Bottom Line Up Front: This is an alternative approach to the conventional way of shooting five enemies on foot. Lincoln makes the five headshots while in a vehicle.
Advantages: No expensive Screaming Zemi Distraction Doll is required. Targeting is performed by the game so skilled player controlled targeting requiring hand and eye coordination is not required.
Disadvantages: The player must assemble at least three police cars in close proximity to Lincoln. This is a challenging task. Although skilled hand and eye coordination is not required to the extent of the on foot approach, the player must be comfortable in a vehicle and be familiar with the mechanics of targeting and shooting while in a vehicle.
This is a very difficult achievement no matter how you do it. As of this writing, the TA ratio is over 5. If you are having difficulty doing it on foot, you might try doing it in a vehicle where the targeting to the head is done automatically by the game.
This in-vehicle approach to the achievement gives players an alternative to the on foot approach. The on foot approach, generally (but not necessarily) uses a Screaming Zemi distraction doll to cause the enemies to congregate close together around the screaming Zemi. It requires skilled hand and eye coordination to quickly take the five headshots in rapid succession. I prefer the in-vehicle solution to the on-foot solution. The Screaming Zemi distraction doll is expensive and I knew I would need some costly practice if I tried to get the achievement on foot by having the victims congregate around a thrown Screaming Zemi distraction doll.
Even though the head targeting is performed by the game, the in-vehicle technique has its own difficulties. When shooting, you must have at least three police cars close to you. There are two officers per car so, to get the five headshots you need for the achievement, you have to be chased by three cars.
Moreover, the cars must be close to you. If the cars are too far away, the time per shot is increased. So, even if you make the five headshots, they may take over five seconds to perform. So, although the in-vehicle technique does not require the skilled hand and eye coordination of the on foot approach, it challenges the player with managing the chase in such a way that Lincoln is boxed in by at least three chasing cars.
The achievement can be unlocked wherever you can get three police cars to 'corner' you where you have the fields of fire to perform five headshots. The below video selects the French Ward area. The street running by Father James's Church, a safehouse, is wide enough to accommodate Lincoln's car and the three chasing vehicles. I could not get three vehicles to reliably chase me when provoking the chase from inside the car. So, Lincoln provokes the chase on foot at the French Ward police station. He assaults a police officer, gets in his car parked nearby, and drives to the target point opposite Father James's Church.
Having equipped a weapon (press
and select the handgun), Lincoln cycles the targeting from tire to engine to headshot by pressing
twice. When three cars have boxed him in Lincoln shoots the six occupants by pressing
six times.
Make sure that the green dot has appeared on the target's head, otherwise the shot will not count as a valid headshot. If you shoot too quickly, the automatic targeting will not have switched to the next headshot. In that case, the second shot will be a wasted shot into the dead body of the first target.
Some key points:
--Lincoln will take damage. He uses a pickup truck in the video because it provides more protection than a car. The specific truck in the video is the Bulworth Buckliner 75 that is a random spawn near Vito's place. Although not used in the video, a tac vest is recommended.
--Do not overdrive the chasing cars.
--The hardest part of this technique to get the achievement is allowing three police cars to corner you where you can make the headshots. There is some randomness to the chase so you rely, in part, on luck. Because of that, make sure you have internalized the elements within your control--understanding your planned route, drawing your weapon (
), cycle the targeting to headshots (
-
), shooting at least five headshots and preferably six (
-
-
-
-
-[optional
]).
--I recommend the Elling 9mm pistol for its high rate of fire, large magazine, accuracy, and stability.
It took me about an hour of practice to learn how to manage the chase. Fortunately, it takes place near the safe house so one can revert to the last checkpoint should the chase not turn out as desired. In my experimentations, I first tried provoking the chase while in the vehicle but could not achieve the consistent outcome I was looking for. If someone can figure out a reliable way of provoking the chase in the vehicle, this would be preferable to the method used in the video. Please add a comment if you have some insight on improving the chase segment of this solution.
If you are having problems with the chase:
There are some story missions and side missions with a built-in chase. My approach to the game was to get the technical/non-story related achievements out of the way so they wouldn't be a distraction once I tackled the story in earnest. In this case, though, if you are having trouble engineering a chase where at least three vehicles pile up close to you, you might want to consider using one of the missions that includes an intense chase.
A very good one is the
Steal Police Van which is the final part of Cassandra's Side Mission,
.45 In My Hand. Normally, you would want to take out the cops before stealing the van so nobody notices you driving off with it. But, if you make a commotion you will have a bunch of police cars that easily close in on the slow van. Moreover, the van affords you enough protection so you will survive long enough to get off the shots you need for the achievement. Remember the enemy vehicles have to be right next to you in order to be close enough to pull off the five shots in five seconds.
A good story mission is
My Name's Lincoln Clay... The mission begins with Santangelo ambushing you with his goons regardless of whether you are on foot or in a vehicle. If Lincoln is in a vehicle, the ambush consists of quite a few cars. It is best to be in the Armored Majesty for survivability that unlocks when you complete the
Kill Tony Derazio (part of the
Everyone will Notice) mission. You'll want the cars to close in on you, ram you, and surround you. So, you will take quite a bit of damage. However, once the enemy cars have piled around you, you will be able to get the five headshots in five seconds. Once again, a reminder that the enemy vehicles have to be right next to you in order to be close enough to pull off the five shots in five seconds.