Max Payne 3 walkthrough: all chapters, golden guns, clues and trophies
Fourteen chapters, 28 golden guns split into 84 parts, 65 clues and one airport to finish on. Here is Max Payne 3 chapter by chapter, with what to collect in each and the achievements that go with them.
Chapters
Fourteen chapters, in order
I. A private party and a kidnapping attempt on the Brancos (3 / 2): “Something Rotten in the Air.” II. A São Paulo nightclub (6 / 6): “Nothing but the Second Best.” III. An ambush at a football stadium (6 / 4): “Just Another Day at the Office.” IV. A bar, Max’s apartment with his NYPD badge, the rooftops and a chop shop (9 / 3): “Anyone Can Buy Me a Drink.” V. Hangars, docks and a shootout from a speeding boat (6 / 6): “Alive If Not Exactly Well.”
VI. An office building that goes up in flames (3 / 5): “A Dame, a Dork and a Drunk.” VII. The favela (6 / 9): “A Hangover Sent Direct from Mother Nature.” VIII. A graveyard and a chapel, in flashback (6 / 3): “Ain’t No Reprievement Gonna Be Found Otherwise.” IX. The favela again, during a police raid (6 / 3): “Here I Was Again, Halfway Down the World.” X. A bus station and a bus ride (6 / 2): “It’s Drive or Shoot, Sister.”
XI. A yacht on the Panama Canal, in flashback (6 / 8): “Suntan Oil, Stale Margaritas and Greed.” XII. A hotel Max brings down with C4 (6 / 6): “The Great American Savior of the Poor.” XIII. A prison and a police station (9 / 7): “A Fat Bald Dude with a Bad Temper.” XIV. The airport (6 / 1): “One Card Left to Play.”
Length
About ten hours
As of September 2026, HowLongToBeat puts the story at about 10 hours and everything at about 33. In 2012 the IGN and HeyUGuys reviews both said 10 to 12, and HeyUGuys tied the spread to the difficulty you pick. IGN’s chapter videos, cutscenes included, run from about 18 minutes for the first chapter to 43 for the seventh.
Golden guns
84 parts, 28 guns
Every chapter hides one to three golden guns, each in three parts. The parts glow, so they are easy to spot once you know where to leave the main path, and you can replay any chapter from any checkpoint to pick up what you missed. A finished gun turns gold, does 10% more damage and holds more rounds per magazine. Collect all 84 parts for the A License To Kill achievement and, by IGN’s list of Xbox 360 unlocks, an unlimited ammo cheat.
Clues
65 clues, no markers
Clues are things you examine (papers, objects, now and then a body), and no marker on the map shows where they are. Chapter VII has the most, nine. One chain is easy to miss: meet the former cop in the nightclub restroom in chapter II, or he will not turn up again in chapter VII, and you will find him for the last time in XIV. All 65 earn An Echo Of The Past and, on the same IGN list, a constant bullet-time camera.
Chapter XIV
The airport shootout
The last chapter sends Max through terminal 2 of Piratininga Airport with corrupt police on his heels: over luggage conveyors, through the departures lounge to TEARS by HEALTH (the only place the score uses vocals), and out to a chase on the runway that ends the story. That track earned HEALTH a Spike Video Game Awards nomination in 2012, for best song. The chapter’s six parts make the Rotary Grenade Launcher and the RPD.
Achievements
Achievements and trophies
As of September 2026, the Steam edition with all its add-ons lists 67 achievements. Four story ones go by difficulty: Feel the Payne on Medium, Serious Payne on Hard, Payne In The Ass on Hardcore, Maximum Payne on Old School; finishing on Hard unlocks those last two. Among the ones set in a single chapter are That Old Familiar Feeling (IV, every gunman shining a laser through the hallway windows), So Much For Being Subtle (VII, nine kills in free aim while the chain hauls Max up the warehouse) and Sometimes You Get Lucky (XII). A New York Minute asks you to finish the Arcade mode of that name.
More on Max Payne 3
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