“Ides of March” is the sixth main mission in Ready or Not. SWAT is called in to secure an entire floor at a luxury apartment suite where heavily armed veterans have barricaded themselves along with several high profile hostages.
The biggest challenge to securing the suite is the long narrow hallways and the unpredictable patrol patterns of the criminals calling themselves the “Left Behind.” These enemies are well equipped with body armor and assault rifles making them highly dangerous. In this guide, I’ll teach you the best way to clear Ides of March in Ready or Not.
“Ides of March” Primary Objectives
In order to complete Ides of March, you must do the following:
- Bring Order to Chaos – Neutralize any contact in the hotel either by arresting them or by taking them out. The Left Behind is an organized group with more than a handful of members patrolling the area.
- Rescue All of the Civilians – Ensure that the civilians are secured by cuffing them. There are a lot of civilians hiding behind small rooms like bathrooms and closets so watch your fire. It’s easier to tell who the civilians are in this level since the Left Behind dress up in military fatigues.
- Locate Sniper Rifle in Room 1204 – A sniper nest is set up in apartment room 1204. It’s setup near the window. Find it and report its location.
- Arrest 3 Suspects – You’ll get a bonus if you can arrest at least 3 members of the Left Behind. Not a hard objective and it’s possible to complete the mission while failing this objective.
- Find the Music Producer – A high profile civilian is located in apartment 1202. Secure a tall male wearing sunglasses is being kept hostage by the Left Behind.
- Find the Retired Navy Officer – A high profile civilian is located in apartment 1203. A male of medium build is being kept hostage by the Left Behind.
- Locate Sniper Rifle in Room 1201 – A sniper nest is set up in apartment room 1201. It’s setup near the window. Find it and report its location.
Preparing for “Ides of March” Mission
The Left Behind are carrying assault rifles and wearing armor plating for protection. Equip yourself with armor piercing bullets and prepare for incoming fire with ceramic plate armor.
Completing the objective to arrest 3 suspects can be hard. On your team roster, make sure to have one officer with the intimidator perk on active duty. Suspects will likely surrender more if you have someone like that on your team.
I’d highly suggest going lethal with either assault rifles or submachine guns for this mission. However if you really want to guarantee that S-rank by the end of the level, then you can quip the pepperball guns as unlike in “A Lethal Obsession” the perps here don’t wear gas masks. If you do use pepperball guns like the TPL or VKS, make sure you come in wearing gas masks as your screen will fill red if you walk into the smoke it produces.
Make sure to bring at least five wedges with your team. The suspects in this level like to wander around unpredictably so you’re going to need to lock down the area to ensure no one sneaks up behind you. Bring flash grenades with you as well as these will be useful when breaching apartments.
One of your SWAT members should have a tactical shield for breaching. Make sure this person has the heavy ceramic armor with Kevlar helmet. Another should have the mirrorgun to be able to check for rooms inside in case of suspects guarding the other side or booby traps.
“Ides of March” Walkthrough
Ides of March is the first major mission that let’s you pick an entrance. From my experience this option seems to be entirely bugged as you’ll be placed on the fire exit near the residential area no matter what you pick.
This puts you in a dangerous position because this entry point leads to a hallway with three major openings. Once you load into the level, have your team stack by the door outside the hallway. There’s usually no one in the room where they keep water tanks by the entrance but it’s best to check.
Once you breach into the hallway itself, you need to take note of the long hallway to the left. There’s another door that leads to the center room of the map where suspects may wander out of. The hallway to your right is shorter but there are more doors and openings for suspects to wander in.
Quickly secure that hallway and then wedge the apartment door on your right from the fire exit. Next you’ll breach the center room of the level where the bar is located. There are two doors from the entrance and from my experience almost one of them is always booby trapped. There’s the main entrance to the left and a smaller entrance on the door to the right across the apartment.
Use the mirrorgun to scan for what’s on the other room. Avoid breaching the door if it has a trap on it. Preferably, you’ll be breaching the door on the right since it provides more cover than the main entrance. If you breached from the main entrance, you’ll have to use a flashbang to maximize safety.
There’s usually one or two suspects inside the bar area along with some hostages. Secure the area as quick as possible. Once you’re done doing so, head back out the hallway from where you came.
In “Ides of March” there is only one floor you have to clear but the rooms are separated from each other. After clearing the bar in the center, sweep the circular hallway in whichever direction you pick. Ensure that the hallway is clear first before attempting to breach any of the proceeding rooms.
The real danger is finding the apartment doors open. Suspects inside can shoot you or run straight outside into the hall. Here’s where wedges become useful. Carefully close open doors and wedge them. You can open them up later for when you decide to breach. Some of the apartments are connected together so it makes clearing them easier.
Once you’ve ensured that the hallways are clear, move on to the laundry room that’s near the elevators. Check the doors with your mirrorgun for suspects and traps. Then breach inside to ensure that it’s clear. Sometimes suspects can hide from this room.
Now you have to pick which apartment to breach into first. There’s no best room to clear out but you should check with the mirrorgun for traps and suspects before breaching.
Here’s where things get dangerous as the apartments themselves have multiple smaller rooms and bathrooms that suspects can hide from. There are also multiple hostages including the high profile ones inside those apartments. The music director himself is usually found inside the bathroom of the apartment with a large piano.
To counter the threats waiting for you inside, you should always breach with the flashbangs you brought. The SWAT unit with a shield should breach first to direct the fire to him.
Note: On Commander Mode, the AI with the tactical shield will always breach first.
The sniper rifles you need to find are in apartment 1201 and 1204. They’re always overlooking the windows and you can report them by going near and pressing Z. Once all the primary objectives are complete, you’re done with the “Ides in March” mission.