Minigames

There are six minigames that come up during the course of regular gameplay: Bug Planting, Hacking, Lock Picking, Phone Tracing, Safecracking, and Karaoke. In addition to these minigames, there are two ways you can gamble your hard-earned cash in hopes of making more money: Cockfighting and Poker Mahjong.

Bug Planting

You earn the ability to plant bugs during the “Listening In” Main Story mission, and the minigame involved with planting them will come up throughout the main storyline. To plant a bug, you must first calibrate the audio sensitivity and frequency separately. Remember the numbers each attribute was calibrated at to make the simultaneous calibration easier.

In some instances of Bug Planting, you’ll need to open a vent cover by removing the screws before you can start calibrating the bug. After the bug is planted, you’ll need to replace the vent cover.

Hacking

Introduced during the second lead of the “Popstar” Case, the Hacking minigame is used to subvert Spy Cameras and password protection on computers. You are given six attempts to guess a four digit password, using 0 though 9. The hacking program shows you which numbers are correct, which numbers are correct but in the wrong place, and which numbers are incorrect. Use this to narrow down and eventually guess the password. If you fail, the password will be randomized and you’ll have another six attempts to guess it.

Lock Picking

This minigame is also introduced during the “Listening In” Main Story mission. Locks consist of three to five pins, and you need to use your pick to move the pin upwards until it turns green. Then you pull the pin to the left. Repeat this process until all pins are in place and the lock is opened. However, making a mistake by pulling the pick too early will set you one space to the right. Lock Picking requires steady hands, often under pressure.

Phone Tracing

Phone Tracing is one of the more extensive minigames that comes into play during the “Hotshot” Case and the “Mrs. Chu’s Revenge” Main Story mission.

Phone Tracing starts with your smartphone showing your position relative to three major cell phone towers in Hong Kong. You need to get to the indicated center of the triangle they form. Next, scan the four sections of the city to get a general location of the call you are tracing. The section with the most green bars will be the one you need to scan. This will take you to a more detailed view of that section, showing you the three main towers on the outskirts of the map.

Each tower, when selected, emits a pulse that briefly shows the other reception towers they connect to in the area. You need to cycle between the major towers until you see a reception tower the main towers all share, and then scan it. This will give you the caller’s location.

Safecracking

Your smartphone runs a sound-sensitive program that listens for the tumblers in the safe lock to fall into place as you rotate the lock. It’s as simple as spinning the wheel until you hear the click, then rotating in the opposite direction for the next tumbler. Every safe has three tumblers to unlock before it can be opened.

Karaoke

Introduced during the “Club Bam Bam” Main Story mission, Karaoke allows you to witness Wei Shen masterfully sing (or butcher) eight different classic songs. You need to keep his singing pitch in line with the indicated notes as they scroll in from the right side of the screen.

Cockfighting

This minigame is unlocked after completing the “Night Market Chase” Main Story mission. When considered as a source of income, Cockfighting is not efficient. You could spend long minutes agonizing over your two choices of fighting birds before each match, but the outcome is completely out of your hands. A bird with a long winning streak may seem like a safe bet, but even a rookie bird might have its day and take out the reigning champ. A wrong bet can put you out quite a bit of cash.

Poker Mahjong

Poker Mahjong is the other game of chance at your disposal, available after the “Bride to Be” Main Story mission. Unlike Cockfighting, you have a bit more control over your destiny here. The house and player are dealt five tiles apiece, valued from one to six, and payouts are awarded for eight hands, assuming your hand is better than the house hand.

In order from lowest value to highest:

• High Card, 1:1 payout
• One Pair, 1:1 payout
• Two Pairs, 1:1 payout
• Three of a Kind: 2:1 payout
• Straight, 2:1 payout
• Full House, 3:1 payout
• Four of a Kind, 4:1 payout
• Five of a Kind, 5:1 payout

In the event that the house and the player get the same kind of hand, the determining factor for winning a game comes down to the value of the tiles. If, for example, you have a Full House consisting of three 1s and two 3s, but the house has a Full House of three 4s and two 5s, you lose. The only way to beat that is with a Four of a Kind or Five of a Kind hand.

Each game is played in three rounds. The first round, you are dealt a hand, and are able to discard tiles in order to pull fresh ones from the pile, or you can keep your current hand if you are satisfied with what you and the house have been dealt. The second round proceeds in the same way, and the third round consists of presenting the hand you’ve built over the previous two rounds. You can bet up to HK $5000 in a single game, with the potential maximum reward of HK $25000, if you are able to get a Five of a Kind hand with the maximum amount on the line.

It’s not entirely about luck! Pay attention to both the tiles and hand the house has and is discarding with each round. Tiles discarded are put back into the pile, and can affect chances at drawing them in the next round. You can deny specific hands from the house with careful play.