Mastering how to get out of enemies' line of sight is key. This tends to be overlooked, but enemies can't see characters who are crouching behind bushes; not just inside them. Players can use this to their advantage and sneak past enemy lines or hide bodies with McCoy and Kate (who crouch when carrying corpses).

Corpses killed in accidental deaths will not trigger the alarm upon found by enemies. These corpses can be retrieved by the player and used to lure other enemies away from their positions, by throwing those bodies in their cone of view; even if the lured enemy was not present during the accidental death, the AI will always identify as such, and just investigate without ringing the alarm. Hector is the best character to do this luring strategy since he can throw bodies.

Using the space bar to crouch while holding a corpse will instantly drop them on the ground, which is actually faster than Ctrl+Click. This can often save you from enemies who are about to spot the character while carrying a corpse, as long you and the enemy's body are within the dark side of the viewcone.

McCoy and Kate drag bodies while crouching, meaning the player can effectively move bodies around within the enemies' dark area of the viewcone without being detected. This is especially effective to cancel lengthy dying animations from other abilities (i.e. killing an enemy with Cooper's Knife and grabbing their corpse with either McCoy or Kate to interrupt its animation).

When climbing ladders and ivies, pressing the space bar will stop the character on their tracks. By clicking again where you want to go, the character will resume climbing.

This can be useful for positioning and for certain precise ambushes. Care should be taken, though, as enemies will be able to see the character on the ladder or ivy if within the cone of view.

In certain maps characters will leave footsteps, which can be tracked by enemies, who will follow, by running, and investigate the area; this won't trigger the alarm. Except for Ponchos, all enemies will follow tracks; even Long Coats, which is one of the few ways to effectively distract / lure them out of their position.

The player can purposely use those tracks to their advantage, and lead enemy into ambushes or traps, using Hector's Bianca and/or melee takedowns with Showdown Mode.

Tying up enemies and using them to lure other enemies is very effective; they will slowly walk towards their ally and untie them. Unlike when spotting corpses, this won't trigger any alarms immediately; the alarm will only ring if the enemy is untied by their ally. This will even work against Ponchos. The player can effectively use this to their advantage and kill the unsuspecting rescuer.

In addition, the enemy who is doing the untying will be oblivious to ANY sounds, so, for example, if two enemies go investigate a tied enemy at once, the one who is untying won't react if the player attacks the other one within the sound radius.

The son of the late James Cooper, John is a lone wolf and bounty hunter seeking revenge and justice for his dad. His sharpshooter skills are unmatched, as are his abilities with the knife, both learned from his father.



As the main character, Cooper is the most balanced and versatile party member. He is the second fastest runner after Isabelle, but curiously has the slowest walking speed; walking is generally not very useful in this game since you'll be either running or crouching, so this is irrelevant.

Cooper, alongside Isabelle, are the only characters that can climb ivies and ropes, and also swim. This greatly expands on how they can approach and reach enemies from strategical points; in fact, Cooper and Isabelle work great together.

He carries bodies while standing still, which can be difficult in certain areas crowded with enemy vision everywhere. Because of that, it is best to dispatch enemies with Cooper and let Kate or McCoy carry the bodies, since they do it crouching, meaning the darker area of the enemy view cone won't reveal them.

Those who played Mimimi Studio's previous title, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, will recognize Cooper's abilities as being exactly like Hayato's.



Cooper boasts the fastest melee attack in the game (2.0 seconds), both lethal and non-lethal, although his knife stab has the lowest range. This, paired with his superior movement speed, adds a lot of flexibility in his approaches and makes him one of the best for multiple takedowns with other characters in Showndown Mode.



Arguably Cooper's best ability in his arsenal, his knife throw allows him to quickly and "silently" kill enemies from safe distances; this attack has a much larger noise radius compared to regular melee, so it can be risky to use if enemies are too close to each other.

One bad aspect of the knife is that enemy's dying duration is much longer (4.4 seconds) compared to melee kills, which can sometimes give other enemies enough time to spot their fallen comrade; the player can negate this duration by quickly picking up the body, in order to cancel the dying animation, and drop it on the ground by crouching.

Much like Hayato's shuriken in Shadow Tactics, Cooper has to manually retrieve the knife from the enemy's body after thrown by simply walking near it; if the body is carried by someone else, the knife will also be carried alongside it. This can be used strategically if the enemy is at a high ground near other allies; said ally can toss the body downwards, allowing Cooper to safely retrieve his knife.

If Cooper uses his knife throw, his guns go on a 2 second cooldown.

A very effective strategy, especially on higher difficulties, is to throw the knife at a nearby target and use melee on another. This allows the player to quickly dispatch two enemies without risking to trigger the alarm. While this seems hard to pull off manually, it can be easily done with Showdown Mode (automated action as the knife throw and manually use melee, or vice-versa).

Another trick with Cooper is to use Throw Knife in melee range and then pick up the body immediately to cancel the dying duration; this is MUCH faster than a normal melee takedown and body pickup.

Using this technique depends on various factors, such as the distance between the target and other enemies given the noise radius of the knife compared to normal melee.

If mastered, Cooper can effectively takedown enemies and pick up their bodies much faster than usual; combine this with the Space Bar Cancel and the player can easily kill enemies and drop them down on the ground before other enemies can even react and spot the body.



Cooper can throw a fake coin, which he conveniently has unlimited supply of, to distract enemies, making them look where the coin was thrown. While this won't lure enemies away from their position, it gives enough time (5.0 seconds) for Cooper to sneak around. It is important to note that the fake coin less effective on Ponchos and Long Coats, with a lower duration (around 2.5 seconds).

The coin has other versatile uses. For instance, it can be thrown directly at the enemy to annoy them, often causing them to walk around a bit and investigate their surroundings. The coin can also be thrown at horses or bulls to irritate them, which can lead to accidental kills.



Cooper is unique as he carries two guns, with quite high range. The pistols function exact the same, and share their ammunition count. He can use both at the same time during Showdown Time, allowing him to take down two targets at once (or to shoot Long Coats twice). Combine him and Hector to go full Rambo when the situation allows.

If Cooper shoots with either gun, his knife throw goes on a 2 second cooldown.

A cold and distant, yet very skilled doctor and calculist sharpshooter, Doctor McCoy is a professional gun-for-hire, doing whatever job for the right price. He specializes in assassinations using his exceptional knowledge of the human body, to kill with precision and efficiency. A man of not many words, little is known about his past, and very few people even know his first name.



McCoy is a character with very limited mobility; unable climb ivies and ropes, and can't swim. He carries bodies very slowly, although done crouching, meaning he can safely sneak past enemy vision while doing so. His poor mobility and flexibility are compensated by fantastic versatility and precision.

McCoy is the only character in the cast capable of lockpicking, being literally a key in certain missions to open locked doors.



McCoy is not very suited for close-range combat, having the slowest melee of the whole cast (4.1 seconds), both lethal and non-lethal. This, combined with his slow movement, makes McCoy a very frail character; his melee should only be used in case the player needs to take down multiple enemies with various party members at once.



McCoy's true power lies in his colt, which has the highest range out of any ability in the game, and allows him to snipe enemies from afar, with minimal noise. This is especially useful when there are enemies on high ground that can expose any action of the player's team; McCoy can effectively dispose of them without triggering any alarms, as they'll be too high to be seen. Be wary, however, of sniping enemies that can be spotted by others, since the dying duration is quite long (3.9 seconds).

During certain missions where McCoy is required to shoot a specific target with his gun to trigger a map mechanic, he'll always have an extra bullet for that, even if the player completely depleted his ammunition.



Those who played Shadow Tactics will recognize this ability from Mugen, who could lob a bottle of sake to bait enemies.

McCoy can throw his bag in a small radius around him to lure enemies into checking it. Only one enemy can be lured at once, who will walk slowly towards the bag; if they open it, a powder trap will explode and briefly blind them, greatly limiting their vision. This won't trigger alarms nor alert other enemies, and the victim will look around for a few seconds before returning to their patrol route. The player can either allow the enemy to reach the bag or intercept them beforehand.

It is important to note that this ability only lures Gunmen, dogs and civilians; Ponchos and Long Coats will be briefly distracted, but won't move towards the bag.

Whether the bag detonates or not, McCoy must retrieve it manually.



A potent and non-lethal crowd-control ability. This vial can be thrown at enemies, and incapacitate an entire group, except for Long Coats. Fallen enemies will be susceptible to being tied or executed.

The drawback is the limited count of vials McCoy has available per mission, and very few maps even have crates where the player can stock for more vials. Because of that, they should be used wisely and sparingly.

This ability is exceptional against cluttered groups of enemies, and work wonders with Isabelle's Connect to allow knocking out far away enemies.



Unlike in Shadow Tactics, healing skills are unlimited in this game, but come with a cooldown. This allows the player to be a bit more aggressive and even take a few shots.

McCoy's bandages heal 2 points of damage at a 20 second cooldown. This ability can be combined with Isabelle's Connect to heal two characters at the same time.

Cooper's old friend, who is helping him hunt down Frank. A drunkard with poor manners, yet a good-natured man with a distinct sense of humor, Hector's "gentle giant" appearance shouldn't be taken lightly. He possesses an herculean strength and resilience, and carries a massive bear trap, which he affectionately calls "Bianca", that he uses to obliterate his unsuspecting victims.



Being large and robust, Hector has the highest health of the cast (five bars on Normal difficulty), but also has low mobility, being among the slowest; however, he can carry two bodies at the same time while moving at normal speed, and even run. Those who played Shadow Tactics will recognize this trait from Mugen, who could do the same.

One of Hector's most remarkable abilities is being able to throw bodies. Not only this allows him to dispose of them faster, but this can also be used offensively; throwing bodies directly at living enemies will knock them down and leave them temporarily stunned, allowing for safe executions; this works even against Long Coats. This is exceptionally useful in a couple of Challenge Missions from The Baron which limits the use of offensive abilities.

Hector is unable to climb ivies and ropes, and cannot swim.

In many aspects, Hector plays like a combination of Mugen and Yuki from Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, which will be discussed below.



Hector's melee attacks are the second fastest out of the cast (2.1 seconds) after Cooper's (2.0 seconds), meaning he can quickly kill enemies. He is also the only character that can take on Long Coats directly without requiring other setups; his melee attack, whether it's lethal or not, will dispose of them.

Because of his melee speed and power, in many missions Hector will probably be your main killer, given how fast he can kill enemies, grab their corpses and throw at the nearest bush.

Using Showdown Mode with Hector and Cooper is very effective to take down two enemies in melee range at the same time and roughly the same speed.



Similarly to Yuki in Shadow Tactics, Hector can use traps to kill unsuspecting enemies, albeit in a much more brutal manner. Setting up his bear trap, which he calls Bianca, makes a bit noise around him, meaning that enemies who are very close to Hector will hear and turn around, exposing him.

Bianca cannot be detected and will kill any enemy who steps on it, except for Long Coats. The dying animation is quite lengthy (5.4 seconds), meaning other patrolling enemies can detect them. The player can then use a character who crouches while carrying bodies (McCoy or Kate) to pick them up and cancel the dying animation while ensuring other enemies won't see.

In a two particular missions, Hector won't have Bianca available, and will instead use a rake, which he appropriately calls "Not-Bianca". Mechanically, the rake functions similarly to Bianca, albeit it is actually slightly faster to arm, but it doesn't kill enemies, instead knocking them out.

Hector must manually retrieve Bianca (and Not-Bianca) by picking it up, even after it triggers. The trap only activates once.

One of the cores of Hector's gameplay is setting up Bianca in safe places (such as bushes and areas out of enemies' field of view) and luring his victims with...



Similarly to Yuki's bird call in Shadow Tactics, Hector can whistle to draw the attention of his targets, which will lure Gunmen, civilians and dogs, but won't work on Ponchos and Long Coats (although they will be briefly distracted). Lured enemies will slowly walk towards the position where Hector whistled.

Multiple enemies can be lured by the whistle at the same time, and whistling a second time while they're still investigating will cause them to sprint towards the location. If the Gunmen is too far away from Hector, as in needing to go around and take a longer route to reach it, they will not bother to walk.

If whistling while inside a bush, enemies will slowly approach the bush and take a few seconds to check it; when they do, they'll be focused on the bush, and their view cone will be reduced drastically. However, they will also spot characters inside bushes as soon they enter them.



Arguably the most powerful ability in the game, Hector's shotgun can kill a large group of enemies in one go, in a massive cone in front of him. Long Coats won't be instantly killed, and instead be stunned.

The drawback of the shotgun is its very large noise radius, which can easily trigger the alarm if the player is not careful. This weapon is actually very effective for killing reinforcements that appear if the alarm rings, since they'll leave their fort slowly.



Hector's whiskey fully heals him, at a 20 second cooldown. The drink actually has a pretty funny interaction with Isabelle's Connect, which will be explained more later.



Only available on Mission 8, "One Hell of a Night", if the player knocks down Rosie with Hector, who will drop large amounts of cash. In terms of functionality, Throw Money is much like McCoy's Doctor's Bag, capable of baiting enemies; however, it won't blind them in case they find pick it, and to retrieve the cash Hector needs to knock them down or kill them.

Kate lived most of her life in the O'Hara family ranch in Colorado, with her uncle, Ian O'Hara. In the unforgiving wild west ruled by men, she learned how to survive by using her looks and charm to seduce and manipulate them. A master of disguise, Kate can easily blend in wearing revealing dresses and make the drooling cowboys look the other side... The wrong side.



Similarly to McCoy, Kate is a character with very limited mobility; unable climb ivies and ropes, and can't swim. She carries bodies very slowly, although done crouching, meaning she can safely sneak past enemy vision while doing so. Her poor mobility and flexibility is compensated by her ability to infiltrate enemy territory, as long she has her disguise available.

Those who played Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, will recognize Kate's gameplay as being almost exactly like Aiko's, but lacking mobility.



Kate is the only character in the cast who lacks a lethal takedown; her only option is to deliver a well placed kick in the groin, which will knock down her victim at a relatively lengthy duration (3.0 seconds). She also doesn't carry ropes, meaning she cannot tie her opponents.

This means Kate is only limited to dragging the incapacitated enemy around and let other characters deal the killing blow or tie them up. As long she is holding the enemy, they won't wake up. She can, however, throw them from high places or in the water will kill them. One of Kate's advantages for her lack of ability to tie opponents down is that she can carry unconscious bodies earlier.



Similarly to Aiko's powder from Shadow Tactics, Kate can lob perfume vials at her opponents to briefly blind them. The radius is enough to blind at least two enemies standing right next to each other. While blinded they will be briefly distracted and have their view cones drastically reduced, which can give plenty of time for players to sneak around. Enemies will not be alerted nor will investigate after being hit by the perfume.

The vial is excellent when trying to kill enemies that are in the field of view of other enemies, allowing the party to take down their target without putting their actions at risk.

If Kate throws the perfume while disguised and within enemy field of view, she WILL be detected and attacked.

Similarly to Cooper's Fake Coin, Kate's Perfume Vial can also be thrown at horses or bulls to irritate them, which can lead to accidental kills.



In most missions where Kate is featured, she can use disguises to blend in, remaining undetected by all enemies except for dogs and Long Coats, who will see right through the disguise and attack. She will also be revealed if doing anything suspicious, such as throwing her perfume vial, attacking an enemy or carrying a body.

The catch is that Kate must find the disguise in order in the map to wear it, either by finding the clothes hanging around or to beat the civilian wearing them. Knocking out the civilian and picking them up with Kate will automatically steal their clothes; killing is not necessary.

Unlike Aiko in Shadow Tactics, Kate can fully interact with the environment without dropping her disguise. She can crouch, hide in bushes and climb stairs and the disguise stays on, and none of these actions will raise suspicion.

Disguised or not, Kate can use Distract to draw the attention of enemies for unlimited time, who will be stationary. If Kate is in a safe area, she can still use Distract on enemies even without a disguise. Distract can be used to strategically move their viewcone away, depending on Kate's position, as well halt enemy patrols. Distract won't work on Long Coats if Kate is in a "safezone" (noted by a green shield icon above her head).

Lure is only available when Kate is disguised, and it allows her to briefly bait enemies, who will follow her for a short period of time. This can be used to move enemies out of others' sight and execute them. This ability won't work on Ponchos, however.

Both Distract and Lure only work on male enemies, meaning female enemies won't even pay attention and dismiss Kate's advances. If Kate uses Lure, both it and Distract go on a 9 second cooldown.

As found by user br3athein, Kate is able to drag unconscious allies while in disguise without alerting enemies. This is great to reposition the party or get through crowds. The easiest way to knock down allies is to use Hector and throw a body at them (it can even be used to knock down Hector himself) or to use Isabelle's Connect on two allies and use Hector's booze.



Kate carries a pocket-sized pistol, which has about half the range of Cooper's pistols (9.0 vs 17.0). On the other hand, it has around 15% the noise radius (3.0) compared to Cooper's (18.0). This makes Kate one of the best characters to take down unsuspecting enemies at mid-close range, specially considering her ability to infiltrate enemy lines.

The Derringer is also effective into stunning Long Coats in cases of emergency, such as when they're about to reveal Kate's position.

A mysterious woman from New Orleans, Isabelle is a master of occultism and voodoo, which gave her the reputation of the "swamp witch" among travelers. Employing a different kind of medicine, she can use her voodoo to aid her allies and eliminate her enemies. She travels around with her trained cat, Stella.



Isabelle is an unique character whose gameplay is very rewarding if mastered. She is capable of controlling the battlefield with her voodoo techniques, which completely changes how the player approaches enemies.

She is remarkably mobile, being the fastest runner, and also having the fastest crouching and walking speeds. She can also climb ivies and ropes, and can swim.

However, Isabelle is the only character that lacks a firearm, meaning her ability to take down opponents is relegated to melee and Mind Control.



Despite her fast mobility, Isabelle has the second slowest melee speed of the cast for lethal (3.6 seconds) and non-lethal (3.0), after McCoy. Because of that, she should be handled with care to avoid being exposed during takedowns.



Isabelle's true power lies in Connect, the most unique ability in the game. With this, she can shoot darts at two living targets, and anything that happens to one of them reflects on the other. For instance, if Isabelle links two enemies and kills one of them with a melee takedown, the other will die in the exact same manner; if non-lethal, both will be knocked down. Isabelle can cancel Connect at any time by using it again on one of the marked targets.

Mastering Connect is key to success with Isabelle, completely changing how the player approaches takedowns. The ability opens many doors to handle various situations, and has many intricacies and details:

Any kind of living being can be connected. This includes all enemy types, all player characters (including Isabelle herself), civilians, and even animals.

Connect even works on incapacitated targets, but will not work on the dead.

Distractions, blinds and lures will affect the connected targets in the same way no matter how far they are from each other.

• If the player uses Cooper's Fake Coin on one the marked targets, the other target will be distracted as well and turn to the same direction.
  
• If the player lures a connected enemy with McCoy's Bag, both enemies will move in the same direction. This won't work if the the other connected target ignores the rules of luring, such as Ponchos and Long Coats, who cannot be lured.

Accidental deaths will effectively kill both connected targets. Enemies will still investigate the connected victim, but will not ring the alarm since the AI will identify the body as an accidental death.

If the player knocks out an enemy, connect them with another enemy, and throw that enemy off a cliff or in water, it will kill both targets.

Long Coats won't instantly die if the target they were linked to dies; instead, they'll take one point of damage and be stunned. However, if the Long Coat takes any kind of damage that would stun, the target he is connected to will die. Therefore, if Hector melee kills a Long Coat, it'll kill both targets (unless the other target is also a Long Coat).

Accidental kills that would otherwise instantly kill Long Coats, like falling rocks or throwing stunned enemies into the water, will still only deal one point of damage and stun them if used on the other connected target.

In stages where the badge missions requires the player to not kill anyone, they can effectively stunlock Long Coats by connecting them to a normal enemy, knocking them down, and connect to the Long Coat again once he gets up.

If two player characters are connected and then healed by McCoy's Bandages or Isabelle's Jimson Weed, both characters will be healed.

However, if Hector is one of the connected characters and he drinks his whiskey, the other character will be knocked down, as the tooltip for the whiskey notes that it's "too strong for everyone else". Curiously, the player can knock down enemies in the same manner, by connecting them to Hector and have him drink.

The player can effectively force the enemy into killing themselves by connecting a player character and an enemy, and have the enemy shoot the player before raising the alarm. This will cause the enemy to take damage directed at the character and die, counting as an accidental death.

This works with Long Coats, but won't instantly kill them, leaving them stunned as usual.

Hector is the best character for this since he has the highest health and can self-heal with his whiskey.



Stella is Isabelle's pet cat who will always follow her around. She cannot be killed nor targeted by enemies, and can be used to distract them briefly (6.0 seconds), with a half the duration on Ponchos; Long Coats are immune to it. She can climb ropes, ivies, ladders and enter through doors.

When using showdown to give a target to Stella and the target is in range, she will immediately go to this person and wait next to it. After that, no matter how far Isabelle moves from the target, Stella will still wait next to it and distract them when triggering her showdown (special thanks to Perfect_Chaos for pointing that out).



Mind Control is a powerful ability that allows Isabelle to take direct control of a non-player character in exchange for one point of damage to herself, as well a "charge" of Mind Control. The target can be controlled for unlimited duration and move freely within a certain radius around Isabelle. Mind Control will be interrupted if the target moves outside of the control radius, if the player manually cancels it, or after taking any action.

If a mind controlled enemy is spotted by other enemies while performing suspicious actions (such as readying to shoot another guard), they'll be shot by the enemies, but won't trigger the alarm.

Each enemy and creature has their own unique action while mind controlled:

• Gunmen, Ponchos and Long Coats can use shoot. Long Coats can only be mind controlled after being damaged and stunned beforehand.
  
• Thugs don't use ranged weapons, and can only attack with their rakes and shovels.
  
• Civilians can be made to scream, which will lure all enemies within the radius, including Ponchos and Long Coats.
  
• Dogs can bite enemies, instantly killing them; if used on Long Coats, they'll be stunned instead. They can also bark, which functions similarly to Hector's Whistle.
  
• Chickens can cluck, which functions similarly to Cooper's Fake Coin.
  
• Horses and Oxen cannot move, but can kick behind them and use their horns to attack in front, respectively.

While using Mind Control, Isabelle is completely vulnerable and cannot move. Because of that, it is best to use it while inside bushes or at places where enemies cannot see her.

Mind Control can be combined with Connect to effectively allow Isabelle to kill two enemies simultaneously. She must Connect the targets before using Mind Control. If she mind controls a connected target, the other one will NOT be under mind control too.

Isabelle has limited charges of Mind Control, and cannot use if she is at one health point left. This ability is powerful but should be used wisely and sparingly, since in most maps the player won't find crates to refill its charges.