How Can I Maximize My Score?

Question

Coming from Hitman: Blood Money, the new score system has thrown me a bit off guard. I understand a stealthy "professional" approach to missions will result in a better score in general, but what are some good strategies/approaches to generally maximize my score? If possible, non-specific tips would be appreciated since I'm not far into the game and wouldn't want a semi-walkthrough answer to spoil things.

Answer 1

• Don't be spotted. Being spotted carries a sizable score penalty (~1250) and generally makes your life worse.
• Kill enemies cleanly or subdue them. Filling somebody with lead will cause a net loss of score even if you hide the body afterwards, landing a headshot or subduing a target will allow you to regain all of the lost points by hiding the body.
• Never kill civilians, or you'll get a big score penalty (~1350). Subduing them will not penalize you any worse than one-hitting or subduing an enemy.
• Kill enemies when they are alone. Shooting into a group of people will instantly make you spotted, even if you managed to kill them all before they can turn in your direction. You can use explosives to get away with it, but that will attract enemies and make your life harder.
• Use signature kills - killing a target (e.g. somebody you have to kill to complete the mission) with your garrote wire or with an "accident" will award you a massive (~12500) bonus on top of the usual score boost (~6500). Use instinct to locate objects that can help you perform "accident" kills - things like fugu fish, lighter fluid, loose electric wires, etc.
• Finish them challenges! Each challenge completes increases your score by 5%. Often you can quickly do a couple of them, like get all the disguises, in a messy way, then reload and get the benefit of the challenge.
• Go for the Silent Assassin bonus. To get it, you must only kill your targets (only available in segments that have targets) and never be spotted. Subduing other enemies is OK. A supermassive ~65000 score boost.

If you're worried about unlocking all technique, don't fret too much - there are more segments than techniques by quite a bit (I'd say about 10-15), and you'll unlock all of them by the time you end the game if you don't fail to reach the score target most of the time.