Back Alley Brawl is a challenge that tests your ability to fight through waves of enemies, who will likely be fighting each other at the same time. If you are not good at combat in this game, then this will be a difficult challenge for you to get three stars. The enemies that spawn, as well as their locations, are sort of random, except for a set few in later rounds.

You can do this challenge in one of two ways, by going full on berserk, fighting everything head-on, or by using some stealth to sneak around, killing everyone. There are two things you need to watch out for when running around, though, which occur in between the rounds and are shown on the map. These are Runes, which grant you new powers (they are set in stone) and a Merchant (only stays 30 seconds before disappearing), who can drop mana/health elixirs on hitting him and equipment upgrades by killing him.

The expert version of this challenge isn’t much different than the normal one, except the combat difficulty is set to very hard and enemies have an easier time noticing you. You will see the following Runes and Merchants after the following rounds:

• Devouring Swarm II (Round 2)
• Merchant (Round 3; Crossbow Accuracy Upgrade and Mask Optics Upgrade I)
• Bend Time I (Round 5)
• Merchant (Round 6; Pistol Accuracy Upgrade 2 and Boot Stealth Upgrade 2)
• Windblast II (Round 8)
• Merchant (Round 9; Crossbow Reload Speed Upgrade and Improved Armor)
• Blood Thirsty II (Round 11)
• Merchant (Round 12; Bolt Capacity Upgrade I and Bullet Capacity Upgrade I)

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After finishing some rounds, you will find a Rune (left) sitting for you, granting you a new power. The merchant also spawns after some rounds (right) and beating on him will give you supplies and equipment upgrades.

One thing you want to be careful of is using all of your supplies in the early rounds, as things will definitely get more challenging in the later rounds, especially when enemies like Tallboys start showing their annoying faces. So, for the first few rounds, concentrate on using only your knife and try to save ammunition for your crossbow/pistol for later rounds, when you might need to quickly kill someone. Besides that, there is also a dispenser for whale oil tanks underneath one of the buildings.

Things start out simple, with there being Weepers and Lower City Watch, but things will progress to Elite Guards and Assassins in later rounds. In round 8, you will find an Overseer with a Music Box, meaning your powers are useless near him, so either snipe him from a rooftop or Blink behind him to assassinate him without him knowing.

Once round 9 comes, you will have an even tougher opponent, the Torturer, who has some basic supernatural powers. You do not want to get into an one-on-one fight head-on with him, plus he can soak up some damage if trying to hit him with ranged weapons. Killing him via stealth is the best way to go about dispatching him and should be done as soon as possible, if you want to kill everyone yourself.

Preparing for Tallboys¶

Round 10, as already mentioned, will include a Tallboy in the cluster of enemies you will fight. If you want to quickly deal with it, then leave one enemy alive in round 9 and begin stacking whale oil tanks where the Tallboy spawns, which is by the overturned dumpster by the stairs where you start the challenge (or another corner, so you’ll need to place tanks at both corners). Five or so oil tanks in each corner should suffice.

Hopefully you’ve been picking up the Runes, as the second one will grant you Bend Time, which can be a huge help in some of the later rounds. Whenever round 10 starts, use it and shoot the tanks in whichever corner the Tallboy spawns. Round 11 has another Tallboy, while round 12 has two Tallboys and round 13 has Daud, who can be a pain in the butt to fight. All rounds beyond that are random, so there’s no sound strategy for those.