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Arkham Knight is the rare open world game where the map is not the problem. Gotham is only three islands and a handful of interiors. What catches people out is timing: side missions that appear chapter by chapter, a gadget that stops being collectable, interiors that shut behind the story, and an ending that quietly asks for a hundred percent of the Riddler's work. This hub is arranged around that.
Play the missions in the order they open
There are fourteen Most Wanted missions and they do not all exist at once. Some wait on a chapter, some on a Batmobile upgrade, and Lamb to the Slaughter cannot be started at all until near the end. Our walkthrough guide sorts what we cover by when it unlocks and what you need in hand, from the Ace Chemicals story mission through the two island sweeps to the set pieces, and it includes the Robin DLC episode and the six statue head door that people get stuck on.
It also covers the two missions that behave like standing jobs rather than missions: nine militia APCs that get harder as you destroy them, and fourteen buried mines released across four different chapters, with Deathstroke's tank waiting on Grand Avenue once they are all gone.
Know what the ending actually costs before you chase it
There is one ending here, split in two. Seven Most Wanted missions gets you to the Bat-signal on the GCPD roof, the cowl coming off and Wayne Manor going up. All fourteen, plus the complete Riddler set, his cave challenges, the rigged looters and the Batgirl DLC pickups, gets you the Gordon monologue and that last scene in a Miagani alleyway.
Our mechanics guide ranks the optional systems by which of those two they feed, which is the only ranking worth having when you are deciding what to skip. It covers the forty scannable riddles by region, the ten Riddler cave challenges, the AR Challenges that pay Upgrade Points but do not touch the ending, the firefighter loop that breaks the points economy, and the Scarecrow choice on the Stagg Airship that turns out not to be a choice at all.
Collect in the order the city opens
One hundred and seventy nine Riddler Trophies, ninety breakable objects, twenty one watchtowers, twenty roadblocks, fifteen firefighters, six murdered victims, six rigged looters and five weapons caches. Sorted by island that is an intimidating pile; sorted by when each set becomes available it is an evening or two of routine work alongside the story.
Our collectibles guide puts them all on one timeline, starting with the gadgets that gate them, and it flags the two things worth doing immediately: lifting the Remote Electrical Charge from the GCPD evidence locker on your very first visit, and picking up the Freeze Blast from the Panessa Studios quarantine cells before the story moves on, because it is the one item in the game you can permanently lose. It also collects the terminal passwords and puzzle orders that are otherwise buried inside three separate trophy pages.
Spend your first points well
Six upgrade trees and more than 350 upgrades mean the early choices matter more than the late ones. Our best upgrades guide makes the case for Sabotage Medic on the Disruptor first at four points, because medics are what make long predator rooms drag, then Critical Strikes at a single point, Fear Multi-Takedown at x4 and x5, ballistic armour before melee armour, and two cheap Batmobile upgrades that shorten every tank fight in the game.
On PC
This was one of the worst PC launches of its generation and it still has rough edges. Our troubleshooting guide covers crashes, stuttering, the FPS cap, black screens and controller trouble, with separate AMD and Nvidia tweaks and the config file changes that go with them.
If the game is running fine and you want more out of it, our best mods guide has ten worth installing, including the community patch that lets you free roam Gotham as Nightwing, Catwoman, Azrael, Red Hood, Batgirl and several others, the mod that unlocks the Prestige Suit without asking you to finish the game twice, the one that restores the WBPlay skins now that the service is gone, and two reshades. It also has the install path, which matters here because mod managers do not support the Arkham games and everything has to go in by hand.
Where to start
Work through the campaign and pick off Most Wanted targets whenever new ones surface. Collect the Remote Electrical Charge and the Freeze Blast early. Do the six tutorial AR Challenges in your first hour, since they carry no star requirements and pay the best multiplier in the game. Then decide, once the credits are near, whether you want the Bat-signal or the alleyway.