Hitman: Blood Money: Complete Guide

A player's guide to the 2006 classic: how notoriety, money and the Silent Assassin rating work, how to plan clean hits and accidents, a spoiler-light mission list, weapon upgrades, and getting the Steam version running well on a modern PC.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the Steam PC release (no official patches in recent years; IO Interactive's newer Blood Money ports are the 2019 HD Enhanced Collection and the later "Reprisal" version for Switch and mobile). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

Clean hits pay more. Your payout drops for witnesses, bodies found, security footage and extra kills. The "Blood Money" system turns sloppiness into real costs.
Notoriety follows you between missions. Get seen, recorded or leave witnesses and your notoriety rises, making NPCs recognize you faster in later missions. You can pay to lower it after a mission.
Accidents are the signature move. Every mission has at least one way to make a target's death look accidental: pushing over a railing, a falling chandelier, a rigged grill or prop. Accidents do not raise alarms.
Disguises are your key card. Knock out or kill someone, take their clothes, and you gain their access. Guards and staff of the same type get suspicious if you linger or act odd.
Hide bodies. Containers, freezers and dumpsters make bodies disappear. A found body means alerts and a lower rating.
The fiber wire and syringes are your best tools. Silent, no weapon detection at metal detectors for the wire, and poisons or sedatives open up quiet approaches.
Watch for frisking. Guards will pat you down at checkpoints. Carry only undetectable items (the wire, syringes, coins) through them.
Throw a coin. Coins are an infinite distraction that pull guards off their route.
Pick your difficulty for your save budget. Higher difficulties allow fewer saves per mission and tougher AI.

Difficulty

Difficulty	What changes
Rookie	Most forgiving AI and saves
Normal	Standard challenge with a limited number of saves
Expert	Fewer saves, sharper AI
Professional	Toughest AI and no mid-mission saves

The number of saves per mission shrinks as difficulty rises; check the in-game description before choosing.

Core Systems

Ratings and payout

After each mission you get a rating and a newspaper front page that describes what the police know about the killer. The best rating is Silent Assassin, which roughly requires:

Only the targets killed (no extra deaths, knockouts are riskier).
No witnesses to kills and no bodies found (accidents are fine).
Not caught on camera (or you destroyed the recording).
Never recognized or pursued as a threat.

Clean jobs pay the most, and money funds everything else.

Notoriety

Notoriety rises when you are caught on security cameras, seen by witnesses, or leave evidence. High notoriety means NPCs identify 47 faster in later missions.

How to reduce notoriety	Notes
Destroy or retrieve surveillance tapes	Most missions have a security room with a recorder
Pay bribes after the mission	Bribing witnesses and police lowers notoriety at a cost
Play cleanly	The cheapest method

Money and upgrades

Mission earnings buy upgrades for 47's custom weapons (the Silverballers pistol, a submachine gun, a shotgun, an assault rifle and a sniper rifle) and some equipment. Upgrades cover sound suppression, recoil, rate of fire, damage, reload speed, accuracy and zoom.

Priority upgrades:

Silverballer suppressor and accuracy. Your main quiet-and-reliable firearm.
Sniper rifle upgrades. Long-range, suppressed sniping opens entire missions.
Equipment that expands tools and information.

Weapons you pick up in missions and carry out with you can be added to your hideout collection.

Disguises and suspicion

Each disguise grants access to certain areas. Guards of the same type look harder at you.
Running, carrying weapons openly, climbing and trespassing all raise suspicion.
The suspicion meter tells you how close you are to being made. Walk away and break line of sight.

Kill and distraction tools

Tool	Use
Fiber wire	Silent strangulation; passes metal detectors
Poison and sedative syringes	Poison kills quietly; sedatives knock out
Coins	Throw to distract a guard
Remote mines and proximity mines	Rig vehicles, doors or props; detonations can be staged as accidents in some setups
Human shield and disarm	Close-range defense if things go wrong
Decoy weapons	Drop to confuse and mislead
Body containers	Dump bodies to keep them hidden

Mission List (Spoiler-Light)

#	Mission	Setting	Targets and hooks
Tutorial	Death of a Showman	Abandoned amusement park, Baltimore	Joseph Clarence; teaches the basics
1	A Vintage Year	Vineyard, Chile	Fernando Delgado and his son Manuel
2	Curtains Down	Opera house, Paris	Alvaro D'Alvade and Richard Delahunt; the famous prop-gun swap during the rehearsal
3	Flatline	Rehab clinic in the Rocky Mountains	Lorne de Havilland plus a special objective
4	A New Life	Suburban home	Vinnie Sinistra, a mob informant in witness protection; retrieve the microfilm
5	The Murder of Crows	Mardi Gras parade, New Orleans	Several rival assassins in the crowd
6	You Better Watch Out...	A party with lots of guests and guards	Crowd work and disguises
7	Death on the Mississippi	Riverboat	Skip Muldoon and his gang
8	Till Death Do Us Part	Wedding in the Louisiana countryside	Buddy Muldoon, the groom, among others
9	A House of Cards	Casino hotel, Las Vegas	Multiple targets and a DNA sample to recover
10	A Dance with the Devil	"Heaven and Hell" themed party	Two themed halves of the party, each with its own dress code
11	Amendment XXV	The White House	Mark Parchezzi III and Vice President Daniel Morris
12	Requiem	Funeral	The finale

Mission tips

A Vintage Year: scout the vineyard's patrols first; the guards are dense near the villa. Look for ways to lure targets into isolated rooms.
Curtains Down: the actor's prop gun can be swapped for a real one so the target is shot on stage during the rehearsal. It is one of the most celebrated accidents in the series.
A New Life: the suburb is small, the house is watched by federal agents, and witnesses are everywhere; disguises and timing are everything, and the microfilm objective means you must search the house, not just kill.
The Murder of Crows: a parade crowd lets you blend in, but three assassins also want you dead. Take them one at a time.
Death on the Mississippi: deck gaps, the engine room and railings make accidents easy; the riverboat is linear, so plan in sections.
Amendment XXV: the White House is packed with Secret Service. Disguises and patient routing through less-guarded wings beat force.

Requiem (finale)

Without spoiling the story beats: the ending is interactive. When prompted, stay responsive and be ready to act fast. How you handle the final scene determines the closing epilogue, and players who are thorough get the most satisfying version. If it goes wrong, replay it; it is short.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Walking through metal detectors armed. Holster weapons in a container or use undetectable tools.
Forgetting the tapes. Security footage raises notoriety; destroy it or take the recorder's tape before leaving.
Leaving bodies in the open. Hide them or use accidents.
Killing non-targets. It costs money and ruins Silent Assassin.
Running everywhere. Running in a disguise draws attention.
Ignoring the newspaper. It tells you what gave you away.
Over-spending on upgrades early. Keep a buffer for notoriety bribes after a messy mission.

Advanced Tips

Scout first, act second. Walk each level in a harmless disguise to learn patrols and target routines before taking any action.
Chain disguises. Use a low-value disguise to reach a high-value one (a staff outfit to reach a guard or bodyguard).
Accident stacking. Where the environment allows, use accidents for both targets in a mission; the payout and rating reward it.
Coin plus wire. Toss a coin to pull a lone guard around a corner, then wire them and hide the body.
Sniper opportunities. Many missions have high vantage points; a suppressed, upgraded sniper rifle gives quiet long-range kills if nobody sees the body drop.
Save discipline. On higher difficulties, save after reaching a safe disguise, not in the middle of a risky move.

Running It on a Modern PC

Compatibility: the Steam build is from 2006 and can need tweaks on modern Windows. If it crashes or stutters, try running as administrator, capping the frame rate with your GPU driver, and using windowed or borderless modes.
Widescreen and fixes: community patches improve widescreen support and field of view. On Steam, Mulderland's Enhancement Pack is a highly rated community option, and Steam guides cover controller support.
Controllers: the PC version has limited native gamepad support; many players use Steam Input or community mapping guides.
Alternative versions: IO Interactive's Hitman HD Enhanced Collection (2019, PS4/Xbox One) and Hitman: Blood Money Reprisal (Switch, iOS, Android) offer modernized versions. Blood Money is not included in Hitman World of Assassination.

FAQ

What is the best Hitman game for beginners, Blood Money or World of Assassination? World of Assassination is more forgiving and modern. Blood Money is shorter and a great classic once you like the formula.

How do I get Silent Assassin in Blood Money? Kill only your targets, avoid witnesses and cameras (or destroy the tapes), keep bodies hidden or use accidents, and never get caught.

How do I lower notoriety? Destroy surveillance footage during missions and pay bribes after them. Clean play prevents it from rising in the first place.

How many missions are in Hitman: Blood Money? A tutorial plus twelve main missions, ending with Requiem.

Can I play Blood Money on Steam Deck or modern Windows? The game runs on modern Windows with occasional tweaks; community fixes help. Results on other devices vary.

Does Blood Money have achievements on Steam? No. The 2007-era Steam release predates Steam achievements for this game.