Freelancer Challenges Guide

The purpose of this guide is to showcase all 99 challenges in freelancer and recommend which ones are worth completing and which ones are worth avoiding if you value your sanity.
There are a LOT of challenges in freelancer (as of writing this guide), so remembering and then prioritising which challenges to go for will help a lot with earning mastery XP for the mode! It will also give you some sexy trophies that you can view in your safehouse.

Intro

Let me start off this guide by saying holy sh*t IOI. WTF were you thinking with a lot of these challenges, many are grindy, broken, illogical or a combination of all three. most of the challenges are fine but there are far too many that are grindy to the point of not even wanting to attempt them for risk of losing your own sanity.. For example, the Feat named Employee of the Year requires you to kill 500 Syndicate Leaders. For reference, each campaign has 4 Leaders throughout it. This means that you will have to complete at 125 Campaigns (And thats assuming you dont fail any of them!). For an idea of how long campaigns take, I have been playing Freelancer for around 20 hours now and I have only managed to complete 10 Campaigns. WHO TF designed this challenge?? No one will be playing this buggy mode for that long!

With my rant out of the way, please enjoy the complete list and broken down explanations of each challenge currently available in the Freelancer game mode.
For Mathematical Reference:
TO REACH MASTERY LEVEL 100 = 4,192,000 XP
TOTAL XP FROM COMPLETING ALL CHALLENGES = 246,000 XP
(IN TOTAL THE CHALLENGE XP ONLY MAKES UP 5.87% OF THE XP NEEDED TO REACH MASTERY LEVEL 100!)

Assassination

NOTES:
TOTAL XP FROM ASSASSINATION CHALLENGES = 80,000XP

Underline = Extremely Difficult and/or Grindy Challenges, I do NOT recommend attempting these unless you are a dedicated player with a lot of time to kill!

LOCATIONS:

- Eliminate 50 Members/Leaders in:
• Paris
  
• Sapienza
  
• Marrakesh
  
• Bangkok
  
• Colorado
  
• Hokkaido
  
• Miami
  
• Santa Fortuna
  
• Mumbai
  
• Whittleton Creek
  
• Isle of Sgail
  
• New York
  
• Maldives
  
• Dubai
  
• Dartmoor
  
• Berlin
  
• Chongqing
  
• Mendoza
  
• Ambrose Island
  
  

  MEMBERS:

  - Eliminate 100 Members
  - Eliminate 500 Members (GRIND)
  - Eliminate 2500 Members (GRIND)
  - Eliminate 10 Members/Leaders with proximity explosives
  - Eliminate 10 Members/Leaders with remote explosives
  - Eliminate 47 Members/Leaders with the Katana (OR the Masamune) (GRIND)
  - Eliminate 10 Members/Leaders with lethal pills
  - Eliminate 100 Members/Leaders with legendary gear (GRIND)
  - Eliminate 100 Members/Leaders with headshots using ANY variation of the Druzhina 34 Sniper Rifle(GRIND)
  
  

  SUSPECTS:

  - Eliminate all Suspects in a showdown (Including the Leader)
  - Eliminate a Suspect that is NOT the leader with lethal poison
  - Eliminate 50 Suspects that are NOT leaders
  - Eliminate 25 Suspects using fire (GRIND)
  - Poison 50 Suspects
  
  

  LEADERS:

  - Eliminate a Leader in 9 different territories/ maps
  - Eliminate 20 Leaders
  - Eliminate 100 Leaders (GRIND)
  - Eliminate 500 Leaders (GRIND)
  - Eliminate a Leader during a meeting
  - Eliminate 10 Leaders while they are escaping
  - Eliminate 10 Leaders by pushing them over a ledge
  - Eliminate 25 Leaders with headshots
  - Eliminate 25 Leaders with a sniper rifle
  - Eliminate 25 Leaders in accidents
  - Eliminate 10 Leaders while they're performing a Tell
  - "Strangle" 10 Leaders wearing a necklace (Use Fiber Wire)
  - Eliminate 25 Leaders with a Fiber wire
  - Eliminate 25 Leaders with poison
  - Eliminate a Leader within 60 seconds of arriving
  - Eliminate a Leader with an item retrieved from a Suspect
  
  - Eliminate 10 Leaders using natural or crafted poisons (GRIND and ONLY able to done on 3 maps currently.)
  THESE METHODS COUNT:
  1- Poisonous Frogs found in Whittleton Creek, Haven Island and Santa Fortuna
  2- Lethal Flowers found in Santa Fortuna OR in a supply crate
  THESE METHODS DO NOT COUNT: (As of currently)
  1- Frogs on Ambrose Island (This is either bugged or the devs were too lazy to include it))
  2- Emetic Mushroom found in the Safehouse --> lethal poison Vial
  3- Emetic Mushroom found in the Safehouse --> lethal poison Syringe
  4- Emetic Flower --> Lethal Poison vial in Mendoza
  5- Cutting the Fugu fish gland in Hokkaido
  
  I would advise that you DO NOT bother with this challenge as the maps and methods to complete it are far too specific.
  -Credit to Xypherblack for providing additional info on the challenge above.

Discovery

NOTES: TOTAL XP FROM DISCOVERY CHALLENGES = 12,000XP

- Ave Maria = Travel outside of your safehouse to the right of your boat dock, then find the clearing where you can sit down and meditate. Do this for 5 minutes straight and should challenge should unlock.
- "I'll be back" = Die at least once in Freelancer
- Crack 10 safes
- Crack 100 safes (GRIND)
- Use the Safehouse supply crate 50 times
- Collect Gear from 100 stashes
(Stashes are the random item chests you can find pretty reguarly during missions. You have a choice of 3 items or Merces. Simply loot the chest and it will count towards this challenge.)

Feats

TOTAL XP FROM FEATS CHALLENGES = 154,000XP

WEAPONS:

(Collect = Bring the weapon back to your Safehouse from a mission, either from finding it or purchasing it from a supplier)
- Collect 10 pistols
- Collect 10 SMGs
- Collect 10 shotguns
- Collect 10 rifles
- Collect 10 snipers
- Collect 10 melee weapons
- Collect 47 firearms
- Collect a legendary weapon

MERCES ACCRUAL:

- Earn 7,500 merces in a single mission payout
- Earn a total of 50,000 merces
- Earn a total of 500,000 merces (GRIND)

SYNDICATE COMPLETION:

- Defeat 10 Sick Games syndicates
- Defeat 10 Assassination syndicates
- Defeat 10 Eco Crime syndicates
- Defeat 10 Arms Trafficking syndicates
- Defeat 10 Psy Ops syndicates
- Defeat 10 Big Pharma syndicates
- Defeat 10 Espionage syndicates
- Defeat 10 Organ Trafficking syndicates
- Complete a syndicate from 8 different syndicate types
- Complete a difficulty 1 syndicate
- Complete a difficulty 2 syndicate
- Complete a difficulty 3 syndicate
- Complete a difficulty 4 syndicate

CAMPAIGN COMPLETION:

- Complete 10 campaigns
- Complete 50 campaigns (GRIND)
- Complete 100 campaigns (GRIND)

HARDCORE MODE:

- Complete a showdown in Hardcore mode (VERY DIFFICULT)
- Complete a contract in Hardcore mode (VERY DIFFICULT)
- Complete a campaign in Hardcore mode (VERY DIFFICULT)

FAILURES:

- Fail 10 showdowns (Keep in mind that you will lose a lot of Merces if you do this)
- Fail a campaign
- Exit 20 missions without eliminating all targets
- Lose 50,000 Merces by failing a mission (Complete all objectives, then die before exiting)

OBJECTIVES:

Complete 10 Silent Assassin payout objectives
Complete "hide bodies" / "destroy camera recorder" 20 times
Complete 100 regular payout objectives
Complete 10 timed prestige objectives
Complete 50 prestige objectives

OTHER:

- Reach Freelancer Mastery level 100 (GRIND)

Please feel free to comment any corrections, suggestions or feedback down below.

Need some Tips for Hitman 3? My other guides have you covered!
BASIC AND ADVANCED TIPS:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893932581
RECOMMENDED UNLOCKS: (Base game, NOT Freelancer)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940061539

[Jäger]

@karpad So i just checked and Colorado does NOT have a poisonous frog. It never did. Why you are commenting false information on my guide I do not know but next time please check before commenting advice!

[Jäger]

I hate how inconsistent this damn challenge is. Since Ambrose Island is not a valid location for the challenge, I will have to check Colorado. tbh I didnt even know there was a poisonous frog in that map. pretty sure the devs only added them in Hitman 2 maps but could be wrong. If anyone has a definitive list of the locations and poison methods then please link it in the comments!!

[Makoto Niijima]

nah, frogs on Ambrose does not count, just checked it.

[karpad]

yes, I tested them myself. Anywhere you can pick up a poison frog counts toward it, as does the fugu fish. I actually finished Natural Selection well before don't lick me (which is killing with poison 25 times, but you can bring it from home or find it in a crate)
A frustrating thing is if you are in a stage that has lethal flowers, but you pick up the lethal poison flower from a crate, it makes your flower poisonings not count.

[Jäger]

@karpad did you test and confirm all these yourself? As from my research on reddit, it appears that they do not count. The requirements for this challenge are so terrible and inconsistent! It's so irritating. Anyway do let me know.

[karpad]

Additionally, you can look at the screen above the box immediately after you start a new syndicate, and if you see either foodie or dehydrated, you know they can be poisoned, so just save one of the poison-available locations for last on that run. It's much easier than it seems when you know you can pick your battles

[karpad]

Ambrose Island (multiple locations) and Colorado (southwest swampy area) both have poison frogs, and the fugu fish poison in Hokkaido also count toward Natural Selection

[RedSkull2510]

Thanks

[Jäger]

@Redskull2510 So I just checked earlier and they completely removed the distillation kit from the greenhouse. Unfortunately this means you can not craft poison on the map in freelancer.

[Jäger]

I will do some testing and let you know