After a surprisingly constrained first mission, Dead Drop is the first time Sniper Elite: Resistance really opens up. A dense town full of windows to snipe from and alternate paths to take, navigating to the objectives can be tricky.
Tasked with hunting down a Nazi informant, Harry Hawker needs to infiltrate a basilica before taking on a library full of Nazis. This level is also full of collectibles and unlockables, including your first encounter with a Propaganda mission poster.
This is the first mission where you can be invaded by other players. You can only be invaded once you pass the city walls.
Collect Vertigo’s Dead Drop
Your first task is getting in to the town. Follow the path through the bush a short distance, and you’ll soon find yourself at a broken bridge and an abandoned barn. In the barn, you’ll find a crowbar, as well as a vantage point up the ladder to take out the sniper on the town wall ramparts.
Once you’ve killed the sniper, you have a decision to make. Go to the broken bridge, where you can either go to the left and climb the wall, or use the crowbar on the planks to open the tunnel. You’ll eventually end up in the same place either way, but climbing the wall offers more resources, but also more enemies to work through.
If you go through the tunnel, you’ll come out in a gated courtyard. Simply unlock the gate directly in front of you to enter a stairwell area.
If you’re going the wall way, scale the broken building, taking care of the enemy at the top. Sneak behind the jeep (there’s no point in sabotaging it) and go through the door on the other side. Do this quietly, as there is an enemy on the other side of the gate that you can’t deal with right now. You’ll end up at the same stairwell area as if you had gone through the tunnel.
As you climb the stairs, there is a poster on the wall that says La Resistance. Pick this up to unlock the first Propaganda mission, which can be accessed from the main menu. Go slowly, as there is a soldier at the top of the stairs.
Kill him, and you’ll have a sweeping view of the courtyard, with your destination, the basilica, off to the left. At the top of the belltower is a sniper, so remain tucked behind cover until the bell starts ringing, and use the sound mask to take him out from a distance.
The bell will faintly ring once before starting the sound mask, so you’ll have time to line up your shots.
With the sniper out of the way, you’re now free to carefully sweep the courtyard and the surrounding town from your vantage point. You’re within earshot of enemies, so time your shots with the bell and take out as many as you can. In particular, try and get the gestapo stood outside the pink building to your right.
After picking up the resource bag on the floor to the right, head left into the building and climb down the stairs. There will likely still be soldiers you were unable to kill before, so take is slowly and quietly to get out onto the street. Keep heading left, following the town wall.
Starting Location: Scaffold Yard And Rifle Workbench
Before hitting up the basilica, there are a few unlockables in the open area to the west. Still following the town wall, you’ll reach an area with scaffolding and a large, heavy door. Unlock this door to unlock the first of two alternate starting locations for future playthroughs.
Go through the door and climb up the scaffold to have a good vantage point over much of this large garden area.
After unlocking the scaffolding starting location, keep following the wall north until you find a house guarded by a soldier and a gestapo. Kill the gestapo and sneak through the ground floor of the building, coming out the back side. Then climb up the stairs and kill the soldier too.
Continue through the top floor of the building and you’ll find a locked gate. Pick it, and you’ll now have access to the Rifle Workbench and a large number of supplies.
Once you’re stocked up and upgraded, head back the way you came until you find a vehicle checkpoint next to scaffolding into the basilica.
Climb the scaffolding and enter the basilica through the open window. In the aisle there are a gestapo and a soldier, so it is up to you whether you kill them or sneak past them. You’re safe to climb down from the scaffolding inside, and take cover behind the altar.
To the left of the soldier and the gestapo is a door with stairs leading up the belltower. Climb all the way to the top to find the sniper nest of the sniper you killed earlier. On the wall, there is a suspicious portrait: interact with it to find Vertigo’s dead drop.
Search Vertigo’s Apartment
Vertigo’s gone to ground, so you’ll need to find his apartment and search it for clues on his location. Fortunately, you’ve already cleared the way, as the reddish-brown house you shot the gestapo outside of earlier is your goal.
Take care when leaving the belltower for other snipers, and take the opportunity to clear the courtyard of remaining enemies before you take the zipline down to a patch of tall grass. Follow the road around the right of the building ahead of you until you see climbable vines.
Climb up this, and Vertigo’s apartment will be right in front of you. Sneak in and head upstairs; at the back, Harry will point out a squeaky floorboard you can interact with to find more information from Vertigo.
Your next location is the Library, the large, domed building on the northeastern end of the town. There is one person you’ll want to stop and sort out along the way, though.
Kill List: Philo Beck
Kill Lists are optional side-missions in levels that have you take out key Nazi targets. Philo Beck is by far one of the easiest kill list missions in the Sniper Elite series, as he’s stood in front of a large, open window with multiple lines of site.
The best way to get the drop on Beck is to stick to the southern wall and circle around north. Eventually you’ll come to a vantage spot that lets you see Beck in the window and take a clean shot.
You can also climb up ladders on buildings a short distance southwest of Beck and shoot him that way, but you’ll be very exposed afterwards.
The catch is that there are few sound masking devices in this area. You’re out of range of the bell too, so ghost runs may want to wait until later in the mission to get Beck up close and personal. If you’re not too worried about that, take the shot and then continue heading north along the wall to get away from any investigating soldiers.
Pistol Workbench
After killing Beck, stick to the southeastern wall and head north, keeping an eye on the buildings below you to your left. Eventually, you’ll see a building with stairs leading underground, marked by a cross sign above it.
Go down these stairs and turn right at the statue to find a locked gate, with the Pistol Workbench behind it. If you continue on through this tunnel, you’ll also find a hidden entrance into the Library.
Despite being such a big part of the map, you don’t actually have to go in to the library. There is an optional side-mission there to disrupt intelligence for the resistance, though.
The locations of the intelligence are random, but you’ll find blue files dotted around the Library. Keep your head down and avoid the guards as you check the top rotunda, ground floor, and the back room behind the statue in the main entrance for files. Once you’ve found four of them, the mission is complete, and you can leave the library if you want.
If you don’t want to go into the Library, instead go to the courtyard in front of it. There is a small, round building a short distance from the entrance with a locked door. Unlock it to discover an entrance to the tunnels beneath the town.
These tunnels are linear, so keep going until you find a door to your right. On the other side of it is an unfortunate sight: Vertigo’s body. You’re going to have to go and recover his intel yourself.
If you didn’t kill Beck earlier, continuing through the tunnels will bring you up right inside the café he is in, so you can stab him quietly.
Recover Vertigo’s Intel
Your final stop in the mission is to the large mansion in the northern central area of the map. It is directly opposite the café where you killed Philo Beck, up a large slope. Instead of taking the slope, though, go through the wire fence to the right, into a small, walled garden area.
Continue following this alley round the side of the mansion, until you come across stairs leading up to vines on the wall. Climb all the way to the top, and you’ll be on the ramparts of the mansion.
Move along the ramparts, quietly taking out the soldier and the sniper with melee or a silenced pistol. Go as far as you possibly can on the wall, until you’re on the western face, where you’ll find a walkway leading into the building.
You’ll also find a satchel charge on the walkway, behind some crates.
Approach the building quietly, as inside there is a gestapo agent examining the fireplace. Kill him with a melee attack, and then search his corpse for a key. This is crucial, as to your right there will be a doorway to Vertigo’s office, complete with a locked safe inside.
If you missed the key, or simply want to go loud, you can use the satchel charge to blow it up. But the easier route is to just use the key to unlock the safe, take the intel, and complete the objective.
SMG Workbench
Before you exfiltrate, there are two more things to wrap up. Head back to the walkway connecting the ramparts to the building. There is a ladder leading down to the ground, which you should use.
From there, head to the other end of the small garden courtyard you’re in. Use the walls as cover from the soldier stood watching in the entryway to find a locked gate on the right side. Pick this lock, and inside you’ll find the last workbench in the mission.
Citadel Apartments Starting Location
The last thing to do before finishing off the mission is to grab the last starting location, which is nearby. Return the way you came, up the ramparts, down the vines and the stairs, and back into that small street. Turn right, and you’ll come to a wider area behind the Library.
Stick to the outside wall until you find another large, blue, locked door. Pick this lock, and you’ll gain access to the Citadel Apartments. On the top floor is a balcony that overlooks a huge area, including the Library and its gardens, making it ideal for sniping before going in to find Vertigo.
Exfiltrate
It’s time to get out of town, and fortunately there are four different exfil points you can choose from.
While the northeastern and southeastern exfil points are closest to you, the southwestern point is also incredibly close to the Rifle Workbench and the Scaffold alternate start location. If you missed either of those, go for this point to grab them as you leave.
To exfiltrate, you just need to find and interact with the door, completing the mission.
Next
Sniper Elite: Every Game, Ranked
We rank all the Sniper Elite games. How does your favourite stack up?