As an avid Gotham Knights player with 100+ hours across multiple playthroughs, I‘ve had the chance to thoroughly explore the strategic nuances around premeditated crimes. Taking on these challenging multi-phase activities dotted around Gotham City offers some of the most satisfying open-world content – when you know how to find them!
In this guide, I‘ll leverage my deep familiarity with the game to help explain exactly how premeditated crimes work, the best ways to seek them out, and efficient strategies to complete them based on my experience.
A Quick Primer on Premeditated Crimes
Before jumping in, let‘s clearly define this unique type of open-world activity:
- Handcrafted, multi-part criminal scenarios like bank heists, raids, sabotage ops and more
- Marked by red triangle icons on your map once unlocked
- Tougher and more complex than opportunities marked white
- Take down up to a dozen enemies or more
- Include bonus investigation objectives
- Progress the story and multiple side plots
You can tackle them solo or in co-op. But first, you need to unlock them by making some initial story progress.
Unlocking the Ability to Track Down Premeditated Crimes
Premeditated crimes remain locked until you reach this story trigger:
- Finish the "Rabbit Hole" case file
- Second main story segment after the intro
- Takes around 5 hours of playtime
Once the credits roll on Rabbit Hole, red crime icons will start emerging on your map dispersed across Gotham‘s five boroughs.
Now you can start seeking them out! But don‘t forget – you need to unlock premeditated crimes separately for each hero.
Strategically Locating Hidden Premeditated Crimes
While some premeditated crime icons may automatically appear on your map after finishing Rabbit Hole, there are additional hidden ones to uncover.
Based on my experience across multiple playthroughs, here are the best ways to reveal extra premeditated crime activities:
- Patrol and investigate clues – After any activity, return to the Belfry to unlock new crime scenes from collected clues.
- Build your informant network – Pay informants to reveal organized crimes.
- Clear mob hideouts – Taking over racket operations adds new activities.
I‘ll expand on these tips:
Funnel All Clues Back to the Belfry
As you explore Gotham and take down random opportunities, make sure to frequently return to your home base of operations and investigate all gathered clues using the lab there.
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Investigation adds fresh premeditated crime locations to your map.
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Fast travel to Belfry to speed up the process.
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Over half of my total premeditated crime map markers were unlocked through investigation.
Expand Your Informant Network
There are around a dozen informants to recruit who will feed intel on illegal operations in their neighborhoods when paid.
- Interact and pay them for regular crime updates.
- Great way to pinpoint fresh premeditated crime scenes.
- Find informants lingering in alleys or under bridges.
Focus on Mob Hideouts
Taking over mob fronts by clearing them out will add new premeditated crime types tied specifically to that faction.
- Target hideouts marked on the map to expand activity types.
- Build up your mob intelligence to rank 2 for more hideout locations.
Combine all these strategies, and you‘ll have a steady stream of new premeditated crime locations popping up on your map!
Optimizing Your Approach to Premeditated Crime Events
Once you uncover a premeditated crime location and decide to engage, you‘ll be launched into a sizable multiphase activity culminating in a mob boss battle. Here is my best advice for tackling these challenging criminal scenarios efficiently in Gotham Knights based on experience:
Come Prepared!
- Restock ability charges – Premeditated crimes can have a dozen or more enemies, so max out your hero‘s special move charges pre-fight whenever possible by visiting Belfry.
- Equip gear – These events are tougher than average encounters. Have your highest rated epic gear equipped for maximum damage and defense. Lean towards crowd control gear.
- Prep gadgets/mods – Bring disposable gadgets to manage mobs like smoke pellets or freeze bombs depending on playstyle. Offense or defense mods can help too.
Vary Your Approach
- Stealth or aggression – You can silently pick off isolated enemies at first before going loud, or initiate an all-out brawl right away. Both work!
- Interrogate or subdue – Defeating enemies clears crimes faster, but interrogations reveal hidden bonus objectives for big XP gains!
Don‘t Get Discouraged
- Retry checkpoint if failed – Premeditated crimes have mid-point checkpoints if you get overwhelmed. Regroup and retry instead of abandoning the activity if you fail at first. The rewards are worth it!
- Adjust difficulty down – If you are really struggling, temporarily reducing the game difficulty is better than missing out on these enjoyable crime scenarios altogether or wasting resources.
Stick to this advice, and you‘ll complete even the longest premeditated crime sprees with confidence!
Types of Premeditated Crime Missions
Beyond just tackling nameless thugs, Gotham Knights includes great variety across specific premeditated crime scenarios connecting to story plots and themes:
- Bank heists – Stop thieves before they steal cash from mob-owned banks
- Sabotage – Disarm explosives planted around Gotham infrastructure
- Raids – Halt gangs violently stealing valuables
- Escorts – Protect VIP figures under attack by assassins
- Stakeouts – Listen in on clandestine meetings to identify conspirators
- Prison breaks – Prevent high-profile criminals from escaping jail
And more! The game remixes variables like enemy factions, environments, objectives and pacing to keep the experience fresh after unlocking 25+ premeditated crime types total.
What Rewards Justify the Effort?
With how lengthy and difficult premeditated crimes can be compared to opportunities, what rewards make them worth doing consistently?
Complete at least 10 per hero to unlock:
- Knighthood – Massive transformative ability trees upgrading your hero‘s capabilities and ally buffs. Getting all four to Knighthood is a top priority.
Additional benefits:
- Gear drops – Final mob bosses drop glowing epic gear pieces.
- Crafting resources – Crimes drop more advanced crafting components to build gear.
- Credits – The guarded stashes at the end give extra credits to purchase items.
The gear and currency gains are nice. But the colossal power spike from unlocking Knighthood is the real incentive driving players to seek out and complete repeat premeditated crimes.
Premeditated Crime Pro Tips and Tricks
Even after exposing all tricks to locate more activities earlier, you might still need help keeping crime-fighting momentum going.
Here are pro tips I use in my own playthroughs:
- Equalize hero progression – Cycle between all four characters often when free roaming to keep Premeditated Crime counts even across the board for efficiency.
- Max out mob intelligence first – Focus on street gang takedowns to unlock the ability to see enemy health bars sooner before all other factions.
- Travel light – Carry only essential gear so you don‘t waste time agonizing over inventory management during intense crime-fighting sessions.
- Co-op balancing – If playing co-op, have the host scale enemy health to not overwhelm teammates.
Hopefully breaking down everything from unlock conditions to strategic advice in detail helps you master premeditated crimes as you protect Gotham City! I‘m happy to answer any other questions in comments based on my deep knowledge.
