Scoring Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

The results that you receive at the end of each mission is calculated, basing on several factors. First of all- kills. This value is determined by the number of opponents at each stage. It is constant and it cannot be changed, considering the fact that, either way, you need to kill all of the opponents, to complete the mission. Some of the missions allow you to spare several opponents, but it is unproductive, from the perspective of scoring. This category includes everything, ranging from kills with melee weapons, through killing with firearms, finishing off the unconscious. It is important that killing a knocked down opponent is more valuable than killing with melee weapon. The difference is 200 points, but with a high number of kills, this may make a difference for the overall score.

The second value is combo, and it reflects how many opponents you managed to kill within short intervals. The higher the multiplier in the upper-left corner of the screen, the higher the combo bonus. The later into the game, the higher the chance of obtaining a high multiplier, but you need to approach this with care. Combo is easy to lose, by accident, which makes you replay the mission and decreases the number of points available from the time bonus. The easiest way to bring up the multiplier is to use weapons that wound multiple opponents, at a time, i.e. all melee weapons and the shotgun. Machine guns and pistols are more troublesome, because they shoot in a straight line, more or less, whereas the shotgun has a wider spread. With shotgun, you can kill three opponents, side-by-side, whereas there may be problems with that, using the pistol.

Flexibility means the versatility of armaments. The more frequently you switch your weapons, the higher this value. This is especially important in the case of firearms, which depletes ammo sooner or later; as well as from the perspective of the characters that use no firearms and fight bare-handed. In such a case, the special value goes up.

Mobility determines how mobile you were. To gain as many points as possible, you need to restrict moments of taking a breath, to a minimum and keep moving around the map. It would be best if you combined movement with elimination of enemies.

Boldness means stunning with doors, throwables, and exposing yourself to enemy fire. The higher the risk that you take, the more points you receive. For example, you can stun and finish off an opponent when another opponent is running towards you and, after you are done, kill him also. You can start the shooting while dashing towards the enemies and finish them off while under enemy fire. Also, you can dash towards the enemy, shoot two of them, stun the third with the pistol that you throw and finish him off, while the rest are darting towards you. Each of these situation is highly risky and it may end in your death and, what follows, it is more valuable from the score perspective.

Time bonus determines if you have completed the mission fast enough. The game calculates the combined time that you have spent completing a mission, from the beginning, until you kill the last opponent (after you do, the timer stops). On this basis, it is determined if you earned the bonus. Each replay of the mission decreases the bonus, which in extreme situations amounts to zero.

Special depends on the character that you played as. For example, for Corey, his value is 8000, whereas for Tony - 22000. The more restricted the capabilities of a character, or the more difficult it is to play with that character, the higher the value.

Theoretically, to obtain the S rank, you should stay on the move the whole mission, fight shooters on close distances, stun the enemies using doors and throwing items and change weapons as frequently as you can. Moreover, you have to maintain a high combo and complete the mission in as little trials as possible. Practically, the only condition is to obtain the highest combo that you can. This way, you can obtain the S rank even if you finished the mission in 40 minutes using only one weapon. You can also try to work on mobility and flexibility, but it is not necessary. The only thing that you have to focus on is to obtain a very high combo in every location in a mission - during the early levels, you have to have 10 and during later chapters - 20 or more. If you achieve a high combo in two locations in a mission and you won't do it in the third one, there is a chance that you will "only" obtain A+ instead of S. Low combo earns less points, which makes one high combo (20) better then ten low combos (2).

To obtain a high combo, you have to get to know the location well - it's rooms, placement of the enemies, their weapons and so on. Next, you have to plan the way in which you're going to complete it, select the order of eliminating the opponents, picking up weapons and dealing with patrols. Therefore, a good tactic is to complete every mission three times. The first time is to progress in the campaign, the second to get to know the locations and the third time to achieve a high rank. Usually, three trials is enough to obtain at least A-.

Knowing every mission well will allow you to choose which enemy to kill as the last one and when to progress to the next location. The value of your combo is retained when changing locations, as long as you do it in a given amount of time. It means that with a bit of skill, you can finish every missions with a combo of 100 or more, which will give you not only the S rank, but also thousands, or even millions of points. Thus, it is good to plan every location in such way so that the last enemy in your combo stands near the exit. You may have little time to kill the first enemy after entering the next location, but most of them are built in such way that you should be able to do that. Moreover, the combo value doesn't resets when dying in a new location, so you can enter it a few times and get to know it to later focus on increasing your combo.

All the tips described above apply to playing on the high level of difficulty, with two changes. Firstly, every map gets turned around. Secondly, the placement of enemies is completely different. This means that if you want to achieve a high score, you have to plan every mission again.