A Minor Crime is a type of event that occurs during Plots. Minor Crimes occur whenever a plot Participant, most commonly a Minor Agent, acquires an Item or a piece of valuable information. The item or info acquired during a Minor Crime is then used in the perpetration of the plot's Primary Crime. You will always receive a Bulletin when a Minor Crime has been perpetrated. Allowing a Minor Crime to occur does not detract from your score.
Who perpetrates Minor Crimes?[]
Minor Crimes are primarily perpetrated by Minor Agents. After being activated, the Minor Agent will usually perpetrate the Minor Crime soon thereafter. This is done to acquire an Item or piece of information required for the perpetration of the plot's Primary Crime.
Paymasters also perpetrate Minor Crimes, though it can sometimes be difficult to describe them as actual crimes since they basically amount to withdrawing money from some a bank account. The resulting "Payoff" item is then delivered to another participant in the plot, as compensation for their efforts.
Inside Contacts will also sometimes commit a Minor Crime, acting in a similar fashion to the Minor Agents (see above). If this is the case, they will only attempt the crime after having sent a message with valuable insider information to another participant, the primary function of all Inside Contacts.
Event Description[]
A Minor Crime is perpetrated by a single enemy agent. That agent commits the crime, and comes to possession of either an Item or a piece of valuable information.
Whatever is acquired from the Minor Crime, it will always need to be passed on to another participant in the plot - namely the Major Agent. The item or info is crucial to the perpetration of the Plot's Primary Crime. Until the item or info is delivered to the Major Agent, he or she cannot perpetrate the Primary Crime. If the item or info cannot be delivered for any reason, the Major Agent's mission will fail, and he or she will attempt to go into hiding if possible.
Intercepting Minor Crimes[]
The CIA and InterPol will always be made aware whenever a Minor Crime is perpetrated. As such, one or the other will generate a Bulletin explaining some details about this crime - most likely its nature, target, and the location where it took place.
The location detailed in the Bulletin is, in fact, the location of the Agent who perpetrated the crime. This if very helpful if you do not yet have the location of that particular Agent, though it will not be automatically added to the agent's Suspect File.
Stopping Minor Crimes[]
The only way to stop a Minor Crime from occuring, normally, is to arrest the agent who was supposed to carry it out. Other, rarer instances include when the responsible agent has already gone into hiding before getting the chance to perpetrate the crime at all.
Note that, for the most part, there is no reason to prevent a Minor Crime. Its occurence does not detract from your score in any way, and failure to perpetrate this crime may lead to the plot breaking down too early.
Additionally, if the crime generates an Item, this may be used as a means to delay the plot - possibly indefinitely!
Recurring Minor Crime[]
If the Minor Crime results in the perpetrating agent acquiring an Item, it is possible to cause the crime to occur again, potentially indefinitely.
This occurs if the Item generated by this crime is confiscated before the perpetrating agent can go into Hiding or be arrested. The perpetrating agent will then commit the crime again to reacquire the item. This cycle can be repeated indefinitely as long as two conditions are kept:
- The perpetrating agent remains At Large.
- The perpetrating agent does not attempt to deliver the item to another agent who is Arrested or In Hiding.
With this method, it is possible to delay a plot by a considerable amount of time - confiscating the item over and over again so that the other participants - primarily the Major Agent - have to keep waiting for the item to successfully be acquired and delivered forward.
In the meanwhile, Max Remington can hop around the map, gather the intelligence required to dissolve the plot as smoothly as possible.