These are the best recruits to enlist in Watch Dogs Legion

Looking to recruit the best Watch Dogs Legion characters? One of Legion’s big features is that you can recruit anyone, anywhere, at any time to help your cause. You can walk up to anyone on the streets of London and ask them to join the fight against Albion and take back the city from the grip of villain Nigel Cass. 

That said, some citizens are more skilled than others. So, I'm here to help you persuade the best Watch Dogs Legion recruits with the right range of skills and abilities to assist you in reclaiming post-Brexit London. Here are those skilled operatives, where to find them, and how to persuade them to join DedSec.

How to recruit Watch Dogs Legion characters

Recruiting is relatively simple. While you’re prowling the streets of near-future London, hold down middle mouse button to bring up a brief character profile of the person on which your crosshairs are focusing. You’ll see a few details about the character: Their name, occupation, and any abilities, skills, and weapons they possess. Remember, every citizen out walking the streets of London is randomised, so you’re going to get all kinds of crazy combinations of skills and occupations.

Focus on their skills and abilities. Take the character in the image above, for example. She’s got three abilities under her personal information, which allow her unlimited range when hacking for keys, a faster cooldown on hacking-related skills, and extra faction damage against the evil Clan Kelley. Not every person out in London is going to have the number of skills shown here, though—typically, you’re going to find more characters with one skill—so try and recruit more skillful types like the person above.

To start recruiting a character, hold down Q while scanning them with your phone. That'll save them on the ‘Team’ tab of the Watch Dogs Legion menu, and you can find them under ‘Potential Recruits’ on that page. Hovering over them, select the option to track their mission, and you’ll skip over to their dedicated Recruitment Mission on the ‘Missions’ tab. Now you just need to head over to the pinpointed location to start their recruitment mission on your map. 

Recruitment missions in Watch Dogs Legion are dead simple, and they rarely take more than ten minutes. Once you’re done, your new recruit immediately joins your team, jumping up to the ‘Operatives’ section of the ‘Team’ tab. Rinse and repeat these simple steps to recruit anyone in Watch Dogs Legion.

Best Watch Dogs Legion recruits: Get these skilled operatives

Some characters are experts in their particular field. They're invaluable, and will really give your team a boost if you can manage to recruit them to your cause. Here are the most valuable specialists in Watch Dogs Legion, and how to recruit each one.

Spy

There are two methods of recruiting a Spy. The first is to find the MI6 building—on the western side of the Lambeth district, along the eastern bank of the River Thames—which periodically spawns spies in the alley next to it.

But, a more reliable way is to turn the district of Westminster defiant. To do this, interact with the three red markers on the map inside the Westminster district. There are two propaganda events: Interacting with a terminal, and a mission to rescue a freedom fighter from New Scotland Yard.

Once you’ve completed these tasks, your next job is the ‘Like Clockwork’ mission near Parliament. This has you manning a spider drone, and scaling the inside of Big Ben, the large clock tower that overlooks Parliament. Once you’ve completed this simple bit of platforming as the spider drone, and interacted with the computer terminal at the top of the tower, the Spy will immediately be added to your list of Operatives, packing a silenced pistol, spy watch, and slick spy car. Fancy.

Professional Hitman

To recruit a Professional Hitman, head to the district of Nine Elms, located in the southwestern corner of your map. There you need to tick off three tasks marked in red: Destroy a terminal, kill a VIP, and photograph evidence of Albion’s evil plans.

Next, you’re presented with the 'Black Hole of Battersea' mission. Go to the marked location in Battersea Power Plant to begin the mission, and you’ll be tasked with infiltrating the underground holding cells underneath the power station, and free the captives.

After completing the mission, the Professional Hitman permanently joins your ranks. They’re a great asset if you prefer to rush headlong into fights, whether you’re taking down an entire group of enemies or if you’re just tackling a miscreant on the street.

Drone Expert

The Drone Expert can be found early in Watch Dogs Legion. Travel just east of your base in the City of Westminster, immediately in front of Parliament. You’ll find a Drone Expert on the northern edge of this area, who you can recognise from the green cyberpunk-esque screen over their face.

To recruit them, kickstart their mission in Tower Hamlets. Inside a small Albion fortress you’ll need to download the location of a laboratory from an officer, after which you'll be directed to the Nine Elms district. Erase the stolen data from a computer terminal within the Albion-controlled zone, and the Drone Expert will happily sign up to DedSec.

Having a Drone Expert in your ranks is essential. They can summon a small shock drone on command to distract enemies, hack enemy drones to betray their own allies, and turn drones into bombs.

Anarchist

Anarchists are always in Trafalgar Square, which is in the lower half of the northern area of Westminster. You’re looking for the massive protest rally staged around the central column in the area—it's full of them.

This lot are great for assaulting Albion forces directly. They always come equipped with a smoke grenade, which blinds enemies, and bandanas to protect their own vision. Use the Anarchist to pummel Albion troops while they’re taken out by your grenades.

Paramedic

In western Camden, there’s a large Blume Complex with a fancy-looking tower jutting out into the sky. To the north of it there’s a small green, and on the northern edge of this green, you can find a Paramedic ready to be recruited.

Paramedics come with an added recovery bonus. Whenever one of your operatives is injured in the line of duty, there’s a set amount of time until you can use them again, while they recover. Paramedics significantly reduce this.

Street Artist

In the very southern reaches of Lambeth, there's a building marked on your map called Lambeth Town Hall, sprayed with graffiti. Here you can reliably find a Street Artist, ready to be recruited to the DedSec cause.

Having a Street Artist on your team is much more useful than it sounds. You get a silent paintball gun that disorientates foes on a headshot, and you also get a paint bomb which has the same effect on anyone caught in the blast.

Beekeeper

You can spot beekeepers in a few parks around the city—a good place to start is Hardy Church on the very northern edge of the map in Camden. Just look for the futuristic beehive attached to a few trees.

You can also turn the City of London defiant to get a Beekeeper. This is pretty easy to accomplish: Complete the 'Sabotage', 'Photograph Evidence', and 'Hack CTOS Hub' missions marked on your map.

Once they’re signed up after the ensuing fetch quest mission is done, the Beekeeper is honestly one of the best recruits in all of Legion. With swarms of angry cyber-bees at their disposal, this Watch Dogs Legion character has a real sting in the tail.

Football Hooligan

To sign a Football Hooligan, you’ll need to turn the Islington and Hackney borough defiant. Again, do this by completing the three standard red missions marked on the map: 'Sabotage', 'Neutralize the VIP', and 'Collect Evidence'.

Then, after the following fetch quest, they'll follow you all over the country. Probably. Anyway, Football Hooligans are perfect if you’re looking to storm Albion fortresses using hand-to-hand combat. They take less damage while drunk, and their melee attacks are significantly more powerful than that of regular citizens.

Getaway Driver

For the Getaway Driver, you need to turn the Tower Hamlets borough defiant. Get this done by completing the local objectives of neutralizing a VIP, collecting evidence of Albion’s crimes, and rescuing an imprisoned freedom fighter from a police cell.

Then you’ll meet an informant just outside of the Tower of London. They’ll ask you to race through 31 virtual gates in a course around the city (because why the hell not), and after that you’ll have the Getaway Driver ready to join you.

The Getaway Driver is, naturally, ace for racing challenges. They come with their own custom, high speed car, and they’re entirely immune to drones chasing their vehicle. What's more, all single-button hacks against enemy vehicles always turn them away from your vehicle, paving the way for your getaway.

Hacker

Last, but absolutely not least, we have the Hacker. To get him, you need to turn the borough of Camden defiant—but you'll do that as part of the story, so don't stress about it too much.

As you'd expect, the Hacker helps you with, err, hacking. For example, they can scan and download a key at a greater distances, and benefit from quicker downloads. The latter will come in handy often in the story.