Climbing contracts, or Escalations, are missions in Hitman 3 that you’ll likely complete once or twice after completing the campaign. They begin as simple missions with one objective, but progress quickly through three levels, with each level adding a new objective or complication. In this guide, we’ll explain how to get to the Phoenix climb.

Step 1 – Soothing Lucy Waller with a kick

This escalation may seem complicated, but it’s not. At this stage, you don’t have to worry too much about planning. However, we recommend that you enter the mission in the atrium, as this will give you a better starting position.

When the mission starts, go up the stairs and turn right. You’ll find Lucy Waller in the garden. This is an area in Dubai where lush plants can hide. If you’ve already completed the campaign mission in Dubai, you may recognize that this is the place to deal with the vulture.

As luck would have it, Lucy Waller and the shovel to remove it are here. The shovel rests on the right side of the balcony.

You can run to this area, grab the shovel and hit Lucy Waller with it as fast as you can. The sheikh will always be talking to the guests, so no one will notice you. It’s best to duck when attacking, however, in case the guards in the distance are looking in your direction.

Once Waller is eliminated, you can leave the mission. There’s no reason to kill her.

Step 2 – Composite bird

The second phase of this escalation adds both a new purpose and a complication. The second target to appease is Zena Vulture Kazemi, a key player in one of the missions in Dubai. But that’s not all. You must calm the Vulture before you kill it, then proceed to calm Lucy Waller. If you don’t, you won’t succeed in the mission.

Don’t worry, it may sound complicated, but it’s also pretty simple. Do not change the deployment schedule. Go back to the atrium near Escalation and walk into the garden. Stay tuned.

The vulture organically goes to the garden as part of its normal route for the mission. Actually, it’s right next to your first destination. He won’t suspect you even if you have a shovel in your hand.

Once the vulture has settled in the garden to admire the view, he crouches behind him and hits him with a shovel. Now go after Lucy Waller, who should ignore the person you almost certainly brain-damaged, and slap her.

To kill the vulture quickly, pull it to the edge of the balcony and drop it. After that just go to the exit and complete the mission.

Step 3 – Three is… complicated

So far this climb has not been too difficult in less than three minutes. All that changes with level 3. The mission briefing screen gives no indication of what will happen at the final level, making preparation almost impossible.

We recommend arming yourself with a throwing object that disables the target. The fiber optic cable is not needed, so replace it. Keep the gun just in case.

Once you start the mission, you will be assigned a third objective. This time it’s a guard named Naadim Yacoub. As with the vulture, you can appease it in any way and with any disguise, but the location makes it more difficult.

Forget Jakub for now. Go into the garden as usual, wait for the vulture, calm it down, then Lucy Waller, throw the vulture off the balcony and get out before anyone sees you. That’s the easy part.

If you turn your attention to Jakub, you will notice that he is walking on a patrol path past two guards and going down a ladder in the service area. Now you can throw your object at his head and run away. We chose the snowband from Burj Al Ghazali, but it’s not enough to complete the mission.

Once you knock Jakub out, you have to hide his body in the storage room. It took us completely off course for a while, but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Now you can move around the area and find guard coverage to make things easier, but we have found that this is far from necessary. Why don’t you wait in the lobby, right across from the garden? It is in this area that Jakub will patrol for a while, leaning against the wall. You can find the exact location in the red circle on the picture below.

You can see Jakub approaching two guards sitting on a bench and going through the door to the ground floor. Follow him closely. Once he opens the door, you can sneak up behind him. You can also wait for a second guard to open the door on your way out if you want to get a chance to enter without Yacoub noticing you.

From there, you need to go down the stairs until you see the security camera. He’ll write you, but it doesn’t matter. If you’re out of range, shoot him so he can’t track your movements.

As mentioned earlier, Jakub will go up and down these stairs, as will the second guard. There is also a mechanic on one of the pillars, but he never moves.

Eventually the second guard and Jakub will fall to your position. You can turn them both off without anyone noticing. You should also reassure the service technician and take the service key from him.

Once you’ve calmed Jakub down, you need to drag his body to the storage room. It’s a door unlocked with a service key on the same floor as the security camera you were supposed to destroy. See below for map location.

All you have to do is bring Yakub’s body here to complete the climbing mission. However, there is a storage area if you want to hide the body well and get some extra XP.

Once Jakub is hidden, it’s time to complete the mission. You know you’re done climbing because you get a Mission Complete screen for the first time.