There’s something special about wandering through a world filled with smartphone-wielding hipsters, high-tech government agencies, and clueless AI, isn’t there? Set within a fictionalized version of San Francisco, Watch Dogs 2 allows some players to live out their dreams of being a trendy hipster wearing sunglasses and donning a flat-brimmed baseball cap. Marcus Holloway, a hacker working for the infamous DedSec, manages to land himself in all manner of trouble through a variety of single-player and cooperative multiplayer missions in last year’s release from Ubisoft. Many gamers are just along for the joyride.

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With all the side missions, knick-knacks to locate, and emergent gameplay, it's safe to say, anyone who casually played through the game missed out. There are so many incredible things to do and, here, we're going to highlight just a few!

Updated by Gabrielle Huston on October 25, 2022: Still enjoying Watch Dogs 2? You might want to check you haven't missed something awesome that you could have been doing! We've spruced up this article for your reading pleasure.

10 Exfiltrate A Vehicle Without Actually Driving

Watchdogs 2 - official art

As you progress through Watch Dogs 2, you’ll slowly unlock new perks to take advantage of. One such perk allows the player to take control of vehicles using their hacking abilities. Using the forward, back, and left/right commands, you can literally drive your target without ever sitting in the front seat. This ability is best paired with a stealth mission, where your noticed presence means failure.

First off, get into a position where you can see your target. To accomplish this task, either use a camera or scamper up to a vantage point overhead. You may either take direct control of the vehicle – should you be close enough – or send your drone in as a proxy. Either way, you can take control of a high-end vehicle, drive it out of the enemy compound, and take control of it yourself for later use. If you utilize the drone method, be wary of enemy spotters!

9 ‘Social Engineering’ At Its Finest – Avoiding Alert Phases

Watch Dogs 2 Screenshot Of Marcus Using Thunder Ball

Once you’ve managed to score the ‘Social Engineering’ perk, you can hack into people’s phones and cause a distraction. Of course, to create this momentary distraction, you’ll need to match your ‘hack lines’, be it from the player character, a drone, or perhaps even a camera feed. Yes, it will take some stars aligning to make use of the feature, but it’s worth the trouble sometimes.

Thankfully, your engineered distraction supersedes any alert level, so if a nearby guard spotted you, you can send a distraction in their direction and cause some confusion. Take advantage of timing, though, as a bit of strategy is required. Furthermore, be aware that you cannot send a distraction once the guard’s official status has gone yellow or red. If you’re quick, though, you can prevent alerting an entire enemy compound. Just be wary of the dangers around you!

8 Custom Party Playlists

Watch Dogs 2 the main character on a phone

The sign of any good open-world game is the ability to create your own custom playlists and bump your favorite tunes in-game. Watch Dogs 2 manages to pack this feature in, but many players completely forgot it existed!

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First off, open your in-game smartphone, then make your way to the storefront. Download the ‘Media Player’ application, which is where you can access all your music via the SongSneak application. From here, you’ll notice each song added is from the in-game radio. You can select your favorite tunes and load them into a single playlist from thereon in. Once you have an excellent selection, pick a genre, or play them all together for easy listening. You can even enjoy the new music during missions or general gameplay, like running around the city.

7 Use Your Quadcopter To Reach New Heights

Marcus with DedSec hacker gang, overlooking a vista of San Francisco in Watch Dogs 2

Thanks to Reddit user RaidenIsDead, we learned how using the quadcopter to soar to new heights is a possibility in-game. It’s certainly something we would have missed on our own.

Once you’ve acquired the quadcopter – and perhaps have a little experience piloting the small drone – you can use the machine as an additional foothold when leaping from great heights. In his gameplay footage, RaidenIsDead uses the quadcopter to jump from a steam vent to a higher ledge by stepping onto the drone and then working his way up to the final ledge.

This little trick relies on the game’s parkour animation, which is automatic, to enable Marcus the opportunity to climb the quadcopter. It may take a few tries to get right, but the result is very cool. We like to think the designers had something like this in mind for the little drone copter.

6 Secrets, Ubisoft?

Ubisoft Pioneer trailer

You’ve got to hand it to Ubisoft; they certainly know how to market their games. While those games may be lacking in some cases, the community always knows about a big release well before launch day. This time around, however, the studio managed to stuff a little secret game trailer into Watch Dogs 2. Few players have discovered the secret, though.

To find the trailer, first head towards Stanford University and locate the side mission entitled ‘Ubistolen.' You’ll notice a few pseudo-Ubisoft developers complaining about someone leaking their Assassin’s Creed game trailers early. Continue along the path until you reach the top of the Ubisoft offices, then hack their servers to reveal a secret game trailer. It looks a bit like No Man’s Sky. In reality, it was a project called Pioneer, which was eventually canceled.

5 Roaming IEDs

Watch Dogs 2 - car exxplosion

Okay, so by now you already know you can control a vehicle using nothing but your drone. Did you know you could pack the very same van with explosives and then drive it into a compound? First off, steal a large vehicle, preferably a delivery van, and toss a few explosive devices into the very back – literally anywhere.

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Once done, switch to the drone and take control of your new mega-bomb. Drive it straight into a group of enemies, promptly switch back to Marcus, and light the fuse. Once you’ve hit the trigger, the van should explode in a mess of fiery brilliance. You’ll want to be a safe distance from the explosion, of course; otherwise, the blast may injure you too. This little trick is best used on large groups, but have a blast blowing up solo enemies or vehicles, too!

4 Climbing To New Heights

Watch Dogs 2: The Golden Gate Bridge

The developers of Watch Dogs 2 planted invisible walls to prevent the player from scaling the Golden Gate Bridge. Thanks to a little trick (read: glitch) with the smartphone, you can climb to the highest point for an incredible view of the city.

First, you’ll want to get in position. Plant Marcus near one of the bridge’s large support cables. Using the in-game phone’s selfie option, enter the camera mode and slowly walk the entire length of the cable until you’ve reached the top. At the top, you’ll need to hold the corresponding buttons to enable automatic scaling animations so that Marcus will leap between the bridge’s struts. And voila, you’re at the top!

3 Power-up Your Smartphone

Marcus of Watch Dogs 2 holding a mobile with San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge in background

As the most prominent hacker in the game world, Marcus has his trusty smartphone always in hand. Of course, a smartphone is nothing but a communication device without the right applications and programs available. Watch Dogs 2 allows you to power up your phone by downloading items from the in-game app store.

First and foremost, grab the Nudle Maps app, which enables a map on your HUD. Next, download Driver SF, which is similar to the real-world Uber app, except you’re the driver. You can pick up and ferry passengers for a little extra cash. Finally, grab SongSneak from the app store. It’s an in-game version of Shazam, which as you may know, recognizes music playing on the radio. There are other apps available on the store, but these three have proven most useful to players.

2 Virtual Theft Auto

Screenshot of a player hacking a car in Watch Dogs 2.

Once you’ve progressed far enough into the game, you’ll receive the ability to hack an NPC-controlled vehicle while they’re still driving it. This ability does remove the opportunity to hack the original driver, though, so think carefully, as you cannot switch back and forth between the two.

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Personally, hacking a moving vehicle is far more enticing than the sole driver and his bank account. If you’re quick enough, you can take control of the car, truck, or what have you and cause a bit of chaos. If used right, you may even be able to take out a few enemies using the runaway vehicle, then leave the scene of the crime without tipping anyone off. Of course, the driver will be utterly confused, but he’s an NPC, so who cares!

1 Ruin Someone’s Day By Planting Digital Evidence

Watch Dogs 2 - planting fake evidence on someone

Say you happen across a random criminal on the street. Someone who is truly horrendous, like they steal money from the elderly and use it to gamble in high-stakes poker games. What are you to do? In Watch Dogs 2, the answer to that question is to plant incriminating evidence on their digital devices using your hacking abilities. This is hands-down the most entertaining feature of the game.

Once you acquire the ability to hack digital devices sneakily, you can forge evidence and flag someone in the police database. Shortly after, a squad car will pull up alongside the individual and arrest them once and for all. More often than not, the responding police officers will taser the person into submission. Wow, the police sure do have a fast response time!

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