Watch Dogs - online tips, invasions, how to blend in, avoid other players

While you'll spend the bulk of your time in Watch Dogs working through the single-player content, there's plenty to get stuck into online. Encounters with other players here are typically brief but tense experiences, and they're worth trying out even if you typically shy away from player-versus-player content.

Here are a few tips you should find useful when venturing beyond the offline constraints of Watch Dogs' world.

Be careful hiding in cars

It's extremely useful to be able to hide within cars when playing the single-player campaign - the NPCs are pretty dumb, after all. The thing is, those NPCs never, ever use this trick themselves, so doing it online will make you stand out in the eyes of other players.

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That doesn't mean you should stay in your vehicle like a sitting duck though. Get out and look for an alternative hiding place, but always have one eye on a getaway vehicle - just in case your opponent manages to track you down.

Act like the locals

As well as avoiding specific activities that NPCs never participate in, you should try to emulate their general behaviour as much as possible. They never run, duck into cover, or scramble over obstacles, for example, so you shouldn't either if you want to blend in with your surroundings. If you do find yourself acting erratically and you think you've been spotted, try to make your way naturally towards somewhere with a denser population and mingle with the crowd.

Avoid travelling on two wheels

On the subject of NPC behaviour in Watch Dogs, have you ever seen an NPC on a motorcycle during the single-player campaign? Exactly. Regardless of whether you're invading someone else's world, or you're dealing with an intruder in your own, always stick to four wheels rather than two.

Find out who looks keen

As soon as you've been informed that an invasion is taking place, get into a car as quickly as possible and race away from your current location. When you get a good distance away from your starting point, stop, then look back along the path you just travelled. You should find it very easy to spot the maniac driving erratically when compared with the other AI characters.

Play a game of cat-and-mouse

If you're tucked away somewhere and you've spotted your opponent hunting you down, wait until they move on to a new area, then duck into a new hiding position in their old hunting ground. If you're lucky, they won't return to a place they've already investigated, which will make installing your backdoor much easier.

Struggling to escape the police in Watch Dogs? We've got a mission-by-mission guide to surviving the game.