This guide requires no third-party software or mods. All you need is to reach a specific Story Mode level, or have a custom level for a certain character downloaded.

Some of these tricks are as old as the game itself, but I thought they were still worth documenting. I do not claim to have discovered any of the exploits or glitches featured in this guide.

The inspiration for this was a tips & tricks guide for Hotline Miami 1. You can find it here: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=323280965

Do you miss the 24-round M16s from Hotline Miami 1? Have you ever wanted to load a Double Barrel with 6, 12, or even 30 shots? This exploit allows you to load additional bullets into whatever gun you are carrying! Jacket is the only character that can do it, but it works with all of his masks.

To start, find an enemy with a gun. Bring a gun with you that has lower ammo than their gun. Next, get close to that enemy. The best way to do this is in an empty room, so that no one interrupts the exploit. Make sure the only weapon in reach is their high-ammo gun.

Once you are within range of them, kill them with a standing/throat tear execution. In some situations, it may be easier to throw your gun at them, pick it up, then do the execution once they get up and grab their gun.



After they die, their gun should vanish and yours should be on the ground. Pick it up, and you'll find that it has the ammo count of the enemy's original gun!



This exploit stacks with the Rami mask's ammo bonus. It also works differently while wearing the Willem mask: after the execution finishes, you will be holding the enemy's weapon. Your original weapon will be on the ground, but it will have the ammo count of the gun you are currently holding.

Want to do a fast stomp execution, like Biker from Hotline Miami 1 or the Pig Butcher? Pardo can pull it off with this easy glitch. All you need is a Mendoza!



Find an enemy you can execute and empty your Mendoza of bullets. Knock that enemy down and, while holding the empty Mendoza, execute him.



Pardo's normally-slow stomp execution is now much faster! Use this to eliminate downed enemies faster and more efficiently.

Have you ever made a custom map that crashes on its last floor? Good news: there's a simple fix for this problem!

Save and quit the level, then open the level again, go to the last floor, and save. No other changes or steps are required. This won't guarantee no crashes otherwise, but it will fix that particular crash. Repeat this process every time you change the level.


(Submitted by THELEGOMack)

If you're ever feeling trapped in the borders of Story Mode, you'll be happy to hear that you can leave it all behind.


All you have to do is walk backwards when you start a floor, then wander around the edges of levels until you see your character again. There are invisible walls in some areas, but you can usually go pretty far. In some cases, like Seizure or Dead Ahead, you can use this to your advantage against enemies.


(Submitted by JAG)

This exploit has been around since March 2015, but it still works like a charm. If you want to play it smart as Mark or The Son using Bloodline, you can blast enemies through walls.

Press your character against the wall and angle one of the MP5s at an enemy. At roughly 30 to 45 degrees, your bullets should go through the wall and hit any enemies behind it.



Thankfully, this doesn't work for enemies, so you can rest easy knowing they can't hit you back. Any surviving enemies near the attack will be alerted to your position and will run to your location. Keep track of fleeing enemies while doing this trick, or you may get ambushed.

(Submitted by JAG)

If you're looking to shave seconds off your speedrun, use this tried-and-true glitch that skips the second and third floors of Into The Pit!

Using any character other than Tony, kill all but one of the enemies on the first floor. Lure that final enemy to the spot featured on the screenshot below. You need to stand on the pizza when you kill the last enemy.



After this, Tony will appear and talk to you. Return to the van, and the doors will open. You can leave the level early, earning a low score but a fast completion time.



(Submitted by JAG)

Into The Pit is generally regarded as one of Hotline Miami 2's creepier levels, with its ominous music and unsettling design. But did you know that the opening floor is haunted by a mysterious, unnamed fat man?

To see his face sprite, kill all of the enemies on the first floor except for the fat one. Using a gun, shoot him and allow him to punch you before he dies. When he goes down, your character's mask sprite will be replaced with...this.


Some of you might recognize this as NPC1's face sprite, which I covered in the Special Effects guide. Likely, it shows up because you are no longer playing as a character when the cutscene starts. It seems that, if the game is told to load a face sprite with an ID it does not recognize, it pulls up the NPC1 face sprite instead.

Another “skip level” exploit for speed runners. If the tutorial and the subsequent cutscenes take too much time, you can skip them and move right on to Down Under's main section!

This glitch can be activated by watching the intro (normal or hard), then pausing the game during Midnight Animal and selecting Rewind.



If done correctly, you will be taken directly to Down Under.



This does not work if you select Midnight Animal from the Continue option on the main menu.

When you reach the Tiger Boss in Apocalypse, you seemingly have two choices: shoot it or get crushed by it. There's actually a third option: dodge his attack by leaving the level.

To do so, go to the bush pictured below. It is covering a gap in the wall. Lure the Tiger Boss out of the shadows, then run down the gap. It will perform its attack, complete with blood splatters, but you will remain unharmed.



It will follow you around until you touch it (and die) or kill it. This can be done with the shotgun, or simply by left-clicking at it while unarmed. The boss needs to die before you can move on, though.

With some effort, you can complete Final Cut without killing the SWAT Boss. To do so, clear out an area where you can corner him. Once he finds you, knock him down and start punching him toward the outside area of the floor. Keep at it until he's completely out of bounds.



When he gets up, he should stand still and do nothing else. Kill the remaining enemies on the floor, and an arrow should appear on the interrogation room door. Unlike a normal playthrough, you won't need the keys to open this door and end the level.



There is a chance he may run around to the entrance of the floor and resume his pursuit of you. To avoid this, push him as far out of bounds as you can. The closer he is to the wall, the greater the chance of him coming back is.

If Tony or The Son's dog executions are too long for you, there is a way to get around them.

When using The Son's Dirty Hands ability or playing as Tony, lure a dog towards you. When it gets close, punch at it diagonally. If you timed the punch right and hit the correct angle, you will skip the execution and kill it using a regular punch.



This isn't always reliable, but with practice it becomes easier to do.

An amusing little bug. When killing a regular Gang enemy or a Colombian dodger using the taser, they will rapidly cycle through different poses. This "dance" will last for 2-3 seconds before settling on a random death sprite.

This bug won't do much to help you beat the game, but it is an interesting quirk.

When you enter Manny Pardo's car on certain Story Mode levels, you can keep moving around. When doing this, you will be invisible, but NPCs and the camera will still follow you. Items like Pardo's trunk and sliding doors will still react to your presence.



Not moving drags the player back to the car, and standing still while in the car will end the level.

(Submitted by TheSuitedFox)

Hotline Miami 2 has a default enemy - basically, an enemy the game spawns when a nonexistent one is called up. It's the black guy in the green jersey from Midnight Animal, which you've probably seen in custom campaigns or Hammer levels featuring Soldiers.

There are several ways to make him show up, both as a death sprite and as a functioning enemy. Let's go over the ways you can do it!

1. TOOTHBRUSH SHIV EXECUTION ON A GUARD


Guards have the sprites for the toothbrush shiv's unique execution, but for some reason, they don't work. Using it as a regular weapon creates the "cut" death sprites for Guards, but executing them creates the default sprite instead.

2. PUNCHING OR USING BLUNT WEAPONS AGAINST A SOLDIER

Soldiers are a buggy faction when used with other characters. They have no blunt death sprites, they only have two executions, and they sometimes create multiple death sprites when killed by a machete.

Striking one with the baseball bat, chainlink, golf club, lead pipe, skateboard, hammer, or baton will spawn the default death sprite.



Additionally, punching one will turn him into the default enemy. This enemy will stand around or back away from you until he dies.



3. THROWING A KNIFE AT VICTIM6

Victim6, or "the guy who looks like Beard in Midnight Animal," usually dies when hit by a weapon throw. However, the butterfly knife (which doesn't exist in his level) will sometimes ignore that rule and turn him into the default enemy. In other cases, they will turn into a Mafia enemy and die from the knife throw. Just like Soldiers, this enemy will back away until you kill it.



4. EXECUTING AN ENEMY AS A CHARACTER THEY CAN'T FIGHT

I already covered this in the Fighting Restricted Enemies guide, but I might as well mention it here. Executing an enemy from a faction your character can't normally fight - like the Pig Butcher against Mafia or Pardo against Guards - will usually create the default death sprite.



There are some exceptions to this rule. Most of Corey and Mark's executions work against Police, and a couple work against Colombians. Also, all of Pardo's non-gun executions work against the Mafia. Why these characters and enemies work together is still unknown.

5. KILLING A LEANING COP WITH THE MACHETE AS PARDO

The Cop/Manny Pardo's attacks with the Machete can decapitate enemies against the wall, unlike The Hammer. Doing this against a Police enemy will spawn the default sprite, since they do not have any beheaded death sprites.

Some enemies can mess with the way your character's death sprite is spawned. If you get hit by more than one enemy at the same time, the game will create multiple death sprites for you.



Dogs and Prisoner Dodgers are the most common sources of this problem. Getting hit by several Dogs at once will produce a different death sprite for each attacker, and multiple Richters can be created if you are swarmed by Prisoner Dodgers.

Martin Brown loves attention, so why not bring some friends along for his talk with Richard?

Simply hold right-click during Final Cut's intro, then let go once Richard puts his mask on. Instead of the audience and film crew vanishing, they will remain until that part of the intro ends. The interview set will also stay clean when this bug happens.

Want to keep The Henchman alive? Well, I have bad news and good news. You can't spare him during Execution, but you can in the normal and hard intros.

When the intro starts, hold right-click until the screen flashes. Everyone will appear dead except for Richard and The Henchman.



It isn't the ending he needs, but it is the ending he deserves.

The small closet in Evan's house is seemingly too small to enter. With the right moves, you can slip inside this cramped space!

Start out by playing any level featuring his home in the intro or outro (Subway, First Blood, Release). Walk into the closet pushing down and to the left until you can't go any further. While still holding left, press up and you should get past the blockage. To get out, move up and to the right, then press down once you are pressed against the closet's invisible wall again.



(Submitted by Kungfugloves)

The Gang Leader from Subway has some unusual bugs surrounding him. By rapidly right-clicking and pressing spacebar while standing over him, you will cause him to throw pipes around him. You can fill the area around him with his signature pipes.

Unfortunately, once you start doing this, you will have to kill him or knock him out before he gets up. Otherwise, the game will crash once he fully gets back onto his feet.



(Submitted by Voltage1001)

Another quirk involving the Gang Leader in Subway. Throwing weapons at him can send them flying in random directions, instead of just falling at his side. This is best tested in the open areas of his floor.

If you missed the dialogue in Seizure's outro, you can rewatch the entire cutscene. Just go down the elevator and back up, and it should start again. The money pile also respawns when doing this glitch, meaning that The Henchman can grab cash for as long as you like!



(Submitted by Snewpy)

In Release, you normally need to put on a guard uniform to advance through the level. But, through an easy glitch, you can get your prisoner clothes back on and escape!

To do this, complete Release up to the point where you change your clothes. When you enter the first floor with Prisoners as enemies, look for any with toothbrush shivs. Grab that weapon and find a non-fat enemy to use it on.



Kill that enemy using the toothbrush. Do not execute him! This only works with normal attacks.



Your clothes will turn into the prisoner jumpsuit, but your legs will still have the guard pants and shoes. This means you are halfway there. Find another regular enemy and execute him without using a weapon. Picking up a gun or melee weapon will give you the guard uniform again, so avoid doing that.



Dying before you clear the floor will reset your appearance. But, if you do follow the steps, survive, and move on to the next floor, you should keep your prisoner clothes until you beat the level. Make sure to thank the SWAT team for letting you leave prison!

(Submitted by noizmakr and Voltage1001)

Seizure and Take Over have an unusual bug with their backgrounds/voids: they start off purple/blue, and can be changed into dark red. Just pause and unpause during those levels or their intros, and the colors should immediately switch.



(Submitted by Snewpy)

Though Biker's multiple executions didn't make it into Hotline Miami 2, he did gain one cool new ability: teleporting from one room to the next! All you need is a fat enemy.

Stand in one room and wait for a fat enemy in another to approach a wall near you. Once that enemy gets close, attack him using your cleaver. You will enter the wall during the kill animation.



When you finish the animation, you will be in the same room that the enemy once stood in. This should ideally be done in a room without other enemies, or one where enemies are spaced apart enough to not notice you immediately.



This also works for Alex & Ash's kills against fat enemies.

(Submitted by Snewpy)

A heavy rainstorm pours down throughout the main floors of Final Cut. If you're not a fan of bad weather, you can push it around with the camera.



The rain will follow wherever the camera goes. You can move it to the far end of the map, or push it upwards. It can move in any direction, but it is only visible in some locations.



(Submitted by Toxic Coffee)

By default, a floor transition will stretch out until it reaches two walls on its sides. With this trick, you can get around that restriction and create a transition without walls beside it.

Start off by placing down two walls. This will decide how long your transition will be. Place the transition between them and set the floor, x coordinate, and y coordinate.



Once the transition is placed down, delete the two walls beside it. The transition should remain, even after the walls are deleted. You can check this by opening the "level" tab in the editor.



If you made a mistake and need to remake the transition, just follow the same steps as before.

All of the main enemies have dismemberment sprites when killed by the Machete...except for the Police faction. Their regular enemies have very strange responses to getting hit with it.



How they react is entirely random. Sometimes, two corpses will appear after killing one enemy. Other kills may cause a Guard's hat to drop instead of a Police hat. Severed heads may spawn, even though almost every Police corpse has its head attached. In some cases, they might just have the "normal" bladed death sprites. As mentioned earlier in the guide, Manny Pardo/The Cop can turn them into the default sprite by hitting Police against the wall with the Machete.

Keep your eyes out for the strange effects of the Machete against this faction. You'll never know for sure what will become of them!

(Submitted by MonoliousApocalyse7)

We already covered making enemy corpses dance, so why not get in on the action? You can make almost every player character dance with this simple trick.

When playing as any character except Biker, Mark (with double SMGs), The Soldier/Beard, or The Son (with Bloodline active), punch once and right click at the same time. If you did it right, you will start moving around in place as if you are dancing.



This will last until pick up a weapon or attack an enemy. If you die, you will continue to dance when you start over.

(Submitted by ДЕДУШКА ГИБУС)

When a nuclear power plant is ready to self-destruct, your first instinct should be to get out of there as fast as possible. In Casualties on hard mode, you can escape faster by running into the open elevator without Jacket. This doesn't work on the regular difficulty.



Jacket will reappear unharmed in the final cutscene, so don't feel bad about ditching him. Without him slowing you down, you might get the edge you need to escape alive!



You could shave a few seconds off a hard mode speedrun with this trick.

(Submitted by Jacket)

Going from Casualties to First Blood in hard mode causes an issue with the intro. Until the cutscene in Richter's house starts, the intro will not have any music. "Around" by Modulogeek should play for the title sequence and the part at Evan's house.

If you thought Apocalypse was too easy of an ending level, here's a way to make it more difficult or downright impossible!

When fighting the Zebra boss, fire off all your bullets except for one. When the boss returns, shoot her with the final bullet.



Your aim will be locked in the direction of that last gunshot, no matter where you place your cursor. This can make fighting enemies harder if you fired the shot to the left, or impossible if you fired it in any other direction.

(Submitted by Thick Skin Pardo)

Technically speaking, The Son has the abilities of Bodyguard in the first half of Apocalypse. It's just that, without the Katana, most players miss out on it.

Press space to perform a roll-dodge at any point before the "Gotta Get A Grip!" scene. If you execute an enemy, the game will remove that ability until you die. Once the Zebra fight starts, you won't be able to do roll-dodges for the rest of the level.

When playing non-lethally, The Writer/Evan Wright can get off and on enemies to knock them out. Doing this to the last enemy on a floor causes some minor bugs.



The "floor cleared" message and GO arrows will appear once you hit space over the knocked-down last enemy. Getting off that enemy will make the arrows vanish and prevent you from moving on. That enemy can still kill you if it gets up, requiring you to restart the floor. Knocking that enemy out or killing it will allow you to advance as usual. Getting back on the enemy won't make the "floor cleared" message appear again.

(Submitted by Fungus Humongous)

Objects like arcade machines, aquariums, TVs, and computers will stop bullets. Some can only take one bullet, while others will continue to block them even after they are broken.

However, the nails from Jake's Nailgun do not follow these rules. They will go through all of these objects without stopping in them or breaking them. This means you can use them as (temporary) shields while you pump nails into your enemies.



(Submitted by crazyjaydon)

Some levels, like First Blood, have an issue with pressing R to restart. Potentially, they can warp you to any other level in the campaign. The way to make this work is tricky, but it can be done consistently if you are quick.

To begin, select a level that you want to warp back to. Skip the intro and start it, but as soon as the level title disappears, pause the game and quit to the main menu.



Next, go to Act 5 and select First Blood. Like the previous level, skip its intro.



As fast as you can, run into the building and let yourself get killed. When prompted, press R to restart.



What happens next varies by level. You will usually get taken to the starting floor of the first level you played, but sometimes the game may crash or take you back to the menu. If you are back at the first level, you will hear First Blood's music, but it should play normally.



First Trial and The Abyss will have white backgrounds. Moving on from the first floor crashes the game for most levels. However, Stronghold can be completed without issues.



This glitch can be done with any level where enemies can kill you within the first few seconds of starting, like Demolition. The music of that level will play over the level you warped back to.

(Submitted by Jacket)

Right-clicking with the Dallas mask makes you perform a charge attack for several seconds. You normally can't stop it early, but executing a crawling enemy will do the trick. Just press space over a crawling enemy and you'll cancel the charge.



You can right-click again to do another one, avoiding the cooldown that the attack normally has!

(Submitted by Fungus Humongous)

This glitch was first reported in summer 2015, but it still works well. Withdrawal normally has two endings: you die on the last floor, or you kill the final enemy on the last floor. So what happens if you kill your enemy at the same time he kills you?



The answer is simple: Jake gets locked in his wounded animation and the enemy dies. Since no enemy can pull you down the stairs, the level cannot be completed. Restart the level to end it as intended.

This can be hard to do naturally. The best way to try it is to carry a Double Barrel and leave the last enemy with a Shotgun or Double Barrel.

(Submitted by Architector #4)

Final Cut is destined to end with the Pig Butcher's death. However, an original script found in the level's intro suggests he was supposed to confront the girl alive. With this glitch, you can recreate that ending!

To do this, clear out a path to the interrogation room. Make sure no enemies are around to interrupt you. Lure the SWAT Chief down that hallway and knock him down. Keep punching him towards the interrogation room.



Punch him forward until his upper body is fully inside the interrogation room and his legs are sticking outside. When he is far enough in, execute him.



If you did it right, you will be transported inside the interrogation room with the two cops and the girl. You can do whatever you like from here, but the level will be unbeatable unless you restart.



This glitch could also be used to enter the room beside it or leave the level entirely. Just remember that the boss has to have his upper body in the area you want to teleport to.

(Submitted by Jacket)

Similar to the last glitch, this involves the SWAT Chief and the interrogation room. Unlike last time, you won't be getting anywhere - you'll be bringing the game down.



Kill all enemies on the last floor except for the SWAT Chief. Knock him towards the interrogation room with either a baton or taser (preferably the taser, since it swings faster). Bring him close to the door without touching it. When he begins to get up, run to the door. If the SWAT Chief kills you while you are unlocking it, the game will crash.

(Submitted by Jacket)

If the nightmares are any indication, Manny Pardo/The Cop is pretty attached to his Magnum. In fact, you can make him admire it forever with this pointless glitch!



Beat Caught up to the end of Pardo's nightmare. When he wakes up, take him to his boxing bag and quickly press Left Mouse Button then Right Mouse Button. This will cause the dancing glitch to take effect. Without stopping it, walk to the phone and press Left Mouse Button to start the cutscene. Pardo will keep jerking his hand toward and away from the phone. Skip the cutscene, and Pardo will pull out his magnum over and over again, spinning it around without ever fading out to the score screen. The only way to move on is to close the game.

(Submitted by Russian Boss)

Evan Wright/The Writer can unload guns by right-clicking them, disarming them and keeping enemies from using them. He can't do the same for melee weapons...normally, that is. This exploit will take any Knife out of the current level for good.



Find a Knife on the ground and punch an enemy over it. When the enemy is close to the weapon, rapidly press space and right click until you hear the pickup sound. If done correctly, the Knife will disappear, removing it from the floor unless you have to restart it.

(Submitted by Fungus Humongous)

In case Final Cut wasn't enough of a bloodbath for you, it's possible to create more blood around Martin Brown's corpse in the final cutscene. Just pause and unpause the game rapidly to make things messier!

Normally, you can only shoot the Flamethrower through windows that have been broken. This simple trick lets you get around that restriction: just press up against the window and fire into it!



The flames should pass right through and kill any enemies they touch.



(Submitted by Ashmore [目隠しダ])

This glitch has been around since the game first came out. Sometimes, on Take Over, a dog will get stuck behind a fountain and will not go after you. If you are using Dirty Hands, this makes the level unbeatable. You can still shoot the dog and move on if you are using Bodyguard or Bloodline.



(Submitted by Dr. Useless)

A minor but interesting glitch. When you reach the 2nd floor in Apocalypse (the one with the Demon Mobsters and Dogs), immediately back up and walk around to the right of the level. If you press up against the door beside the Mobster eating a corpse, this will still trigger his transformation into a Demon. Since he can't reach you normally, he will randomly wander around until you return and kill him/get killed.

This isn't a glitch, but it is an obscure feature worth documenting. The Zebra boss fight in Apocalypse is a strange sequence. One overlooked feature it has is that The Son will actually reload his Magnum if he runs out of shots for it! He will stand still and start loading new bullets, and the Zebra will immediately target him and kill him.

I have never managed to finish this animation, so I'm assuming it is meant to kill the player and force them to restart with full ammo.

The Toothbrush Shiv is normally a one-use weapon. Once you stab or execute an enemy with it, it leaves your hands for good. There is one exception to this rule, though: leaning enemies can be killed without losing the weapon!



Just stab an enemy knocked against a wall as Prisoner Richter or Guard Richter. You should hold onto the Toothbrush even after using it. You can do this as many times as you want to leaning enemies, but it will go away when used against normal ones.

When you complete Moving Up, there is a cutscene where a frightened girl forces your character away with a 9mm, threatening to shoot them if they come any closer. Moving into the closet with her causes her to shoot you, which will normally kill you and require you to restart the floor.

If you're playing as Corey, you can easily avoid this by dodge-rolling into the closet! The girl will only shoot once, meaning that you'll be safe once the first shot is dodged. You can't really do anything with her after that, so you might as well return to the van afterward.



(Submitted by TomatoCouch)

Dallas is normally limited to melee attacks and his nunchuck charge. However, there is a glitch that allows him to pick up a gun! It's simple to pull off, but it is not very useful.



Place down the item "ShotgunWall" and pick it up by right-clicking. Jake will be holding the Double Barrel despite wearing the melee-only Dallas mask! He can shoot the shotgun up to 2 times, but he cannot throw it away. You can pick up additional ShotgunWall items to restore your ammo, but this does not work for other guns. You will be stuck with the gun until you either die or restart the level.



(Submitted by Complex)

If you know of any tricks, exploits, or glitches that were not covered in this guide, feel free to share them in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have fun with the programming quirks of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number!