Here's a Game-Changing (for me) Tip

[Legacasc 25]

Maybe I'm just stupid, but I only realized this by accident recently (when my daughter was distracting me while I was navigating the mission menu) and figured I'd share. I played this game when it first came out way back when, and then picked it up again a couple years ago before finishing it again recently, and ALWAYS assumed you had to finish all missions in one hub (Rome/Moscow/Taipei) before moving on to the next.

 

You don't.

 

You can freely travel among all three cities at any time. Which can make the Ready for Anything (buy 75% of possible purchasable intel) extremely easy (for example by quickly meeting Heck in Taipei, or Grigori and SIE in Moscow). As well as allow you to relatively quickly level up and gain AP on Hard mode by doing the easier missions in all 3 cities before moving on to the harder ones.

 

It also made getting the Respected Enemies trophy a breeze, as I was able to first meet with Marburg before dipping into Moscow and Taipei and later returning to Rome (where I was able to buy some intel that was unlocked by knowing Grigori and SIE).

 

To recap, once you leave Saudi Arabia, you can freely travel among all three cities at any time. Only when you've completed all missions in a hub city are you unable to return to that city. Madison was literally chilling in the Rome safehouse the entire time I was doing stuff in Moscow and Taipei. This was a literal game-changer for me, as I was no longer trying to tread razor-thin margins of "will I be able to buy enough intel while simultaneously going for Thorton, Inc. and the No Compromise, No Mercy trophies?!"