Among the new features brought to the World of Assassination by Hitman 3 are permanent shortcuts–doors and ladders you can unlock for quick access to handy paths through levels. Once you find a shortcut and unlock it, it’s open in all your subsequent playthroughs of a mission, no matter where you start from. These shortcuts can make it a lot easier to get to sensitive areas or to find particular items, disguises, or assassination opportunities. But in order to unlock them for future use, you’ll have to find them the first time, and they usually require a little hunting to find.
We’ve compiled a complete list of all the shortcuts scattered through Hitman 3’s six missions, as well as an explanation of how to unlock them. Note that you’ll usually need tools, so it’s always good to grab a crowbar and screwdriver to make sure you can unlock a shortcut when you get to it. You’ll also have to approach shortcuts from the long way around–all shortcut doors are one way until you’ve opened them, and shortcut ladders have to be dropped from the top. Expect to do some careful infiltration to find them all.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of our Hitman 3 guides, and to read our Hitman 3 review.
Mission 1: Top Of The World (Dubai)
Penthouse Ladder
The easiest of the shortcuts to find is the Penthouse Ladder, because it’s right next to Carl Ingraham’s putting green in the penthouse. Get a suitable disguise for the top two floors and head out to the northwest corner of the building. Open the hatch next to the green and you’ll find a ladder that goes down to the maintenance room below–which one worker calls the “maintenance scrub.” This is actually the place to find the exploding golf ball, hidden behind the red toolbox in the corner. The shortcut gives you easy access to Ingraham’s golf gear so you can set up the assassination easily.
Ventilation Area Ladder
This ladder is also accessible from the penthouse’s lower level. Head to the opposite side of the penthouse atrium from the putting green, near where the main stairs let you come up. If you push all the way into the southeast corner, you’ll find a maintenance area filled with ventilation machinery through a door in the wall. Keep moving to the southern corner of the room, where you can unlock a ladder that will connect the penthouse to the helipad below.
Atrium Lobby Door
You’ll see this door right away when you first enter the lobby at the start of the mission, but accessing it is less obvious. To access it, head up to Level 1 and the east side of the building, near the garden. Don’t go through the security frisk that leads you up to Level 2; instead, head into the blue room behind it where guards take breaks. You’ll find a maintenance door on the east wall–with the Burg Al-Ghazali staff key card, you’ll be able to unlock it. That gives you access to a maintenance staircase. Follow it all the way down (watch out for a camera or two and a maintenance worker) to find the Atrium Lobby Door and unlock it. This is a handy shortcut for trying to complete the Suiting Attire feat, as it allows you to grab the Skydiving Suit from the Atrium and move relatively unseen to the higher floors.
Helipad Ladder
Your last shortcut is on the Helipad, and since that’s not an especially large area, it’s not tough to find. Go to Level 3 and follow the hallway that leads away from the Security Room and the Server Room, toward the east side of the building. A glass door there empties out onto the Helipad, which is to the south. Immediately next to the glass door on your left is the ladder; unlock it for a quick way down to the tech area behind the art exhibit on Level 2.
Mission 2: Death In The Family (Dartmoor)
Balcony Ladder
The first shortcut is easily accessible if you do the Means, Motive, and Opportunity Mission Story (otherwise known as the Murder Mystery), as the balcony in question is connected to the murder scene. However, you’ll need a crowbar to unlock the shortcut, so make sure you’ve picked one up before heading there (look in the garden behind the Greenhouse). Enter Zachary’s Room and head out on the balcony, to your right, to find the shortcut.
Maintenance Ladder
This shortcut can carry you to the top level of Thornbridge Manor, making it easy to get access to Alexa Carlisle’s office from the ground floor. To unlock it, you need a crowbar. Go through the mansion to get up to Carlisle’s office (a bodyguard or mansion staff uniform will keep you safe here), then take the stairs on the left side of the room as you enter it. Take them almost all the way to the top and watch for a prompt that lets you jump up and grab the molding. Shimmy to your left to find an open window; climb out and you’ll find your way to the rooftop section where you can unlock the ladder.
Mission 3: Apex Predator (Berlin)
Entrance Back Door
Your first shortcut is both incredibly easy to get to and incredibly convenient once you’ve unlocked it. Start the mission as normal either in your 47 getup or as a club attendee and go through security (remember to drop illegal items to avoid a frisk). As soon as you’re through the entrance, look to your right for an area marked “Staff,” behind the office that’s immediately behind the ticket counter. You’ll find the shortcut just past the signs, and once you’ve unlocked it, you can go get the stuff you’ve dropped and avoid entry security altogether.
Biker Basement Door
An aspect of this mission that’s not immediately apparent is the fact it’s connected to a drug-making operation run by a biker gang. You’ll find their building to the north of the area. You’re considered trespassing anywhere inside their facility without a biker uniform, but you can slip in unnoticed with the Basement Door. Get to it by going into the facility’s garage and finding the staircase down near the garage door (it’s where the food delivery scooter is parked). You’ll eventually find a staircase that leads back up and to the locked door, allowing you to slip into the building unseen.
Skylight Ladder
To unlock this shortcut, you first have to get all the way up to the roof of the nuclear plant. The best way to do this is from the outside, rather than trying to go through the club itself. You can take the overpass walkway that links the two buildings to reach the rooftop, or sneak into the stairwells visible on the outsides of the buildings. Once you’re on the roof, slip past the security officers (and one ICA agent) to find an open skylight window. Climb in and down to find and unlock the ladder, which requires a crowbar.
Mission 4: End Of An Era (Chongqing)
Inner Courtyard Door
You can best access this shortcut from inside the underground facility, preferably with a security uniform on. Take the stairs up to the enclosed glass walkway on Level 0 and head left to the facility’s main entrance. This will put you out into a courtyard with two street guards blocking an alleyway entrance, and another guard with a blue beret patrolling the other alley. Follow the path with the beret guard to find the door and unlock it. You can also access this courtyard by coming down the staircase from the Southeastern Rooftop–the one with all the drones.
Facility Elevator Shaft
You need to access this shortcut early in your venture into the underground facility, before triggering the alarm by wiping the data. From the main entrance behind the dumpling shop, enter the facility and follow the grey line to the Tier 1 Security Office. Go through the door on the north end of the room to enter a locker room. Look for an elevator door that you can open in here, then climb up and use your camera to hack a ventilation shaft cover. Push through that and you’ll find the door to unlock the shortcut.
The Block Ladder
This one is in the apartment building where Hush is conducting his experiments. Head inside and make your way to Level 2. Go outside on the west side of the building and look for a ladder in the southern corner of the balcony that you can unlock, which leads down into the fenced-in courtyard below.
Mission 5: The Farewell (Mendoza)
Cellar Door
Two shortcuts actually connect to the villa basement, and are easily accessed by completing some Mendoza’s Mission Stories. Work your way through the story called The Tour, allow it to play out completely, then keep going with the Closing Statement story that unlocks at its end. You’ll need to impersonate the Samolier to get access to the wine cellar. After the meeting with Don Yates and all the Heralds of Providence, look for the Cellar Door shortcut in the northeast corner of the basement.
Maintenance Door
The second shortcut opens up access to the underground tunnel near the winery. Look for the shortcut at the south side of the villa basement. You’ll pass through another room off the winery to get to it, but it’s easy to find.
Backdoor
You need to get into the villa proper to access this shortcut. Once inside, move to the eastern edge of the map, behind the villa. You’ll see a sign warning about a cliff path. Walk or climb down the path and follow it south to its end to reach a door you can unlock, creating easy access from the party to the villa and the underground tunnels.
Mission 6: Untouchable (Carpathian Mountains)
The shortcuts in Mission 6 aren’t really shortcuts, since you’re just making your way forward from the back of a train to the front of it. Unlocking these doors instead gives you access to rooms filled with weapons and tools.
Passenger Car Door
You’ll find this shortcut locked, but the means to enter and open it is pretty clear. Go past the shortcut into the dining car and climb out a window. You can’t reach the shortcut room by shimmying along the side of the train; you have to climb up to the roof and find a path to climb back down. Look for a gap in the ice as you make your way back that will allow you to climb back down and slip in through a window to unlock the shortcut.
Container Door
Accessing the last shortcut in this level is a bit more involved. You’ll need to find a yellow valve to open the big green container, but to get at it, you’ll need either a rusty nail ro pick a lock, or to fight your way through two guards. If you’ve got a tool, open the door past the cargo container and take the valve off the box in front of you. If not, use the ladder to get to the other side of the car, then enter and take out the two guards inside. A silenced gun will drop the guard close to the door without the other one realizing he’s down. Use the valve to open the container and get inside to unlock the shortcut.
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