- If an enemy flashes red you can usually counter successfully, even while mid-punch.
- When doing missions, Triad Experience fills up (generally from visceral combat) while Cop Experience goes down (generally from breaking things or hurting innocents). You can replay missions from the social centre to try to earn a better score and more EXP out of it.
- It's good to call and go out with a girl right soon after you get her number as the reward is seeing collectibles on your world map.
- Enemies come in four main types and you can practice against each after unlocking the dojo in North Point. Roughly: Normal guys - Do whatever to them. Taller guys, often with boxing gloves - Love blocking, vulnerable to grapples. Big guys - Don't try to grab them. They can't block worth a damn. Weapon guys - Don't try to grab them. Stuns work pretty well here?
- Of useful early upgrades, Slim Jim is one of the first Cop upgrades which lets you into any parked car quietly. Charge Knee Stun is one of the first Melee upgrades which punches through blocks like paper and the followup attack you get for it does a ton of damage.
- You don't need to go back to your apartment after hacking every individual camera in drug bust missions, you can do multiple and finish them in one go later.
- Especially after the first Face level up, temporary buffs become very useful as they last long and cost little. Food buffs health regeneration, Herbal tea buffs toughness, a massage speeds up your Face gauge, and energy drinks (even available from your apartment fridge) buff melee damage.
- You are given guns in missions that require them and sometimes keep them, but most of the game is spent unarmed. One way to get a gun is to disarm a cop when they are pissed enough to shoot at you, and a late Cop upgrade lets you grab them from the trunks of police cars.
- The button presses in combat quick-time events (such as when grabbed) are always the same and worth memorizing.
- After a few Face level ups you unlock the car valet who delivers you a car anywhere from your garage selection, which car he brings can be changed in the garage. Note that only bought and reward cards are added to the garage.
- Buyable furniture, which can be bought from some street merchants not marked on the map, is purely cosmetic.
- Environmental kills look good and immediately eliminate an opponent, so if you are being overwhelmed by numbers grab someone and push their face through an extractor fan.
- The fastest way to escape a police chase is to destroy the cars chasing you either by running them off the road or by shooting out their tires. Tires are faster if you can hit them, but ramming doesn't increase your wanted meter.
- Taxis are remarkably affordable and their quick travel function can save you a ton of time. Remember to hold down the button while next to one or you'll just hijack the car itself.
- Loading a game always returns you to your nearest home base, so a save & load will get you there quickly if needed.
- XP-increasing clothing isn't really worth it; if you do all the missions and don't drive into everything for negative cop XP you should get pretty close to maxing both branches in a normal playthrough without the XP boost. The +damage sets are great though, at the top end you can KO basic thugs with one flurry of quick strikes and a strong strike vs. needing two or three combos.
- Collect jade statues whenever you can; a fair few of them are locked within building interiors that are only available during certain missions.
- If you've bought the DLC pack which includes cheats, you can disable them by removing/moving the following files from the game folder. Delete these before you start a game, and never see those cheats:
- 1E6323E1.dat Top Dog Gold Pack
- 576E446C.dat Top Dog Silver Pack
- AC8D6F78.dat High Roller Pack
- E58008F5.dat Red Envelope Pack
- Doing the leg-break stun can allow you to do the "stealth" takedown from behind where Wei just elbows the guy in the chest. It's an instant KO, but I would save it for arenas since you'll probably want to save your enemies in story missions for triad score where possible.
- Unlike the original version bombarding you with DLC outfits right when you get access to the apartment, you can now purchase them at a night market vendor whenever you want it.
- If you're interested in getting 100%, the Wheels of Fury missions count but they don't get listed as jobs or events in the statistics section. I believe it's all around 3-5%. Doing missions for Tran via the phone also counts for 100%, so don't forget like I did until the end.
- Speaking of Tran, those jobs can earn you a fuckton of cash so long as you don't scratch the cars you're picking up. Just get good at action hijacking or plan roadblocks on your target carefully.
- Zodiac Tournament opens up early in the plot and you can bum around looking for the collectables there when you're done with it.
- I would save buying all of the cars until you get Face Level 10 because a 40% discount rocks.
- The fat guys normally can't be thrown unless Face is active but the special throw where Wei drops an elbow on his target's head (lock-on and hold grapple) goes through their immunity. From there, you can quickly do a stun follow up even though the symbol isn't above their heads.
- For Nightmare at North Point and Year of the Snake, just get a guide for the collectables if you want them. At least for YotS, they show up on the minimap if you're nearby but not on the main one which sucks a lot, NaNP doesn't even do that for you.