The 'Cartel' Mission

[Leon]

Normally I don't post discussions but this is well deserved. I'm woefully stuck on the Cartel mission after a 2nd retry from 'the start'. I tried restarting from a few saves, but the amount of failure points (i.e 3-4 hero squads that can't die, constantly attacked and on a timer), makes it very difficult and tedious.

I'm not quite sure who stress tested this mission in specific, but they did a very poor job. The mission's design is not that bad, but the amount of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ RNG ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that happens is annoying and the weak forces you get are also annoying.

I'll re-try this again tomorrow, but I sincerely hope Devs take note and make some changes to this mission. It's really, really bad.

[DumpsterDefender]

It doesnt help that the writing and the design seems to have been done by a 4 year old. "welcome to the arena" in a robot apocalypse. The robots made a deal with the cartel? wtf?

[GeneralGonzo]

Even then you got access to your army and need to fight your way through half of the map - again a 2 front war! All the time pressing pause because there´s too much going on....

[shadowcontrol]

Tears of weakness. Yes, the mission is not easy. I play on Hard difficulty myself. Remember how I passed it:
First, we go to the arena and bet that we will win in 15 seconds. The sergeant's squad carries an RPG, and it takes out the spider for a hit. All you have to do is catch a successful shot, it will take a couple of tries.

Then we go and buy a shotgun. We go to the hotel where the Furies mercenaries are sitting. We go to the arena, and in the dialogue we invite them to watch battle. After this, the sergeant goes to a duel, and with plasma shotguns he will win either without losses or by losing 1, and this is not a problem.

Then we fight again in the arena, betting everything for 15 seconds, this gives us pesos to buy both rifles and a plasma thrower. You need to buy them at the same time, because after the final arena the missing weapons will be bought without us.

Next is the trick with soldering, it's easy. But there may be problems with the Skull, this is that duel near the bar. I managed to get through by turning off the plasma thrower.
Losses will be reimbursed at the merchant for 300 pesos, and once you will most likely need a replenishment. After the duel, go to a cheap bar and order a drink, and snipers will help you in the fight with the lustful priest.

And now you are already in the Cartel. I walked through the Resistance line - I went to the upper left corner, where they keep prisoners. Their guards MUST be shot when there is the sound of gunfire, the sergeant tells you about this.

Well, then...then the shooting range and fun. We DO NOT load the virus and DO NOT turn on the robots until we move all the empty vehicles closer to our base. The level is full of supply trucks. so C4 can be placed under anything and everything. Next, we make sure to save and go to infect the robots in the city center. After the dialogue, we will have 15-20 seconds until the battle begins. At this time, we are going to our future base, and while the enemy is standing still, we are pressing through the C4 explosion. This is all.
If done correctly, the level of attacks drops significantly.

There are also disadvantages - integrators will attack us, we won’t have techno-tank. But if you have won all the duels, then your fresh army will be more than worthy of fighting the remnants of the Cartel. After these machinations, 2 difficulties remain - storming the palace on the hill, since the ATGM may not hit, and liberating the prison, since the cartel tank is protected by smoke from missiles. That's all for sure now, good luck in the Resistance!

[Narwhals"oh mein gott Anhalte!]

the fact that there is a cartel mission speaks volumes lol..and why would they deal with the machines..no way the machines would make a deal, i dont see it. horrible writing imo

[smokedyalol]

Originally posted by shadowcontrol:

Tears of weakness. Yes, the mission is not easy. I play on Hard difficulty myself. Remember how I passed it:
First, we go to the arena and bet that we will win in 15 seconds. The sergeant's squad carries an RPG, and it takes out the spider for a hit. All you have to do is catch a successful shot, it will take a couple of tries.

Then we go and buy a shotgun. We go to the hotel where the Furies mercenaries are sitting. We go to the arena, and in the dialogue we invite them to watch battle. After this, the sergeant goes to a duel, and with plasma shotguns he will win either without losses or by losing 1, and this is not a problem.

Then we fight again in the arena, betting everything for 15 seconds, this gives us pesos to buy both rifles and a plasma thrower. You need to buy them at the same time, because after the final arena the missing weapons will be bought without us.

Next is the trick with soldering, it's easy. But there may be problems with the Skull, this is that duel near the bar. I managed to get through by turning off the plasma thrower.
Losses will be reimbursed at the merchant for 300 pesos, and once you will most likely need a replenishment. After the duel, go to a cheap bar and order a drink, and snipers will help you in the fight with the lustful priest.

And now you are already in the Cartel. I walked through the Resistance line - I went to the upper left corner, where they keep prisoners. Their guards MUST be shot when there is the sound of gunfire, the sergeant tells you about this.

Well, then...then the shooting range and fun. We DO NOT load the virus and DO NOT turn on the robots until we move all the empty vehicles closer to our base. The level is full of supply trucks. so C4 can be placed under anything and everything. Next, we make sure to save and go to infect the robots in the city center. After the dialogue, we will have 15-20 seconds until the battle begins. At this time, we are going to our future base, and while the enemy is standing still, we are pressing through the C4 explosion. This is all.
If done correctly, the level of attacks drops significantly.

There are also disadvantages - integrators will attack us, we won’t have techno-tank. But if you have won all the duels, then your fresh army will be more than worthy of fighting the remnants of the Cartel. After these machinations, 2 difficulties remain - storming the palace on the hill, since the ATGM may not hit, and liberating the prison, since the cartel tank is protected by smoke from missiles. That's all for sure now, good luck in the Resistance!

i followed you advice after painfully completing the mission 2 time prior just wanted to add that the disadvantage about the prison and interrogator can be changed to get a good run.1st when you are planting c4 for me i use 1 and a half ammo trucks you can place c4 at the vehicles at the prison along with the guards and the towers (i stood in the back of the prison and got 10 warning they won't attack you )with this you just have to destroy the wall on the railroad closest to the prison and send a sniper in stealth to capture the prison you don't need to hold it just kill everyone and keep the first group alive you should get 100 or 90 manpower easy.2nd you can upload the virus at the arena after you free the captives or after you plant the c4 just keep a eye on it in the fog of war when its halfway infect the legion in the middle when legion starts attacking pause and set off the c4 (don't set of the c4 at the prison until you are ready )you will be able to get a free tank legion can protect you until your reinforcements arrive.if you have anymore advice on future missions pls share so i can try them and add a twist to it because i lost a lot of troops 2 times prior.

[Warnoise]

Originally posted by Narwhals*Underwater Unicorn*:

the fact that there is a cartel mission speaks volumes lol..and why would they deal with the machines..no way the machines would make a deal, i dont see it. horrible writing imo

The machine were using the cartel. If you read the dialogue you would have known the that

[Alloon]

i cant win duel with the furies ive got shotguns for 400 beat spiders on the arena and im always losing 4 to 2 and need to reaload any thoughts?

[Emperor Fooble]

Originally posted by Alloon:

i cant win duel with the furies ive got shotguns for 400 beat spiders on the arena and im always losing 4 to 2 and need to reaload any thoughts?

That shouldn't be an issue? As long as you use smokes and breach the brothel with both squads, it doesn't matter you are down a couple of men.

You also earn enough pesos that you have about 1000 spare even after buying the tank so you can afford to purchase reinforcements from the prison for 300.

And after you get accepted into the cartel, you get free prison reinforcements.

[Alloon]

but the duel takes place without my control on anything and only my 1 squad take place not both like on arena

[Emperor Fooble]

Yes, the duels suck. Yes, there isn't any real option other than reloading to get through them. Truly awful.
But losing a couple of members really doesn't matter due to the reasons I wrote above.

Also you don't even have to do the duels if you don't want? You don't even have to do the arena fights if you do not want to.

[Alloon]

I know but that type of gamer i am, and when im lose the dual its officially LOSS with load button and main menu

[Emperor Fooble]

I don't know what you want me to say. I've listed all the options and solutions, and agreed that the duel system is god awful because the player has almost zero agency.

[Celinna]

too hard this mission even on normal and the "open beta patch"
i needed all the troops to get up the hill, no one could defend Luiz...

[Mr.Kill]

Another neat exploit along with the C4 one. You can trigger the hack on the robots in the plaza and then quickly drive the objective truck into the rebel HQ. This will trigger the bot rampage but you won't get blamed for it. You can then choose to fight the manor guards which will make everyone on the map hostile but not active meaning you can detonate the C4 with no problems thus helping the robots in the plaza (if you give the controller over the robot rampage dialogue will occur and enemies will eventually turn hostile AND the rebels won't spawn to help you defend their leader). Depending on how much C4 you planted and detonated (you can put the guerillas in any truck and they will refill their C4 for 100 supply each provided they aren't the driver) the robot rampage will be able to kill every single remaining cartel dude for you. All that's left is to fight you way to the mansion (without timer and you have a cartel tank waiting to be crewed by mason or rocket squad) and send Luiz home. Bring in a plasma Bradley or your best light vehicle and mop up. It was easy doing this but it felt stupid for sure.

[Cenotaph]

ill be waiting till this game gets its gameplay balancing patches, which it's pretty clear this hasn't received much play testing