Beginner Tips For Chicken Police: Into The Hive!

There’s plenty of rottenness to get to the bottom of in Chicken Police: Into the Hive, but any good detective will tell you that you can just rush into a new case! You’ll need to be meticulous in your interrogations, eagle-eyed about details, and sharp as a tack in your handling of people (and their secrets).

Chicken Police: Into the Hive is a delightful continuation of the first game in the series, Paint it Red, and while you’ll have a leg up if you played the first game, there are plenty of new things to consider going into the sequel.

Cater Your Tone To Who You’re Talking To

Deciding early in an interrogation with a suspect whether you want to play Good Cop or Bad Cop in the conversation ahead is usually for the best. You’ll only succeed in interrogations if your meter reaches the yellow sections on each end of the progress bar displayed on the right side of your screen, so committing early is the best way to get there.

You’ll have the best luck getting the information you need as smoothly as possible if you let the suspect’s behavior and personality shape your approach to the interrogation. Shouting at someone who’s scared might not be the best play, nor is trying to be too nice and roundabout with characters who’d prefer you give it to them straight.

You’re able to retry interrogations if you’re unsuccessful the first time, and you’ll receive a rating out of five stars for each interrogation attempt. There’s an achievement for finishing every interrogation in the game with a perfect score, for those completionists out there!

Be More Thorough Than You Think You Need To Be

While you’ll find your means to an end speeding through Chicken Police: Into the Hive, your best bet is usually to slow down. Not only does the game have plenty of style, flair, and callbacks to the first entry in the series, but you’ll often find you need to interact with characters or things more than once to get the fullest picture. When we say investigate everything, we mean everything.

It’s possible to softlock your progress in this game if you’re not asking the right questions of the right people at the right time, leading to some relatively frustrating circles as you backtrack to figure out what key piece of info you missed, so your best bet for being the most thorough you can be with everyone and everything is to interact with them until Sonny begins repeating himself.

If you’re trying to completely fill out your codex before the end of the game, there are several things you can miss out on logging if you don’t trigger the right comments or conversations. The game is best enjoyed with the fullest dose of lore, so the more comprehensive your police work is at every scene, the better.

Look Out For Pinup Calendar Pages

Chicken Police: Into the Hive is rife with things to do that are central to the case, but there are a handful of different collectibles scattered throughout the mean streets of Clawville for you to find. One of the easiest to miss is also one of the most amusing and complete collections in the game: a series of pinup calendar pages.

In the smallest nooks of the city, you’ll find 12 total calendar pages featuring sultry images of modeling animals, assembling the collection within your codex. Interestingly, the Chicken Police universe uses different months in their calendar than we use in real life, but what else can you expect in a world where humans are viewed as deities?

You can absolutely lock yourself out of getting some of these pinup images, since some of them are limited in when they’re available. They won’t show up when you use the magnifying glass function in the top-left corner to highlight items for Sonny to interact with in each scene, so you’ll need to keep an eye out for them as you investigate each scene.

Don’t Lock Yourself Out Of Limited Locations

In keeping with the point above that some of the pinup calendar pages are easy to miss, there are plenty of locations in the game that are only accessible for a short amount of time, at set points throughout the game. Referred to as limited locations, you’ll find several places around the city become locked to you past a certain point, or at specific sections of the story.

In these limited locations, you’ll often find plenty of extras: additional characters to talk to, collectibles to find, and sometimes whole conversations that peel back layers of the grimy world of Clawville. If you’re trying to hurry through the game, you’re safe to skip a handful of places, but Chicken Police is best savored. There’s a whole world out there, detective!

Work On Your Side Missions To Learn New Lore

The primary mystery in Chicken Police: Into the Hive is centered around the shady dealings inside of, well, The Hive. It’s the insect ghetto on the outskirts of Clawville where the bug population has been forced to move and live in squalor, but don’t forget that there’s plenty of life in the other districts, too.

You’ll no doubt be going through the goals listed in your codex a few times throughout the game, since this is where you’ll string together different threads of information as you find it all out. There are several goals that aren’t necessary to the completion of Chicken Police: Into the Hive, but there’s plenty of interesting lore and backstory to experience.

These side goals include things like learning more about Monica (and potentially even romancing her), throwing a birthday party for Chief Bloodboyle, getting Zipp his tail back, and so much more. These animals all seem to have a lot going on outside the main story, and if you’re enamored with the world of Chicken Police, Into the Hive has some wonderful additional story to tell you in its optional goals.

Revisit Old Places And Friends For Easter Eggs And New Goals

If you played the first game in the Chicken Police series, then the dreary streets of Clawville feel cold but not unfamiliar. A number of characters and locations have returned in the sequel, even if they’re not quite the same as they used to be.

For example, Zipp has changed the name of Hop Dog and mentions clearly on the sign that he “serves everyone” now, no more “no bugs allowed” signs. He’s got a new business outlook, but what he doesn’t have is a tail – but he wants it back sooner than later, if Sonny can help him with that goal. Just across the counter is Uncle Mullen who runs the newsstand in Paint it Red, now taking care of Pip, the son of a late friend. The old man could probably use a break, so why not play him in a game of Clawville Wildcards?

As you play through Chicken Police: Into the Hive, you’ll find plenty of easter eggs and nods back to the first game, too. The Wild Gentlemen knew their audience would appreciate a good callback, especially when it’s sassy! There are also plenty of hints at what’s next in the Chicken Police universe scattered throughout the game.

There’s More Than One Ending

While we won’t give anything away here in this guide, there’s a secret ending in Chicken Police: Into the Hive for those interested in a change of pace, and it has to do with Monica, your dear hummingbird friend at the front desk at the Clawville Police Department. She’s been a faithful friend to Sonny and Marty over the years, and now, you can find out more about her.

Beginning when you first find Monica at the shooting range in the first chapter, you’ll need to finish every bullet point in the “What’s Up With Monica?” goal listed in your codex. Like everyone in the city, her past is full of secrets, and getting to the bottom of them is your ticket to the secret ending. If this goal is left incomplete at the end of the game, you’ll have the standard ending to Chicken Police: Into the Hive instead.

Savor The Upgrades In The Sequel

One of the things people loved most about the first Chicken Police game was its unwavering sense of style, and The Wild Gentlemen have kept it firmly in place while expanding the world in small but meaningful ways. One of the biggest changes in Into the Hive is that you can now choose to play the game in color if you’d like, though the game has always been meant for the noir aesthetic over its point-and-click style.

Certain puzzles, though, might be made more complicated by the absence of color, so it’s never a bad idea to turn it on if you’re stuck.

Additionally, there are new ways to streamline things in the sequel that people yearned for in the first game! Trying to remember or find phone numbers in the first game could be something of a hassle, but with the new phonebook item in your inventory, you’ll be able to find anyone you need at a glance. Keeping a suspect in a good mood, and trying not to say the wrong thing? There are smiley faces on each important conversation response.