Story walkthrough & mission order
The campaign has nine district chapters, each in three steps: take down both rackets, take out the district's lieutenant, then hold a sitdown and assign the district to one underboss. Do the optional agenda and trafficking missions when they appear — they raise your earn and unlock perks you will want later.
The main story is nine district chapters wrapped around a personal war. Each district runs the same three-beat structure — cripple both rackets, remove the lieutenant, assign the turf at a sitdown — while the Marcano family slowly runs out of relatives to send at you. This page is the mission order and the shape of the campaign, act by act.
How the campaign is built
Your opening act — "Thicker Than Blood" and the Delray Hollow chain — teaches the loop in the place Lincoln calls home. From there the city opens up: nine districts, each with a story chapter in two parts (one per racket), a third mission that opens once both rackets fall and exposes the district's lieutenant, and a sitdown at Eaglehurst Plantation where you decide who keeps the neighbourhood.
The final three districts add a complication before the lieutenant is exposed — a key character whose involvement has to be dealt with first — and the campaign closes with the Marcano family itself, followed by the last choice in the game (see endings). Betrayal chapters are inserted if an underboss turns on you, so a clean run and a chaotic run have different mission lists.
The district order, compact
| District | Chapter missions |
|---|---|
| Delray Hollow | Thicker Than Blood, The Way of Flesh, Pray on the Way Up, .45 in My Hand, Who We Shootin'? |
| Pointe Verdun | The Blade Stained Red, Brave New World, I.R.A. Don't Ask, Look in the Mirror, We Clear? |
| River Row | Work the Man Who Bleeds, Fish Gotta Eat, I Need a Favor, I Deserved Better, A Good Little Soldier |
| Barclay Mills | The Dead Stay Gone, A Little Late for That |
| Tickfaw Harbor | Hot Rubber & Cold Blood, The Connection to Cuba |
| Downtown | Compromised Corruption, Everyone Will Notice |
| French Ward | Evil That Men Do, The Poor Sumbitch, Real Nice Time, How Things Really Work, Watched Him Die |
| Frisco Fields | The Privileged Die Slow, There's a War Goin' On, Certainly Was Exciting |
| Southdowns | The Fists & the Flames, Jesuit in New Mexico, Burn Like Napalm |
The campaign chapters are stitched together by Bayou Fantom sitdowns ("Sit Down"), the New Bordeaux hub missions and the ending run at Eaglehurst Plantation. Missions marked as optional chapters — agenda missions from each underboss, conversation scenes, and trafficking runs — are covered on the underbosses and rackets pages.
Who you will actually be hunting
Each district answers to a lieutenant, and several are Marcano family: Lou Marcano holds the French Ward, his niece Olivia runs Frisco Fields, and Tommy Marcano controls Southdowns — with the Flambé achievement politely tracking every time you let their men kill themselves with their own Molotovs. Elsewhere the family delegates: Enzo Conti answers for Barclay Mills, Tony Derazio for Downtown, Frank Pagani for Tickfaw Harbor, and Ritchie Doucet runs Delray Hollow for Giorgi. When a lieutenant dies, the survivors react — Sal starts scrambling, and the last third of the game is him running out of people to send.
Optional chapters: what is worth your evening
Agenda missions come from Cassandra, Burke and Vito and advance only when you give them districts — each underboss needs three districts for their full agenda run, which is the strongest argument for a 3/3/3 split. Trafficking missions ("Are We Cool", "The Righteously Fucked", "Seems Simple Enough") raise racket earn and unlock the best favors. Conversation chapters expire if you ignore them past certain story beats, so knock them out when they appear if you care about the character work — and if you are chasing 100%, the achievements page flags the three underboss missions sets that gate their own trophies.
Before the finale
When the Marcano arc closes, the game stops to ask what Lincoln does with the city. District ownership, keeper counts and betrayed underbosses all feed that scene, which is why the endings guide belongs on the second monitor for the last two hours. Finish your underboss agenda missions and bank your money first — the epilogue does not care about either, but everything before it plays better with the perks and the cash.
