Watch Dogs: Legion guide — Operative skills and which to look for

Every single person you see in Watch Dogs: Legion is a potential operative with potential skills. From the guy spraypainting on a building to the old lady walking down the street, everyone has skills that could potentially benefit Dedsec. Some are good, some are bad, and some are useless. How do you tell what skills they have, though? It’s extremely simple. Just scan them with your smartphone and any unique skills, abilities, or equipment will show in their profile. Then all you need to do is either approach them for recruitment or save them for later, which will allow you to find them at any time.

Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, skill me

First things first, we’re going to talk about Watch Dogs: Legion‘s skills. Not all characters have these and they’re mostly passive. The best ones come in the form of boons and equipment. For instance, some operatives earn more money than others via the investor skill. Others can take more damage in general, which also has specific varieties, such as taking less melee damage. Some do more melee damage or have higher counter damage. These exist for most attack and defense properties. There’s even one that makes characters more stealthy. Any character that has that sort of skill can be a good choice for an operative, depending. There are also skills that reduce the amount of time operatives are incarcerated or in the hospital, which can either apply to individual operatives or your entire team.

Similarly, you’ll find characters with unique weapons, drone summons, and abilities. For instance, some of the construction workers come with the ability to summon their own cargo drone. This is one of the most useful skills in Watch Dogs: Legion, as the cargo drone basically lets you fly wherever you want, whenever you want. Others can summon other kinds of drones, including ones that shock enemies. Construction workers also often have nail guns as personal weapons, which function like strong, silent guns that are useful in most scenarios. The only operatives that can use weapons beyond the four unlocked in the tech tree are ones who have them in their profiles. Some other good weapons include silenced pistols and the light machine gun.

Faction follies

You can even recruit members of Watch Dogs: Legion‘s two factions, Albion and Clan Kelley, that come with outfits that allow them to walk around restricted areas without causing as much alarm. Although, if they get too close to guards or turrets, their cover will still get blown, so their usefulness is limited. Still, they can come in handy and it’s nice to go into restricted areas without having to sneak. These also work for construction worker and health professionals outfits, which allows them to blend in at construction sites and hospitals respectively.

Then there are more specific abilities from special archetype operatives too. One of my favorites is the beekeeper, who has a skill that lets you summon robot bees that hurt and stun enemies. And the gunkata, which allows the hitman to instantly takedown any enemy as long as their gun is drawn. These operatives are unlocked via completing missions that become available when a borough becomes defiant.

But some skills are very bad. Some, such as death wish, means that the characters can die, even if you don’t have permadeath on. Others randomly gamble your Eto or buy clothes. There are plenty of (mostly elderly) characters who have the low mobility designation, which prevents them from sprinting or taking cover. There are other detrimental skills, such as operatives that can hiccup and attract enemies. You don’t want to get operatives with any of these skills. Keep all of this in mind and you’ll have a tip-top team in no time.

Head over to our Watch Dogs: Legion guide hub for the rest of our hints and tips on setting London free.