Hints and Tricks

In this golden age of gaming no game is perfect (no matter what they're called) when it comes to program code and core system features, so Perfect Dark along with countless other games has a myriad of weird phenomena to be found throughout the game. There's also a range of tricks you can use to gain some sort of advantage in the game without blatantly using cheats. Here's where you'll find a variety of tricks and weird stuff in the game.

Knock guards out If you belt a guard with your fists and knock them down without shooting them (Hurricane fists makes the job super-easy), they'll fall over as though you've shot them. Crouch down and punch the guard on the floor, but instead of just playing the sound of Joanna's fists hitting the body, the guard will continue to groan and grunt as they did while standing!
Carrington's room in the Villa Here's a sneaky trick to try in the Villa. Right at the end of the mission, grab the key card needed to unlock the door to Carrington's room. Stand in front of one of the two doors and open it, but as soon as you've got enough room to run through dash forward and tap B again to close the door as you pass through it. If done right the doors will close and you'll be inside the room with Carrington. The final cutscene will only play when the doors fully open and touch the walls, so you can wander around in the room (and even shoot Carrington) as long as you want.
Mr. Blonde in dD Extraction Here's a good one. Play dataDyne Extraction. If the timer on-screen (in SA and PA) reaches zero the lights in the foyer will come back on - don't worry about this happening. What you need to do is reach the lift without taking damage (Dr. Caroll can't take any damage either), then ride it up as normal to the floors above but make sure there aren't any guards left to shoot at Dr. Caroll. Leave the lift and zip around the corner on the first floor and you should find a guard waiting somewhere around here that wouldn't normally be there. Knock him out and grab Cassandra's office key card he drops. Now go all the way back down to the foyer and unlock the door to the security hub room. Inside you'll find a truly weird sight. Mr. Blonde and two of Cassandra's female bodyguards will be standing motionless in the room among two ammo crates. The ammo boxes conceal Rocket Launcher ammo. You can shoot and punch Mr. Blonde and the bodyguards but of course they'll just jolt around without taking damage, but if you shoot the snot out of them and they become covered in blood wounds, go back up top and complete the mission. They'll then appear in the cutscenes all bloody and gored up! You can also do the same to Cassandra, but you'll need to be fast to catch her as she walks out onto the roof otherwise she'll disappear. But what about the shield she has you ask? Keep shooting her, it's not that strong. *Update: Thanks to Josh B for this heads-up. If you're too late in catching up to Cassandra as she walks out onto the roof, fear not. She'll disappear and teleport straight down to Mr. Blonde's room ready for use in the cutscene, so just go back down to the foyer to give her a facelift.
Shooting Fish From the top of the dataDyne building, take a look around at the skyscrapers surrounding you. See those tiny cars flying about? Using a zoomable weapon you can actually shoot the cars and they'll explode! Only one shot's needed to blow a car up, so that doesn't say much for 2023's advanced technology.
Foster dartboard In the CI's firing range, you can wedge the door open while still able to select a weapon from the range. Open the glass door and stand inside the door frame while facing Foster. If you manage to block the door from closing while still able to access the weapons menu, you'll be able to use the Crossbow and Combat Knife on Foster! He's completely invincible but it looks pretty gruesome with 20 knives sticking out of his body. You can also use the hover crate from downstairs to block the door open.
Double Double Falcon 2 In Area 51 - Rescue, you'll find a second Falcon 2 hidden within a barrel among the crates in the giant warehouse room. If you shoot the gun on the floor, amazingly a second Falcon 2 will pop out of it! Quite a handy trick for co-op, if one player manages to grab one of the guns without touching the other you'll both be able to have double Falcon 2s.
Carrington's always watching In the basement cellar of the Villa, you can waste the wine bottles by just shooting at them. If you go around and shoot out every last wine bottle scattered around on the wine racks you'll hear Carrington say "Act your age, Joanna." Funny thing is though you'll hear him speak as though he's in the same room as you, even though he's still tied up in a separate location.
Slayer and CamSpy CI romp By using the hover crate in the CI you can chock the doors of the device training room and firing range open while using the Slayer or CamSpy. Take the CamSpy or a Slayer rocket around the Institute (especially outside) for a grand outer-body tour.
Trippy cutscenes You can cause a few variations on the in-game cutscenes with a few tricks. If you wear the X-Ray Scanner or aim the FarSight around you'll see them in a cool X-Ray view. Also, if Joanna's using an active cloaking device, NPC's will talk and interact with her as though they can clearly see her while she's invisible. Finally, if you watch cutscenes with the Slo-mo cheat on, every character will move slowly while the speech and sound effects run at normal speed - causing the sound and action to go way out of sync.
CamSpy pincushion With the infinite ammo cheat on, select a mission where you'll have the CamSpy or DrugSpy. Using the Crossobw you'll be able to fire a pack of bolts into the CamSpy as it floats in mid-air. Fire from different angles and you'll have a pincushion in no time. Try zipping the CamSpy around in Co-op mode so the other player can see the abberation flying around.
21st century duel Play The Duel with the Laptop Gun and infinite ammo cheat. Just after you begin against the dD guard, throw the sentry gun onto a nearby wall and it'll fry the guard. But when Jonathan and Trent appear, the gun will shred them while they're still standing back-to-back with Joanna! Good thing you can't use cheats to properly complete the missions...
Laptop Gun in the Firing Range This is for real sneaky cheaters. You can take advantage of the Laptop Gun's sentry mode by selecting Laptop Gun->Bronze, then deploying the gun onto a wall. Hold B to bring up Throw Sentry Gun then press Z. While the gun folds up quickly press Start and abort the session. As the room darkens quickly press Start again and select another weapon. If your timing's on the ball the Laptop Gun will deploy as you take out the new weapon, and it'll fire away at any targets nearby racking up points!
Mines don't just stick to walls Not only can you attach mines to walls and floors, but characters as well! The Remote Mine's a real killer, so long as you have the detonater in hand you'll be able to blow any character away when a mine's attached to them. This really comes in handy in the Combat Simulator, doubly so as the sims can't detonate mines themselves! Using the infinite ammo cheat you can create your own human nuclear bomb, and boy do opponents fly when you set them off!
The FarSight's a deadly weapon In the CI Firing Range, select the FarSight and Bronze setting. Now you'll be able to look around the entire building while aiming with the FarSight, you can even see Carrington and Grimshaw up on the floor above. Shooting characters does nothing, all they'll do is jolt as though you've just tickled them. But tables and chairs will explode when you shoot them, it looks pretty hilarious when you shoot out people's chairs and they remain seated in thin air.
Invisible Trent This is a well-known problem. If you select the Blonde Freak cinema cutscene from the menu (the one shown at the end of the Crash Site mission), Trent won't be visible in the scene. You'll still hear Trent's voice and Mr. Blonde will still interact with him before giving him a belting in his Skedar form. The most likely explanation is that when the Crash Site mission loads Trent's model is loaded up with it as normal. When he runs off as you save the President the model's re-used in the cinema. So naturally when you load up the cutscene from the menu Trent's model isn't loaded - a probable error on Rareware's part. But they must have fixed up the bug between the NTSC and PAL version releases, as in the PAL version Trent can be seen in the cutscene as normal. He's also present in the cutscene of the Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) version (thanks Daniel!).
Joanna can walk through walls Play the final cutscene to G5 Building from the menu, Joanna will walk straight out of the wall you're suppost to blow open at the end of the mission. Another procedural error, I'm sure.
Cassandra doesn't actually die Turn on Enemy Shields and crank up Enemy Health to 1000% in Perfect Dark mode. Play the Attack Ship mission and rush out to where Cassandra normally drops dead. She'll scream as normal - but stands perfectly still. Strangely enough the target turns red over her and she'll stand motionless. Even the two Skedar in the area completely ignore her.
The explosive Mr. Blonde Switch on All Guns in Solo and Unlimited Ammo - No Reloads. Play dD Extraction and gain access to the room Mr. Blonde and the two guards hide out in. Take out the Remote Mine and pelt all three with mines, you'll be able to attach a pack of mines to them. Play through to the end of the mission to see all three of them in the cutscene covered in mines!
The Negotiator's secret Switch on Marquis of Queesnbury Rules and play the Villa on Agent or Special Agent. Both guards down on the pier won't have CMP150's and will just stand there facing the negotiator. If you get down to the pier the guards won't react to you at all. Knock them out and follow the negotiator as she runs off, as soon as she goes around the corner she'll vanish.
Killer Laptop Gun Use a cheat to give you the Laptop Gun and switch on the Unlimited Ammo - Laptop Sentry Gun cheat. Play Area 51 - Infiltration and play right to the end. Open the door to Jonathan's corridor but before you go inside throw the Laptop Sentry Gun onto a wall inside. Walk inside to play the final cutscene, then throughout the entire sequence the Laptop Gun will rip into the guard Joanthan shoots, even when he falls over!
Jonathan's Rocket Dart Switch on Enemy Rockets and play to the end of Area 51 - Infiltration. Like all the enemies Jonathan will be armed with a Rocket Launcher instead of his usual Magnum. When Jonathan shoots the guard in front of Joanna, instead of hearing a Magnum shot you'll hear a rocket firing but no explosion follows and the guard still falls over as if he'd been hit by a Magnum!
Sims always lose Whenever you're playing a timed match or combat challenge against simulants, if the time runs out and the score is a tie or both teams haven't scored, you'll still be declared as the winner!
Commanding Officer To order around simulants on your team or in Co-Op mode, hold A to bring up the quick menu. While holding A, press Z to display your current weapon's functions. Press Z a second time to bring up info on a single simulant. From here you can highlight several options to tell the simulant what to do. With a higher simulant, ordering them to protect you is one order you won't regret.
Remote Mines and Laptop Guns are your friends If you want to have a fair game against DarkSims or any other simluants, set all the weapon slots to Remote Mines. Once you start the game you'll notice that the simluants will throw mines at you but they will never, ever detonate them! Even if their mines stick to you, they'll never blow. Use this trick to easily beat them, but be careful as mines flying around will detonate if they're caught in an explosion. This bug also occurs with the Laptop Gun, if a sim deploys one as a sentry gun, it will never fire!
Near-Perfect spelling The only spelling mistake known in this game is found in the Skedar Ruins mission. Play the mission and bring up your inventory in the Pause Menu. Select the Target Amplifier, and you'll notice as the text scrolls along the screen that the word "infomation" is spelt wrong, it should be "information." Another simple mistake on Rareware's part, but check the spelling in the PAL version, it's all fixed up. They've also retained the spelling fix in the XBLA version (thanks Daniel!).
Those cutscene characters must have thick skin Again using the Laptop Gun cheat and Unlimited Ammo for the sentry gun, play Air Base and CI Defense through to the end. On the Air Base mission, throw the Laptop Gun near the ladder before jumping on the plane, and in CI Defense throw it onto the roof of the hangar before going inside. In both clips the Laptop Gun will tear into the guard in the Air Base and both Skedar plowing into the hangar in CI Defense - but of course they'll take no damage!
Dr. Caroll's at it again... Use All Guns in Solo and play dD Extraction (you can also pick up a Dragon needed from the hidden room in Cassandra's office). Play to the end, but before you step out onto the helipad throw the Dragon (or Proxy mines) onto it and quickly walk to the center before it goes off. In the cutscene the Dragon will blow and take out Dr. Caroll! The clip will still play as normal, with Joanna still pretending to hold onto Dr. Caroll even though he's not there. If you have Enemy Shields on the explosion might not destroy Dr. Caroll, if it doesn't he'll freeze in mid-air but Joanna will still pretend she's holding him.
Weird Physics Play the Grid level with two players, and get one player to stand up on the glass floor near the lift on the second floor. You should notice that when you shoot out part of the glass only a small square section of the glass breaks. Have a player stand on one of the glass sections near the middle of the area, while the other player shoots out the surrounding glass. Eventually you'll find that the glass section the player's standing on will still remain airborne when all the supporting glass surrounding it is gone! There's some weird physics going on here...
Explosive Exit Another trick you can pull is with Proximity Mines in cutscenes. If you manage to lay mines somewhere near where a character walks in a cutscene, they'll set it off but won't even be singed by the explosion! Switch on All Guns in Solo and Unlimited Ammo before playing the Skedar Ruins mission. Right at the start in the corridor where the first pillar resides, clear out the Skedar and lay a heap of mines all around the lopsided statue. Play to the end and watch the cutscene roll, just as Joanna and Elvis walk down through the corridor before the credits roll all the mines will blow! A nice touch for an explosive finish, especially as they'll keep on walking through all the flames.
Not only people have cloaking devices Play the Skedar arena in the Combat Simulator and head up to the second floor of the large room with four pillars. Walk right up to one of the pillars and strafe around it off the edge of the platform while hugging close to the pillar. If done properly you'll remain stuck to the pillar in mid-air! It'll look like you're standing on an invisible platform, but walk forward and you'll fall off.
Vehicles aren't the only objects that float Switch on Small Characters and you'll find that all characters appearing in cutscenes float around in mide-air! You'll also have a floating Elvis replace Joanna in cutscenes while using the Play As Elvis cheat.
Guns come in all shapes and sizes Here's a weird one... Play dD Defection with Unlimited Ammo and the Cloaking Device. Switch on the cloaking device and go over to the lone guard inside the building above the security hub. Take out an ECM Mine and throw it onto his body - it'll stick to him instantly. If you manage to shoot it off his body without injuring him, watch in amazement as he bends down to pick it up! He'll then try to use it as a normal gun - this guy's really lost it.
Guards need their eyesight tested While playing Mr. Blonde's Revenge or Maian SOS, often you'll hear guards call out "Get her!", or other dialogue that refers to Joanna's gender. But are't Mr. Blonde and Elvis males? Oh well, I guess the guards can't tell.
Bridge over ravine styx Play Skedar Ruins with simulants in Co-Op mode. Head over to the ravine to incredibly find a large jet-black pillar bridging the gap! The only possible explanation for this to be here is for the simulants to get across successfully - I'd hate to see them try to cross around the edge of the ravine below.
Unarmed Mr. Blonde Seeing as the only enemies in the Skedar Ruins are the Skedar themselves, you'd think in Counter-Op mode the second player would play as one of them? Nope. The second player will actually replace the Skedar with a Mr. Blonde - one that'll be unarmed if you take the place of a regular unarmed Skedar.
There's more to the windmill than meets the eye Use a cheat to have a K7 Avenger in the Villa mission, then play as normal and get to an area where you can see the windmill's rotors. Take out the K7 Avenger and switch to Threat Detector, and immediately a square will appear around the windmill and will identify it as an autogun. Huh?! Seeing as autoguns found elsewhere in the game rotate like nuts as they fire, Rareware's programmers may have just used a similar animation setup for the windmill's rotors to rotate like a gun.
Those Skedar Shuttles have weird technology Using the All Guns in Solo cheat, play Air Force One. Once the Skedar Shuttle attaches itself to the plane, go over to the metal tunnel and take out the FarSight. Aim and look down the tunnel at its roof, where you'll find several computer terminals hidden along the roof. These hidden controversies must be there for the explosion sequence as you throw a Timed Mine into the chute, they act as triggers for the major explosions that ensue. You'll also find a weird T-junction up inside the chute where the shuttle should be, but common sense would of course rule out having the actual shuttle there, as it would always be hidden.
The Skedar like those terminals Using the FarSight cheat, play through the Skedar Ruins and head to the altar where you need to give up a weapon to reactive the generator. Use the FarSight to look down through the altar, you'll find a tiny human-made computer terminal hidden below. Another trigger actor, it must be there to register your gun and switch on the power.
The mysterious pillar Use the FarSight or X-Ray Scanner cheat and play Skedar Ruins. Go right through to the large room where you battle the secret army, but stay in the small antechamber just before the room. Aim with the FarSight or switch on the X-Ray Scanner and look through the wall on your left. Through the wall floating outside the level's boundaries you'll see a mysterious triangular pillar. Why is it there? Looks like we'll never find out.

Reader-submitted Tricks

Solid liquid After reactivating the teleportals of Deep Sea on Agent difficulty, head through the first one and have a look at the green river underneath the floor. If you shoot at the fluid it will generate bullet holes as though the liquid was actually solid. Submitted by: Alain Maubert
Eye of the beholder While playing Counter-Op in Air Base Espionage, if the player controlling Joanna wears the disguise, all the AI will see her in the stewardess outfit, but the counter-op player will see her in the snow suit. Submitted by: Alain Maubert
Out of this world If you carry Elvis aboard the hoverbed atop the ramp before you secure him, while pressing A repeatedly very fast, you speed up really fast, so fast that your head will reach the ceiling of the tunnel enabling you to see the Nevada skyline. If your timing is good you can even land on top of Elvis near the door at the bottom and you can see the sun to your left. Have a look around and you can also see the moon and Elvis' UFO. Submitted by: Alain Maubert
Elastic Joanna If you strafe just as you enter the final cutscene of each mission, in the cutscene you can see a funny elastic Joanna - it certainly looks weird how she manages to escort Dr. Caroll all twisted up in dataDyne Extraction or in Pelagic II carrying a crate with her hips twisted. Submitted by: Alain Maubert
Jo's instant wardrobe Joanna's choice of outfits tends to change instantaneously throughout the game. In Area 51, she enters the autopsy lab to rescue Elvis dressed in her CI uniform, even though the mission requires players to find a lab coat to enter the area. As Joanna departs the lab with Elvis in the next cutscene, she's then dressed in the lab coat. If Joanna is wearing the stewardess uniform aboard Air Force One, she'll be wearing it in the final cutscene before the plane's crash. Once on the ground in Crash Site (unconscious at that), she's then dressed in the snow outfit from the Air Base mission. During the Institute Defense and Attack Ship missions, Jo is wearing a Qi pao as a party frock. Yet after Elvis rescues her and they head to the Skedar planet, she's dressed in her standard CI uniform again (with plenty of human weaponry to boot). Chances are that Elvis brought along her gear, giving this one a bit more credibility. Submitted by: Alain Maubert
Endless headshots In the XBLA version of the game, if you knock out a guard and fire at their unconscious head with the Tranquilizer or Crossbow, you'll hear them grunt and groan. Normally you'd score one headshot per enemy, but keep firing in this manner to score individual headshots for each hit and more points for your final mission score. Submitted by: Alain Maubert
Sneak in the elevator If you spawn onto the Grid map on the second floor near the elevator, try to run inside before the door closes and you should be able to walk through the wall. Submitted by: David Klos
Open the locked Grid door On the Grid map, gather a bunch of simulants on your team and stand near the locked door. Eventually one of the simluants might trigger it to open! (the door opens without playing a sound) Submitted by: David Klos
Hey guys, look up! In the G5 Building mission, position yourself above the conspirator's meeting room before deploying the CamSpy. Send it through and watch the cutscene play as normal. Right after regaining control, look down into the hallway - if you're fast enough you'll see Trent and Cassandra walk on through the corridor. Submitted by: Iain Flemington
There's always a handy doorman to be found Guards can open any door, even if it's locked. To get through those elusive locked doors guarding areas you shouldn't be in, use the Cloaking Device and lure guards over to a door while you're cloaked. As they run around you aimlessly one guard should eventually decide to open the door. Submitted by: Andrew Stahly
Cassandra wears too much jewelry Play dD Defection and go visit Cassandra in her office. If you manage to run back quickly enough after punching her, her necklace will fall to the ground but she'll still be wearing it! Submitted by: Andrew Stahly
Spawn points are always there Throughout the missions there's invisible spawn points used to summon enemies (or even allies) at certain intervals during the course of the mission. You can't see them even with X-Ray technology, but they are there. Try firing a rocket into the ground (or use any explosive) where you start off in CI Defense, or in the hangar of the Attack Ship. When you see guards (or Maians in the Attack Ship) fly out of nowhere and bowl across the room, you'll know you've found a spawn point. Submitted by: Andrew Stahly