Watch Dogs Legion is almost among us (or maybe even among us by the time you read this) but it’s a very different beast to Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2. While Legion is best played you way, here’s a few tips that I wish I knew before I jumped in. Most of these will be which skills to prioritise first, though there’s one or two others that I found incredibly helpful as I neared the end of my run.
As I always try to with my tips guides, there will be no spoilers in this guide, so read ahead if you’re wanting to go in blind. I encourage it!
LEARN TO DEAL WITH DRONES EARLY ON
More than in any previous game, drones are a huge part of the the London shown in Watch Dogs Legion and this time they’re rarely on your side. Drones are always hovering around restricted areas and give you an area besides the ground to worry about being spotted from. The sky is literally the limit with them.
From the moment you get the chance to, invest tech points into, at bare minimum the ability to power off all the different types of drones that you’ll encounter. This gives you a lot more breathing time in the event you’re infiltrating an area and about to be spotted by a drone. Powering them off not only makes them stop detecting you but also makes them forget you entirely which is incredibly helpful. If you want to invest more points to the point where you can control the drones, you can. But I don’t think it’s entirely necessary until later on.
UPGRADE YOUR INFILTRATOR SPIDERBOT STRAIGHT AWAY
Similar to the last one, after you’ve sorted out how you’ll deal with your drones I encourage you to upgrade your Spiderbot. I used my remote drones heaps in Watch Dogs 2, and those were replaced largely by this little guy in Watch Dogs Legion. You’ll notice throughout London there are Spiderbot depositories that’ll dispense a Spiderbot on the off chance you forget to equip one, but as these come with default skills, none will be as useful as your own.
The three upgrades for the Infiltrator Spiderbot offer it a cloak, a double jump and a sprint. These are immensely powerful tools that’ll help make your infiltrations a hell of a lot easier. Sprinting, when combined with double jumping, allows your Spiderbot to reach almost everywhere and helps alleviate a lot of the headaches with reaching the hard to get Tech Points or ctOS Uplink Terminals. Trust me, it’s a life saver. Oh, and it can face hug and incapacitate pretty much anyone too. Wow.
LEARN TO TO LOSE THE FUZZ WITH THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK
Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2 made it a little bit easier for you to lose the heat. In those games, you could simply drive and wait for an on-screen prompt to explode a drainage pipe to get them off your tail. Unfortunately, that’s completely gone from Watch Dogs Legion. You’ll still attract the attention of both the police and Albion, but you can kind of recreate this effect.
When driving in a chase, hold X on Xbox or Square on Playstation in order to enter rear view mode. Obviously, make sure you don’t drive into anything while you’re doing this. But usually hitting that button followed by your hack button will almost always highlight the pursuing vehicle and steer them into a wall to incapacitate them. I’m tempted to say 60% of the time, it works everytime. But I’m confident the likelihood of it working is much, much higher. Give it a try!
TAG PRETTY MUCH ANYONE WITH SKILLS YOU FIND APPEALING
As I’m sure you’re no doubt aware, Watch Dogs Legion lets you recruit literally anyone from the streets of London. As such, it’s important you’re always on the lookout for people with skills that suit your play style or fill gaps in your team. But there’s a way to almost “bookmark” your favourite people you come across if you meet them in the heat of a mission or battle.
The easiest way to do this is to obviously profile them by holding the respective shoulder button on your controller. In doing so, you’ll see a summary of who they are. Be sure to HOLD the right shoulder button to add them to a list of potential recruits in your repertoire. Then, when you’ve got some downtime you can select them and the game will automatically direct you to where they are and subsequently how to recruit them. Super simple! And a good but simple time saver.
GRAB THE DEEP PROFILER TO MAKE FRIENDS QUICKER
Watch Dogs Legion offers a brand new feature in which you can recruit anyone into your team. Yes, even the bad guys (more on that in a minute). But some of them will hate DedSec, the hacker collective you’ll be collecting for. As such it’s important to work out ways in which you can make friends with them quicker. Enter the deep profiler.
One of the upgrades available early in the game, and with no further upgrades beyond the initial purchase, the deep profiler is incredibly helpful. It allows you to research an individual, mark areas on the map to investigate and then carry out mini-tasks to win the affection of your potential recruits. It’s very, very helpful in recruiting security and guard personnel. Which brings me to my final tip:
RECRUIT AN ALBION EMPLOYEE AS SOON AS YOU CAN
Albion is the enemy law enforcement agency in Watch Dogs Legion, and are responsible for most of the early restricted areas you’ll come across. The Kelley Gang are too, mind you, but Albion’s overall presence is certainly larger. You’ll spend a lot of your time infiltrating Albion’s operations throughout the main storyline of Watch Dogs Legion, so it’s especially important to get one of them in your pocket as soon as possible.
Using the Deep Profiler, be sure to tag any guard in a restricted area and discover what you have to do in order to woo them to your side. Usually it’ll involve an activity of some sort, but once that’s done you’ll be able to stroll around Albion facilities and compounds without arousing suspicion which is a huge relief as you’re trying to get your head around the stealth mechanics of Legion.
Don’t act like a bloody gronk though or your cover will be blown.
