battery boost, and the enemy comms disrupt would be my first picks.

This is the Combat Skills tree. The one you should get FIRST would be Focus, off on the left branch. Focus is the ability to slow your surroundings down for a brief period of time. It's super useful for landing headshots or performing a hack while being shot at. You name it. Slowing down time is key to surviving. Also on that branch, there's Stealth Run, which can also help you because it lowers the detection of footprints you make by 3 meters instead of 10.

I'm also aware that some skills require you to do something before you're able to use your points to get. For instance, the Max Focus is unlocked by completing five Chess Puzzles. All you need to do is just go to the cafe near your starting hideout (Owl Motel). The puzzle at this cafe is real easy to get through with.

The center branch are Weapon Mastery skills. Weapon Mastery skills are basically skills that help improve your recoil control and such. They're probably not the most important ones to prioritize early game. Matter of fact, just use Focus to land those headshots.

And the right branch are Defensive skills. Defense skills include more craftables you can carry (very nice to get early game), Enforcer combat take down, and Bullet/Explosive resistance. Bullet resist is good to get, even though you'd probably only tank one extra bullet, but it's extra defense so who's complaining?

And we move on to the Crafted Items skill tree. The left branch are CtOS Exploits. These include Jam Coms, Blackouts, and CtOS Scan. I would highly advise you unlock up to Blackout. Why? Because Blackouts can get you out of sticky situations. Situations like being shot at from different angles or needing extra cover of darkness to avoid detection. Of course, Blackouts are ONLY useful at NIGHT. And Jam Coms are used for cancelling any enemy reinforcement calls, police calls on you, or evading Chicago PD's CtOS scans. And CtOS Scan allows you to scan an area and highlight where enemies are (very useful for Gang Hideouts but not necessary).

The center branch only has Focus Boost, which when crafted, gives you a full boost of Focus to use. Good for heavy firefights and you're all out of Focus to use. Pop one of these and you're good to go. I usually don't put this on high priority because I don't often use these. Best to boost your Focus skill first before getting Focus Boost.

And the right branch are Explosives. These include Frag Grenades, IEDs, and Proximity IEDs. I can't stress how useful IEDs are, especially for Criminal Convoys (which I'll talk about soon).

Crafted throwables, like Frag Grenades and IEDs, will be my first pick and then Jam Coms and Blackout. The rest isn't really needed until late game.

Last but not least, Driving Skills tree. Not a whole lot to say really. These skills just improve things like the ability to take less damage from crashes, do more damage to other cars, less likely for tire blowouts, and better chance of hiding in your car. That's really it.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about any other Driving skills other than Car Unlock.

Aiden has an entire arsenal of weapons to choose from. In fact, you can carry every weapon just like you would in Grand Theft Auto V (even shares the weapon wheel concept like that game). So, you're probably thinking, "So what? I can carry every weapon. I'm a One-Man Army."

Well, there is this mod called Living City that you can find on Nexus Mods. One of the changes made was the option to carry ONLY one of each weapon; so only one pistol, one automatic weapon, one sniper or grenade launcher, and one shotgun. So if you want the challenge of picking your loadout, then this is the mod for you.

Also, carrying every weapon in the game is just unnecessary. You would have to scroll through many assault rifles to find the best one to use. WASTE OF TIME. So I would give you my personal cherry-picked arsenal of weapons that carried me through the whole campaign and side missions.

Spec Ops 1911. A semi-auto pistol with a 10 round magazine and a suppressor. The perfect weapon for stealth kills. And the best thing is, the gun is given to you at the end of the very first mission. Talk about a treat.






Spec Ops Goblin. The Goblin is a 3-round burst fire assault rifle with a 30 round mag. It's very good at precision, very accurate, and of course, it's suppressed. Another prefect silent killer if the 1911 pistol is out of range of your targets.

But to obtain this rifle, you'll need to scan all 9 Weapons Trade crates. Luckily this isn't too difficult. There's 9 locked garages around the city and you just need to find them. They'll appear on the map if you unlocked a CtOS Tower in the area. Or just look at this map I posted down below for the locations.




M107 / Destroyer. I put these two sniper rifles as my select weapon. The M107 is a very powerful semi-auto sniper rifle with a 10 round mag. It's probably the only sniper you should buy once you saved up some money for it, because it's around $40,000.

Destroyer, on the other hand, is similar to the M107 (with a digital camo) but it has 2 rounds in the mag. However, the Destroyer is capable of destroying any vehicle in one shot, even an armored truck!! That much damage surpasses that of the M107. It can one shot just about any enemy with a body shot, except for an Enforcer which can be one shot with a headshot.

It's worth noting that the Destroyer has to be unlocked by completing 10 Criminal Convoys. So, in the meantime, you should buy the M107 as your go-to sniper rifle, and use it to complete those 10 Criminal Convoys.




Semi-auto Shotguns. Not a big difference between these examples, but if you want the best of the best, then the ATSG-12 is your answer. Full-auto, 12 round magazine. Just note that it costs around $40,000. So if you don't have the cash to spare, you'll have to take down an Enforcer wielding one.

Otherwise, the SGR-12 is another great alternative that will suffice. It's semi-auto compared to the ATSG-12, but you can easily acquire one from armored enemies at Gang Hideouts.

With the knowledge of what you should get, it's obvious that having the best weapons and good early game skills will NOT help you survive. Duh...

"Hacking is your best friend." Without a doubt. That's how Ubisoft designed this game to be. A stealth, third-person shooter with hacking capabilities. So, here are some tips that you should use.

1. Hack cameras to survey the area in which you'll enter. Hacking cameras, marking enemies while doing so, and scoping out any environmental hacks that can be used to your advantage. I'm sure you know that by now...

2. Environmental hacks are your best friend. Such hacks like exploding meter boxes, transformers, lifts, garage doors, etc. In addition to utilizing cameras, you can do some damage while NOT even setting foot in restricted areas. The power of camera hopping and random explosions.

3. Cover. Want to avoid being detected? Hide behind cover. Getting shot at? Hide behind cover. Simple enough. Better yet, utilize a hack while behind cover, like rigging an enemy's explosive while they're busy shooting at you.

4. Use Focus. In any situations where you will be going in guns-blazing, utilize Focus to land the shot before you get shot. Don't think that because you slowed down time that you won't get hit. You will. I've had deaths where I was shooting at an enemy while slowed down. We both shot at each other. AVOID that situation.

5. Play Peak-a-Boo with the enemy. When they're shooting at you, stay in cover. Once they hide to reload or whatever and they're about to exit cover to shoot, you should be aimed at them, ready to toggle Focus and headshot them. Or better yet, since enemies tend to shoot at you in a certain firing pattern, use that as an opportunity to fire back when they briefly stop firing.

6. Use your throwables. In an instance where you're being shot at from so many places, then you'll have to resort to thrown explosives, like Frag Grenades or IEDs.

7. Watch your minimap. I cannot tell you how many times looking at the minimap saved me. Enemies will always show on your minimap, but that won't show where they actually are. If you used cameras or had your Profiler up to scan and mark them, then they'll show up on your screen. So, if you forgot to scan or if new enemies arrived, then pay attention to the minimap.

Another great tip about scanning enemies, use the CtOS Scan craftable.

I should also mention the side missions since they require a different approach to them than just stealth killing all enemies in the vicinity.

There are 15 Gang Hideouts in total. The objective for all Gang Hideouts is to profile the Target(s), then knock down the target(s). Note how I highlighted 'knock down', that's because you CANNOT kill the target. You can only melee the target with your baton. As for the rest of the enemies, you can kill them if you want.

Gang Hideouts aren't that difficult. As long as you first scan the area using cameras or even a CtOS Scan, you can locate where all the enemies are at. But you have to profile the target before you go about disposing anyone.

Example of CtOS Scan to locate all enemies' positions.

Example of profiling the target with a camera, although I might have pick off a few enemies which got the target investigating. Not a great plan.

The other side mission, Criminal Convoys, are much different and perhaps more difficult depending on what the task at hand is. For Criminal Convoys, you're tasked with intercepting enemies that are on the move from Point A to Point B. You must stop them before they reach their destination. Sounds simple but it can really be difficult.

For Criminal Convoys that require you to "Eliminate the target", sounds self-explanatory. Follow the highlighted route, and set up an ambush. Go about ambushing the convoy by:

A) Set up a road block and prepare to blast the target car when it gets near you. Recommended you just hide behind your car and when the target car is stopped, throw an IED and detonate while the target is inside.

Like in this example below. I threw the IED on the target vehicle while it's stopped from the traffic jam I created. Don't forget to have the escape vehicle ready. Detonate and run.

B) Use a sniper rifle from a distance to pick off enemies or even to shoot out the target's car tires to prevent them from fleeing. As I stated from before, buying that M107 sniper rifle comes in handy. Do note that if you didn't deal with the other enemy cars and only focus on immobilizing the target car, they will drive up to you. So be prepared to get in the car or fight.

This example is what I mean by sniping the target from a distance. Here, I drove far ahead in the route and used the Destroyer to immobilize the target vehicle from afar. Then just pick him off and drive out before backup arrives. Even without the Destroyer, you can still snipe the tires and they'll stop.

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On the other hand, if the Criminal Convoy requires that you "Knock down the target", then you'll have to plan differently. Remember, the mission fails if the enemy dies, even if accidental. How do I go about this?
Like with Option B mentioned above, this time, you deal with immobilizing the target's car to prevent him from fleeing. Then focus picking off all enemies with your sniper rifle.

Ok, so all enemies dealt with. Now it's just the target. Well, before you think about rushing and beating them up, you'll get killed trying to do just that. In this circumstance, you should let the target come to you. Hide behind a car and wait for the target to get close before you whack him. For most of the time, this tactic worked. The real problem is just getting the target to get within melee range before they unload on you. And, of course, his henchmen constantly zeroing in on you. And did I mention using explosives may not work in your favor? Because you may accidentally get the target killed, or he might get himself killed with the car he's taking cover behind being on fire and ready to blow.

An example of letting the target get near you:
Also worth noting that I am dealing with the other enemies using grenades so I don't accidentally expose my cover and get killed.

Not much to say about Fixer Contracts. These side missions usually involve driving. And these contracts have a Gold, Silver, and Bronze rating depending on how fast you can complete the contract. God for gold and get the most money out of the contract. There's four types: Transporter, Interception, Decoy, and Getaway.

Transporter: You take a vehicle and drive it to the destination without taking too much damage. Usually there would be two or three vehicles you need to drive.

Interception: You follow close to the target while on the move while downloading data off of him, then you take him out. If you want to end this quicker, you can literally destroy his car while downloading, kill him, and just hack his phone.

Decoy: Take the provided vehicle and drive through checkpoints while the Police uses a CtOS Scan to track you. No penalty for getting scanned, so just focus on driving with minimal mistakes and get to the finish as fast as you can.

Getaway: Take the requested vehicle and escape the pursuers. And once you lose sight of the pursuers, you take the vehicle to the destination. Pursuers can be either the Police or other miscellaneous enemies (Fixers, Chicago South Club, Viceroys). Best to just drive fast and use environmental hacks to destroy pursuing vehicles.