Taser

Lore & Background

In the Watch Dogs universe, the Taser occupies a practical niche in the arsenal of urban hackers who operate in hostile city environments. For Aiden Pearce, a former Blackbriar operative turned vigilante moving through Chicago's surveillance-laden streets, the Taser is a tool for situations where a dropped body would draw too much attention or where the target is a civilian caught in the wrong place. It is quick, silent, and leaves the victim dazed on the pavement rather than dead in a pool of blood.

In Watch Dogs 2, Marcus Holloway and the DedSec collective adopt a lighter, more irreverent tone, and the Taser fits naturally into their toolkit. It is the go-to when a mission calls for a guard to be rendered harmless without the paperwork of a homicide, or when a heist requires a security guard to be unconscious but breathing for the duration of the operation. The weapon is unremarkable in design—a compact handheld device with a pronged electrode head—but its electrical discharge is enough to drop a fully armed guard in a single hit.

Mechanically, the Taser is a single-target, single-use-per-encounter tool. It does not chain, does not pierce cover, and does not function at range. Its value is in the silence it affords: no muzzle flash, no loud report, no shell casings to collect. In a city where every gunshot can ping the ctOS or DedSec's local network and summon a full tactical response, that silence is the real weapon.

In Their Own Story

The alley behind the parking garage smelled of wet concrete and diesel. Aiden crouched behind a dumpster, listening to the guard's boots scrape gravel two metres away. No shot. Not here. Not tonight.

He stepped out, the Taser raised, the small electrode prongs catching the amber glow of a sodium streetlight. The guard turned, hand going for his sidearm—

Aiden lunged, pressed the prongs into the guard's shoulder, and squeezed. A blue-white arc snapped across the man's chest. His eyes rolled back. His rifle clattered to the wet asphalt. He folded like a marionette with cut strings, hitting the ground with a soft, unglamorous thud.

Aiden exhaled. Checked the perimeter. No cameras in this stretch. He pocketed the Taser, slung his rifle back over his shoulder, and disappeared into the Chicago fog before the guard's fingers even twitched.

Reader's Guide

WEAPON — Taser

Found / Unlocked: Available as a purchasable or world-acquired non-lethal weapon. In Watch Dogs (2014) it can be obtained at select vendor locations or found in the open world. In Watch Dogs 2 (2016) it is part of the standard weapon rotation available to Marcus.

Mechanical Effect: Delivers a single electrical discharge that stuns one target, dropping them to the ground unconscious for a short duration. The target recovers after a few seconds if not finished off or moved. No area-of-effect, no chain stun, no damage-over-time. The stun does not permanently kill the target.

Stealth Bonus: Produces no loud report and no muzzle flash. Does not trigger the same alarm response as a firearm. Ideal for single-guard encounters where you need the target down without a full tactical response.

Limitations: Very short effective range (a few metres). Single-target only. Cannot be used through cover or at range. The stunned target will wake and become hostile again if left unattended.

Flavor: "For when you need them down, not dead. And for when the alley is too narrow for a rifle."

TIP: Pair the Taser with a Smoke Grenade. Smoke masks the brief window while the target is down, giving you time to move the body, hack a nearby terminal, or slip away before they wake.

Did You Know?

• The Taser is one of the few weapons in the Watch Dogs series that is explicitly non-lethal, making it a key tool for players attempting stealth or no-kill runs.
• In Watch Dogs 2, the Taser fits the game's lighter, more playful tone—DedSec members use it as a quick-and-dirty way to handle guards without the mess of a firearm.
• The Taser's short range and single-target nature make it a deliberate contrast to the series' EMP gadgets, which affect multiple targets but are slower to deploy.
• Because the Taser leaves the target alive and conscious after a short stun, it can be useful in scenarios where a guard needs to be temporarily removed from a position rather than permanently eliminated.