Getting started with Watch Dogs
It’s been a long wait, but Watch Dogs is finally here. It's a game that can be a bit daunting when you first start playing, due to the sheer amount there is to do – whether that’s hacking pedestrians, discovering side missions, upgrading your skill trees or just playing the main campaign.
We’ve explored nearly everything you can do in the game in our full Watch Dogs review , so you might want to give that a read before you plunge into the tips and tricks.
To guide you down the right path, we’ve put together a few tips and tricks that will help you make the most of Ubisoft’s brand new IP and hopefully give you some ideas as to how to keep the cops off your tail.
1. Don’t get bogged down in free roam too quickly
When you first start playing Watch Dogs, it is tempting to put off the campaign missions so you can explore Chicago and its residents.
However, it really pays off to follow the campaign missions at least for a little bit, not only to get some story details, but you’ll get some key combat, driving and hacking tools that you’ll need for the game.
In fact, if you play up until the Open Your World mission, you’ll be taught most of the mechanics you’ll need and open up all the skill upgrades for purchase, which is key to doing well in the game.
After that, you should feel free to go exploring, but we’d suggest you make hacking the ctOS stations a priority as they open up parts of the city. When you’ve hacked them all, the game will let you use your hacking abilities throughout the whole of Chicago and you’ll get access to additional side missions.
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2. Focus on your Hacking skill tree first
Although there are several skill trees to upgrade throughout the game, including Driving, Crafting and Combat, by far the most important to you early on is the Hacking tree.
If you focus on upgrading your Hacking skills first, you’ll be able to control traffic-related items that will help you escape from gangs and cops. You will find bridges and steam pipes particularly useful in this respect and it’s nigh on impossible to out-run or ram pursuing cops without some of these hacking tools in your arsenal.
You can’t even pick them off with some gangsta-style drive-by shooting either, frustratingly the mechanic doesn’t exist in the game, so our top tip is to get these these hacking tools early.
3. Make some money, fast
If you focus on upgrading your Money hacking abilities after you’ve maxed out the Hacking tree you’ll be able to pocket more money when you hack pedestrians. Once you’ve moved up a few rungs, you’ll find the people who are guaranteed big pay-outs are automatically highlighted. These “whales” can nab you anywhere between $8,000 and $15,000 a go.
Doing this can make you very rich, very quickly. The earlier you do this the better, as it will let you splash out on new guns and cars to kit Aiden out with.
You can also cheat at the high stakes poker game in the Loop, which is located in the north of the Watch Dogs map. There’s a conveniently placed security camera that overlooks the poker table.
From this vantage point you can keep check on your rival players’ stress levels, and even take a peek and what hands they’re holding. This pretty much guarantees you’ll take home the largest portion of the winning pot, helping boost your bank balance.
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4. Buy the right kit
It might be tempting to splash loads of cash on shiny new vehicles, but we advise you invest in a few top notch weapons instead.
The open-world car delivery system is great, but it doesn’t work at all in missions, which is pretty much where you need it most.
If you save up to buy one 5-star weapon in your preferred class and pair this with a good silenced pistol, you’ll find yourself in a very good position to beat most missions.
You can unlock additional weapons by picking them up off fallen foes, or hacking pedestrians.
5. Remember your secondary weapon arsenal
For some reason Ubisoft has chosen to hide away extremely useful secondary items like grenades, electronic distractions, blackouts, scans and other craftable items within the secondary slot.
These hacking tools are not only very useful, but also rather fun when you realise how many you have at your disposal and thier effects. Explosives themselves are key to completing some missions, so make sure to take a gander in that secondary weapon slot every so often.
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6. The stealth approach can be much more fun
Aiden really isn’t the most robust of protagonists and can only take a few shots before going down altogether. This is far more realistic than some games where you can be pelted for ages before dying, but means you might need to use a variety of tactics.
For example you might want to choose the stealth approach when tackling missions. Actually, taking the sneaky route is often a lot more fun and rewarding than going in all guns blazing.
Although you unlock it fairly early on in the game, the silenced pistol is one of the most important weapons in Watch Dogs as you’ll be able to take out enemies without anyone noticing.
You can use security cameras to get the lay of the land, making note of all the enemies in the vicinity before you begin and then you’ll also see what hacking options are at your disposal. This could include remotely detonating explosives the enemies are carrying, send them a text message or utilising other distraction techniques.
As long as you stay hidden, you can confuse, distract and dispatch your way through levels to your goals.
7. Make sure to use Focus Mode
An easily forgotten, but crucial ability in Watch Dogs is Aiden’s Focus Mode, which slows down the gameplay letting you easily take down targets.
We found this ability critical for some parts of the game, as Watch Dogs can be extremely hard at points.
Focus mode turns Aiden into a formidable power in gun battles, because it gives you just enough time to line a headshot, shoot and then duck back behind cover. Watch Dogs requires a lot of quick thinking and Focus gives you that much needed breather that lets you make the right decisions to survive.
The Focus ability is found in the Combat category and you’ll need to unlock it before you’re able to use it to your advantage.
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8. Avoid the cops
If you’re a gamer that revelled in blowing up cops and raising your wanted status in GTA 5, the cops in Watch Dogs are a whole different ball game. To put it bluntly, they’re psychotic.
Before the cops start chasing you, they’ll start a search, indicated on your mini-map as yellow circles. If you spot one, it’s best to stop and wait for it to disappear as if the circle turns opaque the cops will chase you as soon as they spot you.
These chases aren’t the same as in other games, as even if you use takedowns to get rid of some of the cop cars, this only increases your wanted level as you wreck their vehicles.
You can use environmental hacks to cut your enemies off though, which are extremely handy. This is mostly because you can then take advantage of Watch Dogs’ hiding technique. If you stop your car and press circle/B you can slide down in the driver’s seat and turn the engine off.
It might not be the most sophisticated of tactics, but as long as your AI enemies don’t have line of sight you can fairly easily lose them by hiding, especially if you chose an out-of-the-way location like a green area or car park.
9. But if you can't, head for the water
Saying that though, it can be very tricky to shake the cops if your hacking and hiding techniques have failed you.
For some reason, if you head for the water in Watch Dogs, the law won’t follow you in. So if you’re struggling to ditch the cops, drive your car into the water, jump out and either grab a boat or swim to freedom.
The cops don’t have water-based vehicles either, meaning they won’t take to the boats to track you down.
There is one issue to this though and that’s the police helicopter, but that can be taken out for a short amount of time using the Disable Helicopter perk you’ll unlock later in the game.
10. Embrace the voices
Grabbing the audio logs and listening to the pedestrians in Watch Dogs can really flesh out the central story of the game. You won’t learn any more about Aiden in this way, but you’ll gain some useful tips and insights about characters like Iraq and Quinn.
You’ll also be able to learn a lot about the assassin you capture in the opening mission by hunting down the audio logs highlighted on the map, which will really make sense of the game’s ending.
There’s plenty to discover from the pedestrians in the game as well. Some of their phone calls will make you chuckle out loud and you’ll also get perks like new cars and weapons by hacking them, not to mention cash that’s directly sent to ATM machines.
Watch Dogs is huge and there’s so much to do, we’ve only really scratched the surface here. We’ll be adding more content as we play, but if you have any tips for players, feel free to add them into the comments below.
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