This mission will see you infiltrating the elite Masquerade Ball at the Orchard Hotel in an effort to learn about who leads the Court of Owls.
To begin, locate the Orchard Hotel on your map and head there, either using fast travel or the Batcycle.
Once you get to the Orchard Hotel, you’ll need to infiltrate via the balcony on the roof. This will be on the east side of the building, just above “Orchard Hotel” sign. Go through the door on this balcony to enter the hotel.
Head through the doors, and make sure you begin crouching before you enter the room with the party itself, as being detected will instantly fail the mission. Now, when you get to the party, you’ll want to stay in the darkness. Immediately turn right, and continue down the hallway until you need to turn. Be cautious of the guard in the next room, and time your movements across it to when she isn’t looking (or use a Stealth Takedown to knock her out). Then, go down the darkened hallway on the opposite side from the first, turn right, and continue down this hall until you reach a door.
In the next room, crouch and immediately head to your right. You will hear voices and see the red light of a camera, but you can actually ignore these, provided you move fast enough. Go straight past the red light and to the back of the room. Turn left, then continue across this room to a door on the opposite side. Once you get through that door, you can knock out the security guard in this room and disable the security cameras
After disabling the security system, you can go and defeat the guards that you passed earlier however you wish. After you do and before you move on, make sure to go back to the left of the section all the guards are in, and down the hallway to the left of the security office. There will be a chest in a small room to the left here.
After you grab it, you can head back to the area where all the guards are and look up. There will be an opening above the table. Grapple there to begin the next section of the mission.
This section requires you to eavesdrop on the Masquerade Ball to try to discover who is part of the Court of Owls. You’ll need to move your camera to listen in on every conversation in the ball, marked with an ear symbol.
After you’ve listened in on everyone’s conversation, the Voice of the Court will come from the bottom of the screen and approach a painting. When he stops, you will eavesdrop on him, which will trigger a cutscene.
After the cutscene, you can go through the vent and drop down into the next room. In the next section, you will need to remain undetected to achieve the bonus objective. In order to do this, you’ll need to head down the hallway until you come to an open door on either side of you. Go to the right, take out the guard with a Silent Takedown, then disable the security cameras with the wall panel.
After taking out the cameras, go to the room directly across the hall, take out the guard with a Silent Takedown, then grab the chest. Next to the chest will be a vent. Go through it, and then when you come out on the other side, knock out the guard in this room and then go behind him to grab another chest. After that, go back through the vent and the room with the other chest in it. When you leave that room, go left to continue the mission.
Continue straight ahead and go in the vent right in front of you. When you get to the end of this vent, a cutscene will play.
After this cutscene, you will need to find a way down to the “hidden 13th floor.” Don’t bother investigating this room. Instead, drop into it and immediately go to the door to your right. Follow the hallways until you reach a door marked “Stairs.”
Go down these stairs until you reach a hidden door, but don’t stop. On the floor below this hidden door, there is a chest you can grab. After you’ve got that, then you can return to the hidden door and interact with it.
Once on the other side of the door, you will be given several rooms to explore. There are numerous voice recordings which will reveal more about the court in these, but in order to continue the mission you just have to find the yellow-outlined Owl Statue, scan it, and interact with the revealed button, which will open another secret door.
Continue forward through the newly opened door. Defeat three goons in the next room. Then, you’ll need to scan the Touchscreen attached to the map table they were all standing around. You’ll need to interact with this touchscreen 3 times in a row, with brief dialogue between. First to activate it, then to insert a USB drive, then to remove that same drive.
Just interact with this touchscreen several times in a row.
Another hidden door will open in the next room, and a few guards will come out. Defeat them, then go through the newly-opened secret door. Here, you will be presented with a puzzle featuring models and paintings of some of Gotham’s most historical buildings. To complete this puzzle, you will need to figure out the correct order to stand on the pressure pads in front of each building.
The pictures on the walls display the dates that each building was constructed. In order to complete the puzzle, you simply need to stand on the pressure pads in order of construction. The order is as follows:
The building with the tall tower in the center, City Hall.
The blocky building with square features, the GCPD Headquarters.
The classical-style building with the dome on top, the Courthouse.
The grand cathedral building, the Gotham Cathedral.
1234
Complete the puzzle and another secret door will open between the GCPD Building and the Courthouse. Go through this door and down the hallway. There will be a room to your left with a chest around the corner. After grabbing that chest, head back into the hallway and continue down it. Guess what: another secret door will open.
After going through that secret door, you’ll enter into a board room. You can head straight for the painting on your left. When you approach, a cutscene will begin, revealing the truth about who the Voice of the Court is.
After the cutscene ends, the room will flood with guards who you must defeat. These range from Court of Owls Brawlers and Shooters to even include a few Feral Talons. If you have any trouble dealing with them, you can see our Court of Owls Faction Guide .
After defeating the goons, head down the hallway and into the elevator to your left, then look up to see a grapple point. Use this, then follow the white diamonds until you reach a door. A short cutscene will play introducing the League of Shadows Assassins, an enemy you will face imminently.
Continue down the hallway, following the white diamonds, until you come to a confrontation. Some Court of Owls guards will be fighting a League of Shadows Assassin. You will need to defeat all of the enemies (on both sides) to progress. You are given a tool-tip to help you fight the Assassin, letting you know to use your newly-unlocked Damage Over Time abilities to keep the Assassin from teleporting. Because of their ability to teleport and their long combos, Assassins can be tough to fight, so feel free to use our League of Shadows Faction Guide if you need help.
Once you take out the enemies, you can keep moving down the hallway. You’ll need to go through a door, and then find the massacre that the League of Shadows committed in the ballroom. Jumping into this crime scene, you’ll get a brief cutscene introducing the League of Shadows’ other major enemy type: the Rocketeer. These cannon-wielders are ranged specialists with quite a lot of health, and can fire several times at once. If you end up struggling with the subsequent fight with them, they are also featured in our League of Shadows Faction Guide.
After you defeat the three Rocketeers, two more Assassins will appear, who you will also need to defeat. Once you beat the Assassins, a cutscene will automatically play. After it, you’ll be back out in Gotham.
Once you get back to the Belfry, which you can do immediately or go out on Patrol, another cutscene will play. After the cutscene ends, Mission 4.2 – The Orchard Hotel will be completed and Mission 5.1 – Little Birds will be available.
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.
