Stealth is one of the major aspects of this game, although you can completely finish the game without it if you wish.
Using stealth means you kill or stun the enemy without the enemy being alerted to your presence.
This can be done by using cover to approach your enemy and then using different tactics or techniques to get the enemy one-by-one while nobody is alerted by your presence and not a shot was fired.
Choosing the stealth approach has many advantages:
- low (or no) arrows/bullets usage
- low risk of losing health
- if you use interrogation (see grabbing) you can get extra intel
- if you use intimidation you can get extra SP and good karma
You can use many techniques to accomplish this:
- scout and gather intel (use spyglass or detect enemies,...) before you go in
- use cover to approach your enemy, this can be natural cover (bushes, trees, cliffs, mountains,...) or others (cart, animals, buildings,...)
- try to contain your loudness by crawling and be aware of your action's noise
- use skills available such as lure, throw stone, tomahawk,...
- use sound arrows (shoot and it will lure the enemy to the place you shot at)
- use sound bait (drop it and it will lure the enemy to there after x seconds)
- use explosive charge (drop it and it will create a distraction after x seconds)
Take care in using arrows to shoot: if the enemy is close to you he will hear the arrow being shot and start investigating. But it is possible to kill/stun enemies with your bow and arrow while not breaking stealth. TIP: if an enemy discovers you, you still have a small window of a second to still insta-kill or insta-grab out of stealth. Use dodge/roll (spacebar) to get close and time your attack well.