The Gotham City Police Department is different from other factions in several ways, the most notable being that they aren’t actually criminals, but rather the force meant to combat criminals. It is at this moment that it becomes useful to recognize that the bat-family, as vigilantes, are criminals. As such, they will be pursued on sight by most GCPD officers, who are fairly dangerous adversaries. However, because you are both ostensibly on the same side, you gain nothing by fighting them: XP and materials are not earned by defeating them. This means that you should avoid fighting them whenever you can. That said, there are several times when you will have to fight them over the course of the game, so you still need to be prepared to take on their range-heavy officers. Note that GCPD officers do not have a level or rank, and so come in a single variant each.
The GCPD do not drop anything, and can be found dotted around Gotham from the beginning of the game, tending to congregate around highly-populated areas.
Detective/Patrol Unit/Corrupt Cop
Though these three variants have different titles, they all operate the same as each other. Detectives, Patrol Units, and Corrupt Cops are armed with pistols, which they will fire at you with a single bullet if hostile. These police officers are extremely easy to defeat, and can’t even benefit from having higher ranks (unlike the other factions), but also don’t reward you with anything. Detectives and Patrol Units are usually either adversaries that you need to sneak past in missions or allies during some premeditated crimes. Meanwhile, Corrupt Cops often appear in random crimes, and interrogating them is connected to some missions.
Assault Unit
Assault Units are much more powerful officers who are better-armed and armored, and are hostile to vigilantes by default. They are armed with shotguns and assault rifles, which deal very high damage, but their quick attacks and ability to block make them nothing to scoff at in melee. While they lack powerful abilities (or powerful allies who can back them up), they can test a player’s understanding of the basic combat system. This means that the only real way to combat Assassult Units, like those you will encounter in Blackgate and elsewhere, is to practice dodging their attacks and counterattacking. If you are taking on Assault Units, your highest priority should be avoiding their ranged attacks, since they deal so much damage. Though, if the option is available, it’s always better to simply avoid fighting Assault Units (or any GCPD officers), since they don’t give you XP or resources.
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Graves
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he'll try. When he isn't working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
