Hitman Freelancer mode, which adds a new roguelite structure to the many huge levels this trilogy has produced since 2016, has been an unquestionable delight. But it doesn’t always explain itself well, often saving tutorial prompts for after you’ve already tried something.
For most of the new features that’s fine, but it’s left lots of folks in the dark on how to deal with these new safes that regularly appear on each map. There’s an icon on your mini-map telling you where the safe is, and it lights up when you use Agent 47’s hitman vision–but when you actually approach the thing it just tells you that you need three codes to open it, with no guidance for where one would get these codes.
There are two ways to open these safes: by finding those codes and opening it the normal way, or by using explosives to blow them open. We’ll walk you through the more clandestine way first.
How to find safe codes in Hitman Freelancer mode
You probably noticed early on that you have a camera in your inventory at all times, but you’ve almost never actually used it. The camera had pretty limited usage in the main campaign, so it hasn’t stuck with most folks as a mechanic, but you will need it to get the safe codes.
When you’re hunting for safe codes, you’ll want to use your detective vision to look around the immediate vicinity of the safe–within one or two rooms at the absolute most–for either thick folders of physical documents, laptops or tablets that are glowing. And you’ll scan them with the camera like in the image below.
Once you’ve scanned all three of the items you need, you’ll be able to open the safe. But opening the safe is an illegal action, regardless of your disguise, so you’ll need to take that into consideration when the moment comes to actually do it. If any NPC is looking at you when you open the safe, they’ll immediately get weird about it. And if it’s a guard they’ll just start shooting. So plan accordingly.
Finding the codes isn’t always the best option, however. So let’s talk about the other way to open safes.
How to blow open a safe in Hitman Freelancer
You may assume that you need a demolition block or some other similarly specific type of explosive to crack open a safe the old fashioned way, but that isn’t the case. You’ll want to make sure you’ve got the kind of explosive that kills people rather than a concussive or flash explosive, and you should be good. An exploding baseball thrown at the door, for example, will do the job just fine.
Once you’ve got the safe opened, you’ll usually be rewarded with 2,000-3,000 Merces for your trouble. While that’s a pretty solid payout, it’s certainly not worth dying over. So if your safe is being swarmed by guards who can see through your disguise, you probably won’t suffer too much because you skipped it.
Fortunately, it won’t be too tough most of the time, now that you know how to deal with these new safes. For more on the killer new mode, check out our Hitman Freelancer tips.
