Before shooting someone, you must locate them using detectives and then travel to their city.
You must be out of protection before hiring detectives.
Hiring
Detectives work like so:
- You pay detectives to locate your target. The target must be out of protection and within your level range (detailed below).
- Detectives will search for your target, for the period of time you selected during hiring.
- After the search is complete, you'll receive an alert to confirm whether your target has been found.
- If your target was found, detectives will track the target for 6 hours. During this time, you can shoot at the target providing you're in the same city. If the target travels away from their city, detectives will abandon the case and you can no longer shoot (unless the "Follow" option is used which is detailed below).
It's not easy to find a target, so you should expect detectives to fail and be prepared to hire more if necessary. The difficulty of finding a target is based on the target's level and how long you search for (detailed below). Detectives are private, nobody else will know if you're searching for a target.
Level range
You cannot hire detectives on a target more than 10 levels above or below your level. For example, if you're Level 30, you can hire detectives on targets ranging from Level 20 to Level 40 at the time of hiring.
If a target moves out of your level range while detectives are searching, this won't have any effect on the outcome and you'll still be able to shoot if the target is found. However, you won't be able to hire more detectives until the target is back within your level range.
During Deathmatch, the level range expands each day.
Cities
Normally you will hire detectives to search all cities but if you believe you know your target's city, for example you're in a heist with them, you can specify which city to search.
Search time
Searching for a longer period of time can increase your chance of finding a target, which will be reflected in the chance bar shown on the screen.
Follow
If your target is found but then travels, your detectives will stop tracking them. This can be a problem when searching for an active gangster because they may (by chance) travel quickly after you've located them, before you have a chance to shoot. However you can use the follow option to have your detectives follow the target into one additional city after being found.
Number of detectives
A single detective often won't find a target. You can send up to 100 detectives out at once.
From a chance perspective, this works exactly the same as hiring 1 detective 100 times, it's just a lot easier!
Chances
Detectives never have a 100% chance of finding, no matter the target level and search time combination, unless you're searching for an NPC.
The below chances as per detective hired against other players. For example, if the chance of finding is 50% and you hire 25 detectives, this gives you 25 chances of finding your target with a 50% chance each time.
| Level | 30 Minutes | 1 Hour | 1.5 Hours | 2 Hours | 2.5 Hours | 3 Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 73% | 73% | 73% | 73% | 73% | 73% |
| 2 | 54% | 73% | 73% | 73% | 73% | 73% |
| 3 | 54% | 73% | 73% | 73% | 73% | 73% |
| 4 | 40% | 54% | 73% | 73% | 73% | 73% |
| 5 | 40% | 54% | 73% | 73% | 73% | 72% |
| 6 | 30% | 54% | 54% | 73% | 73% | 72% |
| 7 | 30% | 54% | 54% | 73% | 72% | 72% |
| 8 | 21% | 40% | 54% | 54% | 72% | 72% |
| 9 | 21% | 40% | 54% | 54% | 72% | 72% |
| 10 | 14% | 40% | 54% | 54% | 54% | 72% |
| 11 | 14% | 40% | 54% | 54% | 54% | 72% |
| 12 | 9% | 30% | 40% | 54% | 54% | 55% |
| 13 | 9% | 30% | 40% | 54% | 54% | 55% |
| 14 | 5% | 30% | 40% | 54% | 54% | 54% |
| 15 | 5% | 30% | 40% | 54% | 54% | 54% |
| 16 | 3% | 21% | 40% | 40% | 54% | 54% |
| 17 | 3% | 21% | 40% | 40% | 54% | 54% |
| 18 | 1% | 21% | 30% | 40% | 54% | 54% |
| 19 | 1% | 21% | 30% | 40% | 54% | 54% |
| 20 | 0% | 14% | 30% | 40% | 41% | 54% |
| 21 | 0% | 14% | 30% | 40% | 41% | 54% |
| 22 | 0% | 14% | 30% | 40% | 41% | 54% |
| 23 | 0% | 14% | 30% | 40% | 40% | 54% |
| 24 | 0% | 9% | 21% | 30% | 40% | 40% |
| 25 | 0% | 9% | 21% | 30% | 40% | 40% |
| 26 | 0% | 9% | 21% | 30% | 40% | 40% |
| 27 | 0% | 9% | 21% | 30% | 40% | 40% |
| 28 | 0% | 5% | 21% | 30% | 40% | 40% |
| 29 | 0% | 5% | 21% | 30% | 40% | 40% |
| 30 | 0% | 5% | 14% | 30% | 30% | 40% |
| 31 | 0% | 5% | 14% | 30% | 30% | 40% |
| 32 | 0% | 3% | 14% | 21% | 30% | 40% |
| 33 | 0% | 3% | 14% | 21% | 30% | 40% |
| 34 | 0% | 3% | 14% | 21% | 30% | 40% |
| 35 | 0% | 3% | 14% | 21% | 30% | 40% |
| 36 | 0% | 1% | 9% | 21% | 30% | 30% |
| 37 | 0% | 1% | 9% | 21% | 30% | 30% |
| 38 | 0% | 1% | 9% | 21% | 30% | 30% |
| 39 | 0% | 1% | 9% | 21% | 30% | 30% |
| 40 | 0% | 0% | 9% | 14% | 21% | 30% |
| 41 | 0% | 0% | 9% | 14% | 21% | 30% |
| 42 | 0% | 0% | 5% | 14% | 21% | 30% |
| 43 | 0% | 0% | 5% | 14% | 21% | 30% |
| 44 | 0% | 0% | 5% | 14% | 21% | 30% |
| 45 | 0% | 0% | 5% | 14% | 21% | 30% |
| 46 | 0% | 0% | 5% | 14% | 21% | 29% |
| 47 | 0% | 0% | 5% | 14% | 21% | 29% |
| 48 | 0% | 0% | 3% | 9% | 21% | 21% |
| 49 | 0% | 0% | 3% | 9% | 21% | 21% |
| 50 | 0% | 0% | 3% | 9% | 14% | 21% |
Monitor
The monitor tab has two sections:
Tracked Targets
This section shows targets which have been found and are currently being tracked by your detectives, meaning you can shoot at them providing you're in the same city. The expiry time is when detectives will stop tracking the target at which point you'll no longer be able to shoot.
Searching Detectives
This section shows targets which your detectives are still searching for, along with the cities being searched and the estimated time of completion.