How did you learn the game?

[a.warringa1]

Since I bought JA3 I started a new game several times, each time giving up again because SO many things are unclear, after playing for an hour I get maybe 10 quite worthless 'tips', I just have no clue how to play it.

Just had a battle on the starter island near some houses, I'm getting slaughtered. Most shots miss, some guns seem to have a range of only 5 steps away from the enemy, I just have no clue what to do.

I checked youtube but haven't found a good guide so far that simply covers the basics of this game. It's mostly '10 essential tips' guides.

What's the difference between crawling without and with Stealth mode for example? How can I know the range of my guns without having to step closer and closer to an enemy until I'm in range? How does healing work, I heal someone and he still has a red cross behind his name. Is he still wounded? How can I fully heal him? Can I heal infinite times or not?

These are only a handfull of the many questions I have. Maybe the biggest question of all is - why is there no tutorial or help guide in JA3 so I can figure everything out on my own?

[gerald2]

take covers try sneak closer to enemy use precise aiming ,hire at least one merc wchich have rifle for longer ranges ie kalyna if you wont hire veterans ,use overwatch ,entering combat and each turn is autosaved try to experiment,or try easier difficulty setting ,some mods helps ie pinned down wchich brings old JA2 suppressing fire mechanics.
Starting island is kind of tutorial...
By first aid u can cancel bleeding effect and restore some health,to restore full health u need use heal wounds operation from sattelite view menu.
Ur medpacks will loose some % when u heal ur mercs gather herbs and loot medical supplies and use em on medpacks to fill em up .
Scouting sectoirs operation from sattelite view sometimes bring some medical supplies also .
I would advice also mod wchich make mines not depleting in time it will allow you to take ur time to learn when u conquesr first mine,not forcing u into harder stuff too quick.
Yep i agree there should be boot camp or so wchich will teach u very basics if u never played JA,hopefully devs implement such thing.

[dkfqwmdu]

I bought it on release day and struggled with the controls and UI initially. I was also looking for a manual, but unfortunately there isn't one. So I started on the easiest difficulty and played like that until I had figured it out by myself.

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

What's the difference between crawling without and with Stealth mode for example?

Stealth mode gives you a chance to get stealth kills with any attack that penetrates the enemy's armor. This chance depends on the type of enemy, your merc's dexterity, and whether you have perks that further increase it. There is also a perk that causes all stealth attacks to deal 20% more damage.

The downside of being in stealth mode is higher AP costs for movement. However, re-engaging stealth mode costs 2 AP and you can't do it if an enemy has already seen you during the same turn.

How can I know the range of my guns without having to step closer and closer to an enemy until I'm in range?

You can look up the weapon's range in tiles by hovering over the weapon in your inventory. There is also a fan-made spreadsheet to give you a general idea, but these figures can change depending on weapon mods and special ammo types. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14JcHKZscRWZ5onz2O_4hWE-K-_tHFPYtig4ppovH2n0/edit#gid=0

How does healing work, I heal someone and he still has a red cross behind his name. Is he still wounded? How can I fully heal him? Can I heal infinite times or not?

The red cross means that the merc has a wound, each of which reduces their maximum hitpoints by 10. Mercs can have several wounds which is expressed by a number next to the red cross. Wounds slowly heal on their own over a time of days to weeks (possibly less in forgiving mode), but you generally want to treat them via operations on the satellite map. This requires a merc with at least 30 medical skill and only works outside of combat. It also consumes 5 meds per wound. Completing the Rest & Recreation operation (only available in town sectors) also heals one wound.

[SirHawk]

Literally play and interact with game and mechanics, they're trivial to learn and understand.

[a.warringa1]

Cheers for explaining those points, very helpfull. But I feel I'm missing a ton of info about the mechanics resulting in getting slaughtered at that Ernie village. I just tried again, put a guy in front of a door opening in Overwatch mode.

I expected he would shoot the enemy once the enemy entered the door. Just like in XCom. But what happened wasn't (again) clear to me. Enemy entered the room, I did not get a change to hit him despite him walking into my overwatch mode. That enemy then killed one of my members.

I then tried to hit him with my 3 remaining members but somehow none of them had any points left to do something, despite it being my turn.

Again I left with a frustrated Alt-F4.

I bought JA3 as soon as it became available and gave up after an hour or so, realizing it had no tutorial (Even with the F1 help function I only get something like 15 small tips). I was hoping some Youtubers would make some good tutorials so I left the game alone for a while, but haven't found one yet which simply covers all the basics.

[a.warringa1]

Originally posted by dkfqwmdu:

I bought it on release day and struggled with the controls and UI initially. I was also looking for a manual, but unfortunately there isn't one. So I started on the easiest difficulty and played like that until I had figured it out by myself.

Also very helpfull info, thanks a lot. Playing it on easy mode is actually a very good idea, I'll restart doing that :)

[gerald2]

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

Cheers for explaining those points, very helpfull. But I feel I'm missing a ton of info about the mechanics resulting in getting slaughtered at that Ernie village. I just tried again, put a guy in front of a door opening in Overwatch mode.

I expected he would shoot the enemy once the enemy entered the door. Just like in XCom. But what happened wasn't (again) clear to me. Enemy entered the room, I did not get a change to hit him despite him walking into my overwatch mode. That enemy then killed one of my members.

I then tried to hit him with my 3 remaining members but somehow none of them had any points left to do something, despite it being my turn.

Again I left with a frustrated Alt-F4.

I bought JA3 as soon as it became available and gave up after an hour or so, realizing it had no tutorial (Even with the F1 help function I only get something like 15 small tips). I was hoping some Youtubers would make some good tutorials so I left the game alone for a while, but haven't found one yet which simply covers all the basics.

if u post mercs in overwatch just in doors he have very little time to react on enemy wchich will enter overwatch cone ie running along wall ,and he can eliminate u easily in melee,long guns often miss at point blanc from my experience.
try position merc farther from doorway to give him chance to react or make crosswatch field using 2 mercs overwatching from diff angles.
Definitely start from easy and forgiving option if its ur first JA play.
Those 2 mods i mentioned helps alot in learning ,overall check workshop u surely find things making learning alot easier for you.
There are perks wchich allow to break overwatch w/o reaction though i doubt enemies at starting island have em so it was probably as i said too little time to react .

[Sharkakee]

many of the features inherited from JA2, many of us been playing that version for the past 20 yrs. Crawling reduces your chance of being hits, also prone increases your accuracy. but enemy can still hear you. Where as stealth reduces chance being detected by enemy. Start with the lowest difficulty to get use to the mechanic such as Interrupts (over watch. Baiting enemy into your overwatch cones. Grit is amazing as it provides free temporary health. ( health perks) . It is possible Overwatch cone didn’t cover the entire door or your are out of ammo. Overwatch also has a maximum number of hits as well.

[Zeel Ara]

The same way I learn everything else.

1: Gather all the information available.
2: Make an actual effort to put it together
3: Test it out
4: If it doesn't work as expected, go back to 2
5: If it still doesn't work after repeating that cycle a couple of times, go back to 1

I have yet to find anything that can not be learned that way.

[uncle nick]

During your turn, the Merc that you used to overwatch must have some action points leftover to take a shot. If not, when enemy enters the cone, that Merc will have no available action points to shoot.

Since all your Mercs have no action points, this means the interrupt occured within the enemy's turn to move. You will have to wait for all the enemy to complete their movements.

[DzikiDzwon]

Definitely play on First Blood difficulty, maybe also pick forgiving mode to give yourself an easier time. On starting island, the second sector you visit has at least one Gewehr rifle. Give it to your best marksman and modify it with silencer and perhaps improved sights - that's the first OP weapon you can get. When in stealth mode you have a chance to one shot any enemy and a good marksman with a rifle has a very high chance to hit headshots anyway. If you kill an enemy who isn't in a group with a silenced weapon, other enemies don't become alert and combat mode ends immediately. Usually you can kill a couple of enemies this way before you start proper combat.

[DzikiDzwon]

...and after you get bored with stealth sniping, you can try out different builds. There's a lot that can work very well, machine guns + overwatch, pure melee, explosives + shotgun, etc

[a.warringa1]

Thanks for the help all, appreciated!

[gerald2]

Originally posted by uncle nick:

During your turn, the Merc that you used to overwatch must have some action points leftover to take a shot. If not, when enemy enters the cone, that Merc will have no available action points to shoot.

Since all your Mercs have no action points, this means the interrupt occured within the enemy's turn to move. You will have to wait for all the enemy to complete their movements.

it will not allow him to use overwatch if he have too little point to shoot once,so i think in this case cone not fully covered door and enemy ran up to him ,otherwise merc should shot at least once.
or he have ap just for one shot and got suppressed so loosed enough ap for overwatch ,though i doubt it could happen on starter island,especially w/o suppressing mod cause vanilla suppressing works very weak.

[BitSizedGamer]

Consider checking out my start guide: https://youtu.be/JfXwDxm-UN0?si=nk9CNfBQYVBEfTP0

[Engioc]

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

Just had a battle on the starter island near some houses, I'm getting slaughtered. Most shots miss, some guns seem to have a range of only 5 steps away from the enemy, I just have no clue what to do.

It sounds like you're running to the enemy instead of letting them come to you. Also, if you are getting your mercs wounded, well it can't be completely avoided in some cases, but in these early battles as long as you use your AP wisely and use cover, you shouldn't take much damage at all.

Try to end your turn behind some cover, and with 1 AP left to crouch or prone (if you are fully standing it will take 2 AP to get down to prone).

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

What's the difference between crawling without and with Stealth mode for example?

Seems you are overcomplicating it. Stealth simply means your mercs move slower and are less likely to be seen. If you simply enter crouch or prone, that doesn't count as stealth. So before combat starts select all mercs, and enter stealth. They will all auto-crouch, don't stand up or you will no longer be in stealth, you need to stay crouched or prone.

Being in stealth means you can get much closer to enemy units without being spotted, you know when you're being detected because a red bar will start to fill up on your merc portrait, and on their circle. To avoid detection move away from the enemy before the bar completely fills. Try experimenting with one merc, select them, make sure they're in stealth mode, and then try moving toward and away from enemy units and take note of the red detection bar. Stealth is obviously more powerful at night, or in rain, fog, dust, etc.

If you want to try and attack Ernie Village at night, go out to Satellite view, you will see the current date/time, plus you will notice a symbol, a sun for daytime, and a moon for night. If you want to do a night attack, hit play till it shows a moon.

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

How can I know the range of my guns without having to step closer and closer to an enemy until I'm in range?

You can get an idea of the range by selecting the overwatch button, but don't actually set overwatch. So just click the overwatch button and look at the overlay it shows you, right click or hit Esc to cancel overwatch.

Being in stealth mode allows you to get closer than you would in just normal standing, crouched, or prone. Don't get too bogged down in the, why is stealth crouched/prone different to normal crouched/prone, it just is, and it makes a different to how easily your mercs get spotted. Also, night attack will allow you to get much closer, but don't fall into the trap of feeling like you have to run to your enemy.

You can forget stealth altogether if you want. You still want to get your mercs into a good position for the attack, but then just take a shot at an enemy and let them raise the alarm. They'll then come running towards you, just keep calm and stay in cover.

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

How does healing work, I heal someone and he still has a red cross behind his name. Is he still wounded? How can I fully heal him? Can I heal infinite times or not?

I rarely heal during combat unless someone is close to dying on me, but best to avoid that anyway. The only way to fully heal your mercs is in Sat View, under Operations, Treat Wounds. Treating wounds will fix any issues with your mercs provided you have the necessary meds. If you are low on meds make sure you fully explore the map, you pick meds from plants around each map sector.


As for a tutorial, well maybe it's just me, but I didn't ever feel like I needed one. This is the first JA game I've played but the UI was easy enough to navigate, just click stuff and find out what it does.

In terms of strategy/tactics, it seems like common sense, real-world concepts. Don't run around out in the open, stay low and in cover, you want the element of surprise so use stealth and stay out of sight till you are ready for combat. You want to decide when combat starts, not let your enemy decide.