Heat increases as you commit more crimes. You are expected to avoid either the cops you’ve annoyed enough to trigger your Heat rating. Failure to react to a Heat warning may result in arrest by the police (at lower ratings) or execution by the police (at higher ratings). Note the Heat rating at the bottom of your smartphone minimap. The color of this map changes depending on what’s happening during these altercations:
Black Background: Marcus is the target. The minimap is likely to be framed in red. You must immediately evade the police chasing you by breaking the line of sight with your pursuers. The icon of the faction you have Heat with is shown in bottom-left corner of the smartphone.
Yellow Background: Marcus is escaping. Escape by remaining out of sight of your pursuers until the search timer (the yellow bar in the bottom-left corner) is reduced to white. Achieve this by remaining as far from your pursuers as possible or by hiding from them.
White Background: The target is unknown, and you have successfully avoided capture and escaped. Your Heat is reduced to zero, and you can continue your exploration unimpeded.
Heat Stages
If you fail to escape the police search, your Heat level turns red and has several stages. The higher the stage, the more police members are summoned. With factions, you simply have up to six vehicles to avoid. With the cops, you have a number of vehicles and a police helicopter to contend with (and at highest Heat levels, sometimes two helicopters).
At Heat Levels 1 and 2, expect cops with pistols and shotguns. At Level 3 and above, expect assault rifles and SMGs. At Level 4 and above, SWAT team members will exit an armored black SUV and begin a tactical strike (as shown). They are heavily armored, so you must flee from them or shoot them in the head. Want to become a menace and raise your Heat to Level 5? Simply keep killing cops.
Escaping The Heat
You reduce your Heat by fleeing from the cops, losing them while they search for you and waiting for the Heat Alert Level to go from red (active chasing) to yellow (escaping) and finally white (escaped). This Felony level is problematic at Level 3 and above, as the public are more swayed to call the cops, and you may appear on news broadcasts. So flee to the Hackerspace and sleep on the couch to remove your Heat.
You can complete an escape involving enemy factions by killing all of them. But this doesn’t work with the police!
Enemy Reinforcements
If you’ve angered the cops or a faction considerably, they send reinforcements that are much tougher to contend with than the lightly armored gunmen you’re used to. At Heat Levels 3, 4, and 5, expect to encounter elites, enforcers, armored gunmen, and marksman (in helicopters). Consult the Factions section earlier in this chapter for a visual of what each type of enemy looks like. Consult the Enemies and Combat section for specific information on how each enemy type reacts.
Restricted Areas
Restricted areas are faction-controlled zones and appear in red on your minimap. There are over 250 of them across the Bay Area. Entering one of them automatically puts Marcus in stealth mode (he crouches and won’t run unless you actively make him). He’ll be primed for silent melee takedowns.
Faction members who “own” the restricted area will be aggressive toward anyone who encroaches on this area. Citizens within the restricted area are likely to cause a modicum of trouble for you; they may call for help if they see you, especially if they witness you taking down a guard.
Almost every operation (Main, Side, and Online) involves you infiltrating one or more of these restricted areas. Outside of the missions, restricted areas are a good place to practice your stealth (or other) techniques and are places where key data, Research Points, and other collectibles are likely to be found.
A restricted area you infiltrate during an operation will not have the same faction guarding it or the same number of foes if you enter it before or after the operation. This is especially true of the 20 large restricted areas that are related to Online Operations; these can house any faction, as Online Operations are random. So, you may have a slightly different exploration depending on whether you enter a restricted area during a Main Operation, Online Operation, or just in between operations.
Witness Calls
If you see the adjacent icon appear above a civilian, a witness is calling the police. If you see a gray version of the same icon, then a civilian affiliated with a faction is calling them, as you’re trespassing on their property. Whatever the case, if the call is completed, law enforcement or a faction will arrive on site shortly, and your Heat level is likely to rise.
Assuming you don’t want violent reinforcements cramping your stealth style, you can aim your weapon, use a melee strike to slap the phone out of the civilian’s hand, or better yet, employ the distract hack to interrupt the caller. Any of these three methods stops the call.
Can’t get to a caller due to scenery being in your way? Then use a Quadcopter to find the busybody and distract them. Or if worse comes to worst, tase them or drop electroshock projectiles on them.