Five (5) Gear Challenge Tips

[Warc1]

Warning - extremely long post follows.

This post provides tips that allow you to both achieve 5 gears on all challenges and go beyond to improve your leaderboard standings.

Background

I just finished a complete replay of the entire game without mods that included my first replay of every challenge. I 5 geared all of the challenges on my first playthrough to get the achievement, but it was a real bear. The worst (Mountain Marathon) took over three hours. I’ve done several replays since then, using the game mod that gives you full gear upgrades, but this was my first replay without aids.

What surprised me on this last replay was how much easier it was to get 5 gears on everything. The biggest difference was that I had way more gameplay experience. Even though I had not redone a single challenge during that time, the dozens of hours of additional gameplay translated directly into challenge skills. However, I also realized that much of that experience could have been communicated to me rather than learning it on my own.

That's the impetus for this post. I thought it would be worthwhile to share the tips and techniques that can be applied by anyone.

Frenzy Challenges

Two basic tips. First, take advantage of the fact that military vehicles count as destruction even though their point value is negligible. Second, don’t rely on the challenge weapon/vehicle and look around for more versatile equipment to complete the round.

Where you can, take out seven military vehicles in a row as your first destructions. This technique takes the points multiplier up to the max of 8 and gives you the max additional time, independent of the clock. This means your first chaos destructions, and potentially all chaos destructions, gain 8X the points. Plan your subsequent destructions properly, and the overall clock time becomes irrelevant since the multiplier timer continues after the main clock counts down to zero.

To make this technique even easier, find seven military vehicles at the start of the round, park them together, and shoot or lob a grenade (if available) at the fleet as the first destruction. You must note that civilian vehicles do not count - only military. While most frenzy challenges have at least seven such vehicles within the challenge zone, some have less, and at least one has none.

Regarding challenge weapons, you can most often ignore what you are given. All the frenzy challenges are on military bases and the majority have weaponized helicopters sitting around. You are free to jump in these and use them in place of the default weapon. Make sure you look up as well as around because some of the available helos are in the air.

Some of the boat challenges don’t have helos, but you are still allowed to select alternative boats. You should choose the Loochador if you have the Sea DLC, or the Corvette if you don’t. Both can do one shot multi kills over a great range.

Two of the gun frenzies (shotgun, sniper) don't have weapon/vehicle alternatives. You can ease these by weakening the chaos items before your first destruction. You'll have to experiment, but most chaos items take more than one shot for destruction. By determining the number of shots to destroy each type, you can pump that number minus one into each in advance. Once the clock starts, you can take down the individual items with only one shot, greatly increasing the chances of maintaining an 8X multiplier through the entire run.

The only real difficulty I came across was with the tether frenzy. Took me a bit to figure it out, but if you set up properly, you can gain enough points for all five gears within two seconds of the timer starting. For that, you need to have upgraded to six tethers by completing Scrap Yard Scramble Challenges.

Lay out your six tethers before your first destruction exactly as described below:

1. Tether the tops of the two substations together on the roof of the central tower.
   
2. Tether the top of the transformer to the top of the hub of the rotating radar on the roof of the central tower. It must be the hub, and not the moving antenna as that movement can prematurely cause a destruction which starts the clock before you are ready.
   
3. Tether the top of the substation to the top of the adjacent transformer at the base of the central tower.
   
4. Tether the first circuit breaker to the core at the electrical substation.
   
5. Tether the second circuit breaker to the core at the electrical substation.
   
6. Stand at the back of the three transformers in front of the core. Tether the narrow sides of the two outside transformers together. When that tether is pulled, it will collapse the two outside ones into the center, taking all three out.

Note that the electrical gear is only tethered from the top or narrow sides. If you tether substations from any side or transformers from the widest sides, you will only rip off panels and do no damage.

The next step is to set up for the military vehicle destruction technique. There are six such vehicles within the challenge area, one of which is outside of the main gate near the doppler radars. Park them all together and make sure you don't inadvertantly pull your tethers while doing this.

This challenge gives you access to your grenades, so once all the vehicles are parked, toss a couple into the parked vehicles and wait for the destruction multiplier to read 7X. The second you see that, pull your tethers and you're done. All but one of the chaos items attached to your pre-set tethers will earn 8X points and that should be enough to gain 5 gears. If not, go after the three fuel tanks and two transformers within the walls of the base, either with remaining grenades or tethers.

Crash Bomb Challenges

Might as well deal with the biggest issue first - Laguna Blast. Judging by the forums, this is the single most difficult challenge in the game because it is apparently bugged. The bug regards an invisible trigger on the ground that is immediately in front of the target. It prematurely detonates your bomb and ends your run. You can avoid the trigger by getting your vehicle airborne, but even at that, you seldom get enough damage points to 5 gear the challenge. You must land the vehicle within a relatively small area to create sufficient damage.

So here are the three milestones you need to hit to get 5 gears.

1. Perform the run with the shortest possible distance/time.
   
2. Avoid the bomb trigger.
   
3. Stick the landing.

1. Perform the run in the Shortest Possible Time

You need 19,000 points to 5 gear the challenge. If you stick the landing, you generally average around 800 damage points. That means you need at least 18,200 time bonus points and there is only one route that will allow that. It involves staying on the road through town until you encounter the guard tower, go straight off road at the tower, continue off road up a bank and jump down to the beach, follow the beach to a large rock, and then use the large rock to launch your vehicle airborne.

Even following this path, your run needs to be at full throttle, never lifting off the gas and never touching the brakes. Anything less than that and you will not get the necessary 18,200 points. And here's the toughest part - you can't collide with anything. Hit a vehicle or person and you'll lose enough time to fail the challenge. Here's a breakdown on how to max time on the two main sections:

Through Town

Take a racing line through town cutting the apex of all curves to result in the shortest distance.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086469271
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086469318
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086469343
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086469384
Off-road

Depart the road at the tower, keep a straight line to the bank, jump off the bank to the beach and follow the beach to the rock. While on the beach, skirt the water as it will cause your speed to drop. Your time needs to be around 2:26 when you hit the rock or higher (higher times are better) to get the 18,200 time bonus necessary for 5 gears.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086469098
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086468911
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086468953
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086468992
2. Avoid the Bomb Trigger

You need to launch yourself into the air to clear the ground based bomb trigger. You want to hit the left corner of the rock to position yourself for the landing. Jump out as soon as you hit the rock.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086469184
3. Stick the Landing

You want to land in the middle of the four vehicles at the left. If you land in front, in back, or to the sides you will get less than the 800 damage points you need to 5 gear the challenge. Hitting the rock on the corner will put you into a lateral spin which, while not necessary, doesn't hurt your chances.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086469214
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086469243

Knowing all of the above, having memorized the course, and having tons of practice, it still takes me around a half dozen attempts on average to get in a 5 gear run. If you are attempting this for the first time, count on many dozens of runs.

The keys to Laguna Blast are also the keys to all of the remaining crash bomb challenges with the exception that there are no invisible triggers so you don't need to get airborne to 5 gear them. The main success factor is to find the shortest, obstacle-free line to the bombsite to maximize time points. It is worthwhile to start the challenge and then wingsuit or parachute the area of the run to scout for paths that minimize obstacles and distance. You’ll time out the challenge in the process, but gain valuable knowledge for a subsequent run. If you don't want to scout, YouTube is a great resource for discovering shorter paths.

Shooting Gallery Challenges

There are two factors for maximizing points which are speed and accuracy. Speed results in more targets popping up which means more opportunities for points. Accuracy yields more bullseyes, which you need for max points and to trigger multipliers.

The first tip is memorization of the target order, which benefits both speed and accuracy. Once you can anticipate a target's location, you don't have to waste time reactively swinging your weapon onto it. With your weapon now pointed in the target vicinity, final aiming after popup requires less movement allowing for greater control and accuracy. For most people, this memoraization will only come through practice and repetition.

The main speed tip regards situations where there are two rows of targets, with the row in front hiding a second row behind. It's always faster to clear both rows simultaneously rather than clearing the front row before moving onto the back row. More specifically, make your first shot on a front row target, which exposes a back row target, and make your second shot on the back row. Only then move to the next target on the front row.

The last tip regards accuracy that is aided by the precision aim mod. You'll need to earn a few gears without it before it's awarded to you. However, once awarded, use religiously.

Scrapyard Scramble Challenges

The main tip is to cinch the attractor onto the vehicle by pulling the tethers tight. Multiple tethers help it from becoming detached. Binding the attractor to the vehicle makes the DRM tactic of forced collisions less effective. You can maneuver the attracted rocks more tightly so there is less chance of drawing in explosive barrels that scatter your collection or hitting walls that strip off rocks. Finally, it eliminates the risk of getting the attractor caught on obstacles.

As with the Crash Bomb Challenges, begin by scouting the site with the wingsuit or parachute, looking for the biggest rock stockpiles. Start by harvesting rock stockpiles at the greatest distance from the drop-off since there is no DRM opposition for your first run. Leave the rocks nearest the drop-off for your last run since it is more difficult for the DRM to impede you on a short run.

Wingsuit Course Challenges

These seem to be the toughest for everyone, including me. Nothing beats experience, and one of the best ways to gain it, without the drudgery of practice, is to make greater use of the Bavarium Wingsuit (BW) in regular gameplay. Even though it is powered, and the wingsuit in the challenges is not, techniques from flying the BW directly translate into challenge skills. Since you are coasting at least half of the time with the BW, you gain a high degree of control precision in unpowered flight that directly applies to any wingsuit challenge.

Beyond experience, I am aware of six effective techniques to improve your performance/score:

1. Always keep your gaze fixed on the next red centre ring in front of you. If you start drifting off course, don't let your eyes follow, but instead, keep focus on the next ring. It’s like driving a car in real life. If you start sliding and going in a direction that will take you off road, looking straight ahead will guarantee that you end up off road. Looking where you want to go ensures that your corrective actions are applied towards where you need to be instead of where you are headed. While you are focused on the ring immediately in front of you, do keep the next ring in your peripheral vision so you are setting up for it as you are passing through the one in front. Note that this technique applies to any race challenges with rings (land races, air races, sea races, Skyfortress).
   
   
2. Strike a balance between the magnitude of steering input and frequency. Small steering inputs are generally better than large since the latter can result in a feedback loop of overcorrections. Similarly, a smaller number of steering inputs is generally better than a larger number since you are more likely to remain under control with fewer inputs. Unfortunately, these two principles are contradictory. If you are only going to use a small number of steering inputs, by necessity, they must be larger in scale to navigate the required course changes. Therefore, the strategy is to find the best balance between number and magnitude. That comes from practice in learning the course and making controlled, proactive steering inputs in advance of course changes instead of reacting to the fact that the course has deviated from your line.
   
   
3. Stay low as you can. You gain a lot of points for ground skimming – as much as tens of thousands. As an example, there are numerous cases of two adjacent rings placed close to the ground, but the land in-between drops away. In these cases, follow the contour of the land, skimming the dropping surface, instead of flying the straight line between the two rings.
   
   
4. Make your run slower by taking longer paths. As counter intuitive as it seems, the slower the run, the more points you gain. There are two ways you can do this:
   
   
   • Fly a 360 degree loop between the second and third rings. This is only effective if you just need a few hundred points to get from four to five gears. However, it has the benefit of being easy to learn. Almost all runs start steeply and then flatten out as you proceed. At the steep start, plunge through the first two rings to gain speed, and then lift up to avoid the third ring. As soon as you are over top of the third ring, do a 360 turning maneuver and then drop into the centre of that ring to add flight time. You need enough speed to maintain sufficient altitude to hit the red centre ring after the 360.
     
     
   • Use the grapple and reeling in to infinitely loop a section of the course. This method is an order of magnitude harder to learn than just flying a 360 loop, but it has the potential to add unlimited points. It doesn't work on all courses since you have to find a section where you can grapple a loop and not go out of bounds for more than ten seconds. I’ve seldom been able to use this technique effectively because I usually crash or get timed out of bounds after one or two loops. However, you can find examples where players have made it work well on a few specific courses on YouTube.
   
   
5. Research branching courses to find the path with the most points. There are numerous challenge runs with branches that can allow alternative paths through the course. Most paths do not have sufficient points available to gain 5 gears, even if you ace them. However, there is always at least one path that does and YouTube is your best bet to find those paths. Just type "Just Cause 3" followed by the name of the course into YouTube search.
   
   
6. Make use of the air brake on the long fast mountain courses. Speed reduces your maneuverability to the point that you cannot make some of the center rings at full speed. Braking at strategic points restores maneuverability. It was with this method that I finally was able to get a perfect ring score (every centre ring) on Mountain Marathon; the single most difficult challenge I encountered in the entire game. Just make sure you have turned off the Wingsuit Quick Close Gear Mod since that can result in the closure of your wingsuit mid-course which ends your run.

Finally, practice, practice, practice. Repetition on any given course will allow you to memorize ring placement and obstacles to determine optimal paths, locations for steering inputs and strategic braking points.

Land Race Challenges

The key to these are vehicle selection. There are only two vehicles, depending on the course, that yield the fastest time in land race challenges. They are the Mugello Farina Duo (F1 car) for any road based challenge, including those with unpaved roads, and the Urga Ogar 7 V8 (military dune buggy) for any challenges with off road segments and numerous jumps. These vehicles are fast, handle predictably, and will generally not fly off the road on tight turns, jumps or bumps.

Avoid all bikes as their handling is crap and you are usually thrown off of them in any jump. Remember that you can use any road vehicle for any driving challenge including cars on bike challenges. If a race challenge only lists bikes for alternative vehicles, just rebel drop one of the above cars before you start the challenge and it will be available to you. I recommend leaving the bike challenges for the end after you earn the gear that eliminates restock time for the two cars you want.

To unlock these two vehicles, complete the takeovers of the Medici capital of Citate Di Ravello in the province of Regno and the military base of Le Tutor, in the province of Sirocco Nord. Taking over Citate Di Ravello will unlock the City Sprint Land Race that has the Mugello as the default vehicle. Start that challenge, but then drive off course to the Frigo Garage in Citate Di Ravello to blueprint it for the Rebel Drop. Taking over Le Tutor unlocks the Urga with no further action required.

Some of the races (City Sprint and Railway Sprint come to mind) are next to impossible to 5 gear without the nitrous gear mod. Save these for the end when you have both nitrous gear mods. Also, remember to turn off the turbo jump gear mods. Since these rely on the same keys as nitrous, it’s too easy to launch yourself off the course when you just wanted a short spurt of nitrous.

Air Race Challenges

Again, the key is vehicle selection. You only need one plane, and that is the CS7 Thunderhawk. You unlock it with the takeover of the Griphon Air Base, so do that before you undertake any air challenges. One advantage of the CS7 is that you can get 5 gears without having to resort to nitrous. Only the second level of nitrous gives you significantly faster times, so you might want to redo courses after you gain that mod if you are chasing after high challenge scores. You can use the CS7 for the two helicopter challenges, but you will have to rebel drop it first since it is not listed as an alternative vehicle. Since it will probably take a number runs to succeed, it’s best to save these two courses for the end when you should have earned the gear that eliminates restock time for the CS7.

Sea Race Challenges

Once again – vehicle selection. Surprisingly, the default vehicle for almost all of the courses is pretty much the easiest one to use for 5 gears. That's the Pescespada SS which has the best balance of speed and maneuverability. However, you won't get the speed you need to 5 gear many courses without both nitrous mods. Therefore, you may have to do some twice - once to get your gear count up, and again, once you have earned the two nitrous mods. As with land races, I find it easiest to disable turbo jump because it uses the same keys as nitrous. Again, it’s too easy to launch yourself in the air when all you wanted was a spurt of nitrous.

There are two faster boats than the unmodded Pescespada SS – the fastest Loochador and the second fastest Squalo X7. These are the JC3 motorcycles of boats. Great straight line speed with crap handling. You will get higher scores with these vehicles, but it will take much more practice to master them on the specific courses.

Sky Fortress Challenges

There are three Bavarium Wingsuit (BW) ring challenges and one BW shooting challenge. The ring challenges have an exploit that makes it very easy to 5 gear. Like the standard wingsuit challenges, time is your ally since it adds points. You can easily add time and points by flying in continuous loops. Where this is difficult to impossible with a standard wingsuit (requiring grappling and reeling in) it's very easy with the BW since you can apply power to turns and maintain altitude to keep you in bounds.

With reasonable practice, you shouldn't need the exploit. I found I could get perfect ring scores with much less repetition than I needed to ace the standard wingsuit challenges. Speed balance is the key. You need enough speed to maintain stable flight, but going slowly gives you maximum maneuverability - particularly the ability to drop altitude for rings that are laterally close but vertically displaced. Judicious use of air brakes is an asset.

For the shooting challenge, the only significant technique required is to master rapid flip turns. The challenge involves flying the length of the airship back and forth, as often as possible, while shooting every drone you encounter in between. The secret to success is making the fastest 180 turns possible at each end to maximize your shooting opportunities. This is accomplished with flip turns that apply full brakes and full acceleration at the same time.

I have a gaming mouse that makes this easy. There are side buttons that are both covered by my thumb. Mapping accelerate and braking to these two buttons allow one press of my thumb to engage both. You should be able do the same thing on a keyboard by mapping these functions to side by side keys that you could press with one finger.

Mech Arena Challenges

You need 40,000 points to gain 5 gears and you get 20,000 for killing everything. That means you need at least 20,000 bonus points that are available through two opportunities. One is for the shortest time for completion and the other rewards kill styles. It should be noted that the kill style bonus is not based on variety, but rather type, and rewards the greatest points for force pulse kills. Therefore, the easiest way to gain 5 gears is by going for quick kills, using the force pulse wherever practical. Do shoot down the cargo plane with your cannon/gun before it has the chance to offload paratroopers. The time for them to land and be individually killed uses so much of the clock bonus that it becomes very difficult to 5 gear on style points alone.

Bavarium Sea Heist Challenge

I found this to be the easiest challenge of all since I was able to gain 5 gears on my very first attempt. I only have one main tip, and that is to grapple to the very top of the tower as soon as you start the challenge. From the top, you can take out boats in all directions. Conversely, the tower blocks your field of view and field of fire to the back and sides if you stay at sea level. Make sure to be on the lookout to take out helicopters as soon as you see them as they are worth nearly triple the points of the next highest value target. If you don’t get 5 gears on the first round, you should still get enough points to acquire most of the eDEN Spark upgrades so that the second try becomes even easier.

That’s it for tips. I'll update as I discover new tips or if they are brought to my attention.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Where do you get the Bavarium Wingsuit at?

[Warc1]

It's part of the Sky Fortress DLC. If purchased, it shows up as a new optional mission once you've completed the first five or so main story missions.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Thank you.

[fredi_68]

well, I don't exactly know how to best say this but...
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ THANK YOU SO MUCH for that tip regarding Laguna Blast.
I worked my ass off doing like ~200 runs attempting to get 5 gears and failed every single time. I had already looked up multiple guides at this point but all failed to mention the invisible trigger volume and how to avoid it... I started thinking it was something like that.
Again, thank you very much for releasing me from this dreadful challenge. Right, now onto more fun things

[Trumdum]

in my opinion, the sky fortress wing suit challenges are the hardest to 5 star. i'm the only one in my feat group that has 5 starred them

[CricketofFrogdice]

For anyone using this guide waaay after release (like I am right now), this comment is to let you know that you CANNOT use the Bavarium Wingsuit for base game wingsuit challenges.

[Pandr]

Originally posted by CricketofFrogdice:

For anyone using this guide waaay after release (like I am right now), this comment is to let you know that you CANNOT use the Bavarium Wingsuit for base game wingsuit challenges.

You can go to Options -> Downloadable Content and toggle between the standart wingsuit, a skin for both the wingsuit and parachute (if you have it) and the bavarium wingsuit. Selecting the BW while at the beginning of a wingsuit challenge (while holding onto the helicopter) enables you to use it in them.

Edit 1: you can do this only in some challenges, some other ones don't give you the BW as an option. I don't know exactly ehcih ones do and which ones don't.

Also, I just wanted to give a quick tip regarding "rapid flip turns" in the Sky DLC Shooting challenge. I found it easier to just open the parachute out of wingsuiting, then turning around a little, then closing the parachute and grappling onto anything that was behind you. then just open wingsuit back up (or alternatively out of parachute, which I find easier) and you've successfully turned around very quickly.

Edit 2: ofc, you can't use this in the flight challenges, as you fail if you open the parachute. So my tip is only useful for the shooting challenge.