Getting stuck on some missions? Here's some help!

[larry_walsh]

Devs, can you please pin this discussion? I think it'll be useful and a good ongoing dialogue.

For starters, I don't want to hand out solutions for any of the maps. One of the pleasures in this game is to face the challenges of the missions, and the feeling of victory you get when you beat a mission is a great personal reward - if I show you how to do that, I'm robbing you of the satisfaction of solving it yourself. But I can give some pointers on how to nudge things along. With all that said, I'll post my playlist of solutions for the missions at the end of this post, but I urge you not to check that out except if you're absolutely, hopelessly stuck.

Tip 1: Your shortest path to victory will usually involve taking the shortest path.
Knock holes in walls, build bridges or put objects to use as bridges where you can, and do what you can to simplify your path for when that alarm goes off. Use straight lines as much as possible, and the fewest lines you can, including minimising the number of stops you make, if possible. This will lead to you taking the least time in getting from objective to objective efficiently.

Tip 2: Take advantage of the map and what's on it.
Some missions such as "Tool Up" have a couple of objectives that you can move, so instead of plotting a course that will take you over to where those are, instead move them to where you're going anyway. For example, if you absolutely have to go to target A and target B, and can move target C, then the most efficient thing to do there is to move C somewhere along your path from A to B, or even better, right next to A or B since you're already stopping at those two points anyway. In "Classic Cars", the jeep can't be removed from its crate... BUT, the crate can be removed from the ship... the crane can lift or drag it off. Hmm, what can you do with this...?

Tip 3: Unfairly exploit the map and what's on it.
There's at least one map that has you go around and blow up eight targets. There's no rule saying you have to keep those particular targets where they are. If the game rules allow you to cut some brackets and "sort of cheat" the mission by moving stuff where it's not supposed to go, then do so! A lot of missions involve a thing attached to a wall, and connected to an alarm. Experiment with this - quicksave and see what you can do to it. Try shooting the alarm off the wall, or the target itself off; if the target is on the second floor, would it save you some time if you didn't have to go to the second floor? A lot of those targets can dangle by their alarm cable, so you could theoretically shoot the target off the wall, knock a hole in the floor, and let it dangle down through there. This game is all about inventiveness and clever solutions, so think outside the box. Then blow the box up for fun.

Tip 4: Lift with your knees, not with your back.
Sometimes you have to move really heavy stuff. Sometimes this works ok, sometimes it doesn't. If you have to move a really heavy thing like a safe, the trick is to change how you're grabbing it. If the spot you click on to lift, move, or drag it isn't working for you, try some other spots. grabbing either the top or bottom trailing edge will usually let you start rolling the safe; another strategy is to "walk" it - grab one end, move it forward, grab the other end, move that forward, wash, rinse, repeat.

Tip 5: Use cars to speed up your run. Or don't.
Cars are faster than you are. If you have a long distance to go between two planned stops on your path, consider using a vehicle, but also be aware that that might not even be faster than you running. The time it takes to get in the vehicle and start accelerating, and timing your exit to the vehicle could all possibly add up to more time it would take than you just running to the next target. Consider modifying the path by taking out some walls, or making a smoother path for the vehicles to run on. Experiment and see what is faster for you in any given mission. Also, all the different vehicles in the game have different accelerations and top speeds, so if one's not working out for you, swap it out for a different vehicle and see if that works better.

Tip 6: Improvise.
In mission 12, "A Wet Affair" (I can't believe than's not the name of a sleazy dating website)you have to move some safes around but protect them from the rain. I love this mission because there are SOOOOO many different ways to beat it! Build an umbrella with your planks! Use a truck, or make one! Use tables or other furniture to cover the safes! Dump them in the ocean, or a swimming pool, water is water! I've even seen people blast a section of roof out of a building to use as a mobile cover for transporting the safes. On any mission, look around for conventional or unconventional solutions to get the job done.

Tip 7: Think outside the box, blow it up, then incinerate it for good measure.
"Power Outage" is another excellent example of a mission that has many different solutions, and has the delightful plus that you don't have to go get stuff, just make stuff go boom. In some cases the targets are on the far side of buildings, so you might have to run around the building, shoot the target, then move on.... but what if there were a big hole in the building instead? So instead of running around the building, you just shoot through the building..... or what if you didn't even bother with that? What if you just blasted the building instead? Again, back to Tip 1, make your path in straight lines, and as few of them as possible. In my solution to this mission, I got my first three targets all from my starting position, the next three from my second position, and so on. Modify the map as much as you'd like to clear the simplest, straightest, fastest path you can.

As promised, here's my solution videos - but again, please don't check these either until you've finished the mission yourself, or you're stuck!
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFuz5i2PL6FpXR_DaoC56Pp8BN4Y7ppYH
Note that I have videos on 20 of the 21 missions, but I not one for Fine Arts because I don't yet have a particularly good solution - or at least not one worth recording a video of.

[larry_walsh]

Tips on The Hunted challenges:

Tip 1: Don't get shot
Use cover to your advantage whenever possible. If there's a short way to get to your next objective by running out in the open, or a longer way that has more cover, take the longer way. That chopper could literally be up there forever but if you never give it an opportunity to shoot you, it's harmless. There's no timer, so don't rush things. Unless the chopper's actually shooting at you, then, yeah, you sorta have to rush at that point. When I'm actually under fire I find that zigzagging and/or jumping around can be slightly helpful in making me harder to hit.

Tip 2: Own the map
I find it really helpful to carve out a network of pathways in the buildings on the map, so that I have the best access to cover to all the target areas - or, at least, all the areas where it's easy to make such a path. On Lee Chemicals, there's so many buildings close together than you can turn the whole place into a warren of excellent cover. This works absolutely great up until a chest spawns at the power plant or on the dam, so you need to have alternate strategies to deal with all those cases where you have to go a long way out of cover. Learn where chests spawn on higher floors and consider blasting holes in those floors so that the chests always drop to ground level.

Tip 3: Not all cover is created equally
The chopper appears to have an easier time detecting you through wood or thinner materials - it's likely using something like an infrared scanner for the detection mechanic, so if you only have one thin wood wall between you and the chopper, consider yourself 'visible'. Concrete and metal structures do a lot more to make you harder to pinpoint. The number of layers of material is also relevant - being under one thin roof is pretty much no protection, but being on the ground floor of a 2 or 3 storey wood building can hide you just as effectively as a layer of concrete. Also, don't underestimate trees and water.

Tip 4: Know how to manage and manipulate the chopper
The chopper always knows where you are, but only approximately. It won't fire until it gets you pinpointed. So watch it during your challenge runs and observe its behaviour. When you're well hidden in cover, it will circle your location, and there's key times during that circling that will let you leave that spot safely. Manage its flightpath as well - if you're in spot A, and the next chest is in spot B, not far away but in poor cover, consider instead running directly away from the next target to draw the chopper off in the wrong direction, and come back only when you're pretty sure it's more or less lost you (it never, ever entirely loses you). The chopper can also be pretty easily distracted, so throw a few pipe bombs off in the wrong direction and that'll buy you a short amount of time before it homes back in on you. Also be aware that distraction won't work at all if the chopper knows exactly where you are.

Tip 5: Plan for a long session
Think of every structure on the map as potential assets in terms of cover. The chopper pilot doesn't care about the damage he causes, but as time goes on, it makes things worse for you. Try to avoid letting the buildings take damage for you, since that strategy won't last long. A destroyed building is pretty poor cover. On the Lee Chemicals map, I shoot down either the pipe or the duct to make a bridge across the canal, but I try to avoid running across there when it looks like the chopper might sight me and fire - not to protect me, but to protect my bridge. One or two shots and that thing's toast, which leaves me having to find an alternate solution.

Tip 6: Vehicles are bad, mmkay?
95% of the time you try to drive a vehicle, you'll die. With that said, sometimes you've just gotta. Villa Gordon comes to mind - most of the map isn't bad, but as soon as a chest pops up down at the beach house in the southwest of the map, that's trouble. That is a long, long, long, long way to run on foot with no cover. So go ahead and use a vehicle when you feel you have to, just know that it provides virtually no protection and is in fact a much easier target for the chopper to nail.

[larry_walsh]

https://youtu.be/xvgZBl2enpE

This one's loooong..... I'm only posting it here to show how some of these survival techniques can help even in really awkward situations. Yes, I did indeed let a tree take a couple of missile shots for me. The tree didn't live, but I did so that's ok.
https://youtu.be/cB_z3yPL3aU

[larry_walsh]

Anything I've missed?

[Controversial Man]

Just download slow alarms and jetpack

[larry_walsh]

Meh. It cheapens the achievement of completing it if you just take all the challenge away.

Imagine you're playing chess but you arrange it so that your opponent has only their king and no other pieces. You'll easily beat him, obviously.... and then ask yourself why did you even bother?

I do use a few mods like the jetpack and vehicle booster, but NEVER during missions.

[Lazybones]

Smaller / lite items can dangle by the alarm cords, you can drop them through walls or floors to grab on your way past.

You can walk on a surprising number of floating objects in water

The gun is accurate at long distances, but doesn't do much damage, it however can be used to explode the narrow tanks at long range

[Controversial Man]

ok

[larry_walsh]

Good points!

[Supersquid]

Is it just me or does cover make no difference? I just ask because I've been under wooden roofs and it hasn't attacked me.

[Supersquid]

A bit late, but the chopper has a few audio queues, which are somewhat useful. E.G, when the it's about to shoot you, it'll make a certain beeping sound, and when it's heard something, I.E, an explosive, a gunshot, anything that makes a lot of noise, it'll let out a different beep.

[Supersquid]

Oh, chucklenuts. You're a lazy sod aren't ya?😅

Originally posted by chucklenuts:

Just download slow alarms and jetpack

[larry_walsh]

I feel that using mods during missions ruins the game, in my experience

[Supersquid]

Yeah, i agree, but i kinda take back what i said - some people might wanna use sandbox, or download mods, etc.😅 It's really down to taste, but, to be fair, if you didn't like that sort of thing they shouldn't have downloaded it.

[themommies042610]

EZir way, try the Disable alarms mod

[Supersquid]

Omfg, THAT'S CHEATING.

Originally posted by themommies042610:

EZir way, try the Disable alarms mod

Why even play the mission if you're mot gonna put any effort in, and have a 100% chance of winning? What's even the point?
There's literally an option in game to make the alarms longer, if you want it to be easier, use that! If you don't want to do the missions at all, THEN DON'T DOWNLOAD THE GAME.