LXant

I really hope they add some form of shopping UI in the future. I mean yeah, dialogue does the job, probably a little bit better than a table that you can interact with only once every few days. But that's the one area that I really hope they'll do something about.

Go to Syria and you can buy assault rifles, grenades and other weapons and ammo at the bazaar, same for Iraq, Afghanistan and probably a whole lot of countries in Africa and South America. Weapons, drugs and fighters can move freely between those nations. Yes, that's illegal, but who would enforce the rules? Who is gonna pay for border patrol, who makes sure they don't take bribes? Who organizes a customs service, who trains them, who will supervise them? Poverty means a very weak central state, so even a small bribe of $100 (small in terms of 1st world) is a life changing amount to any poor illiterate sod guarding stones in a desert. Or do you expect him to lay down his life for a dollar a day? It's a paradise for arms dealers and other criminals, borders don't mean anything here. And let us not forget the other side of poverty: if the soldiers need money, they start selling stockpiled stuff from the armory to anyone who will buy. That kind of corruption is a huge part of why the Russian military is undersupplied and/or suffers from very low quality equipment. Nobody there expected a war, so they made money by selling everything they could steal, in more notable cases they sold their assault weapons to Chechen enemies during their war against the Chechens. From ammo to tank engines, nothing is really safe. That aside, Grand Chien is not a place that seems to be sanctioned by the outside. Adonis, a Western corporation, can freely operate there and export the products. Ownership of fully automatic assault weapons, explosives and other goods doesn't pose a problem and there is no police of government force outside of local militias, gangs, mercenaries and the Junta. Mercs can be hired and enter the country within hours, with their weapons and ammo as part of their luggage. I really don't see why a crate of ammo would somehow be problematic here.

I have observed the following events that are maybe linked to the things I did: - Corazon betrayal / Refugee Camp event: ~4 weeks after gamestart, although I suspect the number of mines you own plays a role here (I think 3 is the magic number). I can't tell if it was the date or the number of mines I owned that triggered it - Biff asks for help: When I take over the Pentagruel mine after hitting 100% loyalty and speaking to Chimurenga. Although I think he also asks if you come too close to his position. But when you deal with the assault squad, he seems to hold out quite nicely and without any timer - Army attacks: you either go the the Refugee Camp and trigger it directly, or you're halfway at 2 tiles away from the Major's camp, that also triggers it - otherwise you're safe and the plot doesn't move on

The good news is, this will surprise you only once. When you know, you can prepare to a degree that will let you defend everything without any major problems.

If snipers are OP and MGs are godmode, then Ivan with a HE grenade launcher is the opening of Τάρταρος, hell itself, from which divine punishment hits the enemy and kills everyone during one turn. Seriously, I was testing out how far the game lets me do certain things, one of which was triggering the Refugee Camp event and trying to intercept the enemy. In sector I20 a bunch of armies spawns, probably the biggest group, and if you have good timing, you can attack all of them while they're still on the tile. Although one got away, so it was "only" over 60 enemies. How did I plan to deal with it? Because Ivan has this: That's what he dealt with: In the end nobody had to do anything, maybe kill a wounded straggler here and there, because HE rounds are not found that often. Other than that, Ivan killed each and everyone in one single turn. Something over 55 kills or so, and he had 30 AP left when he was done. What an absolute beast!

I'll leave this one here, so you know there's more than just the light camo vest:

Technically correct, which is the best kind of correct. My point was that medium armor doesn't remove existing free movement, so there's no inherent advantage in using light over medium. It only becomes an issue if you have the perk that specifically gives you free movement when wearing no/light armor. But that is on you then, like taking a perk for heavy weapons and then only using a machete or something.

You can use it to your advantage though. Set up a row of snipers in a position that can't be flanked. Stay hidden the entire time, using the 'H' key. Then you kill one defender and trigger the alarm. Since the AI doesn't have any visible enemy, it's swarming towards you until it uncovers you, which requires it to stand 5-10 tiles away from you. While they run towards you, you can snipe them with headshots, because they don't really seek cover while they don't see you. Usually the entire map comes to you that way, even the snipers. Just make enough noise, use loud weapons, and let them come. The AI is cheating by knowing where you are, but can't attack if you're hidden. So they rush your position and get killed one after another, because you know how the AI behaves. Yeah, two can play that game. It's intended and can be exploited, is what I'm saying.

Perk-wise the game doesn't make a difference between light armor and medium armor. Perks only know two states: light/no armor and heavy armor. If you look at the armor types, you'll see that some are explicitly cumbersome, and that is something that only applies to heavy armor: I use Mouse with a not cumbersome weapon and the unique Deathsquad Armor. It's heavy, but doesn't have the "Cumbersome" attribute. She gets her 5 or 6 tiles free move without any problems. So it really comes down to if the piece of armor or one of your weapons is cumbersome or not.

@D13 I haven't found any use for gems beyond the tiny diamonds and the unique green diamond. For now it's safe to sell. @J1v1n You can buy a red wig for a quest in Port Cacao with it, some scrap at the same shop, you can also trade it in for masks at the poacher camp to give to Emma, if you already sold off various artifacts. You need it to raise your loyalty there, so you can bring peace to the junkyard and have them fight for you later on.

I think it is because there's a difference between precise single shots and burst fire/shotguns. The latter tend to stray far more in all directions and tend to hit whoever is lying down before you. Although there's an argument to be made about the size of the hitboxes in general. Anyway, I'd heavily advise against using unprecise weaponry when a friendly is right in front of me, because accidents happen.

Yes, and you can also sell them to the priest for $700 if you managed to up the price. Otherwise it's still $600, which is 20% more than the cash in option. The obvious choices are crowbars and lockpicks, as they can't be repaired (aside from that one crowbar). I also keep all explosives, because sometimes a good throw is better than having to shoot several people one after another. And at some point you'll be outnumbered pretty heavily. Same for tear gas, mustard gas, molotov cocktails, flashbangs etc. Keep all sniper rifles (M24, M82, Dragunov), the AK-74 (not 47) for it's penetration power, keep the good assault rifles (those that can have good mods, like FN-FAL, G36 for its use of 5.56mm, GALIL), the good machine guns (HK21, MINIMI), good shotguns (AA12), and also a bunch of mortars and RPG-7. Also at least one machete, because you'll need it for loot and the occasional quest. Armor I'd keep everything that is medium or heavy, preferably with sleeves. Only scrap them when you're 100% sure that you don't need them anymore, i.e. when you replace a vest with a sleeved version. Medium armor is a straight upgrade over light, no drawback. Heavy armor is cumbersome, so use it only with mercs who either have no free move or use a cumbersome weapon that removes their free move. So you might as well use heavy armor. Keep all night vision equipment, because it removes the aiming penalty in night battles. If you really want to micromanage things, you can also keep a set of helmets for daytime battles. Gas masks are optional. I like to keep them, if nothing else then because there's no way to replace them easily. And in true rpg fashion, I keep them around "because you never know if you might some day need them". Medicine is also a given. You can sell it at the hospital, but medicine doesn't take up space, so keep it. Better, getting wounded and then healed by the healing operation has a chance to increase your health. So medicine = chance to improve hp permanently. Bags of Chien Franks are also valuable, as you can buy various things with them. So don't get rid of them. Valuables can be sold off, but keep artifacts from excavations (masks, figurines etc.) and also keep the Green Diamond. The former can be given to the museum in exchange for loyalty and free instant militia everywhere in the world. The latter is required for a good game ending and should also be given to Emma at the museum. I mean, it IS the symbol of Grand Chien, the crown jewel, the legendary diamond of a nation that sells diamonds. Selling it off to a private collector for quick cash will lead to disappointment. Keep all scrap, always. There is a trader who buys scrap for cheap. Don't click on it, ever. Even if you think you have too much scrap (~1k), the moment you start modifying weapons you'll see the pile drained back to 0. At most you should have around 20 mercs, and each one should come with 2 or maybe even 3 weapons for the sake of versatility. That's 40-60 weapons to mod, each one eating at least 100 scrap, if not 200. So we're looking at a demand of a few thousand scrap here. So keep your scrap, you'll need it. Just don't mod the early weapons, it's a waste. Try to get your hands on the advanced stuff and mod that. Anyway, why so many weapons and armor? At some point money won't be an issue anymore, so you will have more mercs. And at one point in the game there's a drastic increase in enemy difficulty, for which it is good to be prepared. If you want to defend as much of your stuff as possible, you'll want to recruit all free mercs, all 15 AIM mercs and the IMP merc for ~20 people. Since you'll have to stretch them thin across the map, they need to punch well beyond their own weight. And there's nothing like a group kill with the RPG-7, a good mortar shot of mustard gas into a group of enemies or a MINIMI overwatch monster mowing down half a dozen people in one turn. Even if your whole setup is about sneaking and surgical precision, you either give up key assets and risk quest characters get shot/lost and friends get killed, or you prepare to take down a bunch of people with a heavy hand and a ton of explosives. I think that's about it for now. When I find use for more items, I'll let you know if I think of it.

I can absolutely confirm that stance does have a profound impact on shot trajectory. I do the setup very often, in which the 1st row lies down and the 2nd row kneels. Although I use single shot high precision weapons, like sniper rifles, the FN-FAL or the AK-74 for its higher penetration power. Works like a charm.

That ability is indeed very powerful. I'd prefer if she had something like 50% for double intel on hacking and that's it. No god eyes. Although I'd like to see moddable armor, the way weapons can be modified right now. So we could attach night vision, uv vision, x-ray (for seeing enemies even behind walls within 20 or 30 tiles around you), something like a low-end version of it with the "extended ear" we had in JA2, to replicate the effect in a more limited, balanced and universally accessible way that doesn't make one specific merc omniscient.

Good to know, thank you! Though I'd say lootboxes are still worth it, especially since they work regardless of you having or not having Livewire with you. I mean, you also get 7.62mm NATO ammo, a pile of parts, skill magazines and some other stuff out of it. A 2nd Metaviron might be worth it for the Shaman though, because that lets you - in theory - skip the 16h operation to heal his family. And from what I read about it, after the event at the camp you can loot it back.

8 is plenty, especially since one lootbox contains 2 tiny diamonds, so a net win of 1. Should get you the Metaviron and then you can recruit Larry. Beyond that they only have monetary value, which isn't too huge, considering the daily amount of money you get from one single mine. Let alone two or three.

Gave you a Like, since I mostly agree with you, but I still have one thing to say regarding... Well, I did care about them. They had their biographies, their stories, origins and languages, fought some very memorable battles for me and accompanied me through more than just one campaign, thanks to the character saving feature. So yeah, I did and still do care about them.

After playing around with different approaches over the last couple days, I can only repeat my earlier assessment and recommend it over other immediate approaches. Just a few more things to add, to make it more effective: When you first go to Fleatown, you want to have at least 5 tiny diamonds on the way. You get a few from Bastien on Ernie Island, so you should explore each and every sector you enter for more diamonds. The reason is to have enough for a few lootboxes, until you get the Metaviron needed to recruit Larry. You also want to buy the two magazines from both traders for two additional skill points. If you go to G8, you can also get the M14 rifle from the cellar, and Boss Blaubert's gate house has also a chance to spawn a good lategame weapon, although it's random. Still, a good way to get your hands on an early G36, FN-Fal or AA12. In the tiles around Fleatown you can also find a good number of night vision equipment. At this point, after the mine got you a bit of money, you hire two cheap mercs. Doesn't matter who, as long as you have bodies who can train militia. It's not ideal if it takes longer due to low skill, but it's ok. What's important is to have someone who can stay behind and train them, while your main team moves until someone drops from exhaustion. Otherwise you move. With control over Fleatown established, you move to G10 and take over the camp. It's important, because it blocks all assaults from the East. This is where you put mercs #7 and #8 and let them train 8 veterans. Your team moves to Refugee Camp, where you pick up quests, meet Bastien and get friendly with the locals. Just don't talk to Herman, if you didn't hang him! Just don't, I explain later why. Then you attack the camp at D10, that also blocks attacks from the East. G10 and D10 are your main line of defense, so keep them always stocked up on militia. I also recommend having a doctor with a good med skill, who is not part of your main team. You can hire MD as #9 merc, if he isn't already #7 or #8. He'll heal the Shaman's family through the special operation, which costs time. Your main team can always come back there and collect his gratitude later. Anyway, from D10 you move to F7, because Pentagruel won't give you the mine immediately anyway, and it's more important to cut off any possible attacks from that base. Plus you get to recruit Larry, who can help with training more militia if nothing else. From there you move up to Pentagruel, liberate the city, get the mine liberated from hostiles (even if the sector stays neutral for now), buy the .50 ammo that is sold there, also get the girls on the communist manifesto, get the Smiley quest going and all that. I think there's also more night vision equipment there. After that you go to the Poacher camp, where you get the Flay thing going and buy a Dragunov with a thermal scope for just $2000. If you dare, you can also take out the first abuser group, which is in the poacher camp, if you took the quest from the brothel. Use Flay however you like, in any case you move up to B2 and A2. I could say more about how to deal with Graaf and how to lose no slaves, but the important thing is to take both sectors and then use the boat to get down to F5 and get the port on your way back to Fleatown. In Fleatown you can get more magazines from the traders, sell small diamonds to the priest (for $700 instead of the standard $500 from cash in), maybe make deeper repairs of your equipment, a bit of R&R etc. Here you can also kill the 2nd group of abusers in the market, hire workers for the mine in A2 from the Foreman, before you move up to the Refugee Camp. By now you should've dealt with all the quests there, you also meet Herman again. Now you talk with him and you can give him a job at the mine in A2. There's also an interaction with the notice board, where you can hire more refugees for the mine in A2. Do it. Since one of your mercs should've healed the family of the Shaman, he'll give you his unique Deathsquad Armor as a thank you. From here you move to D11, take the port, jump to F13 and take it. Have two other mercs follow you and train militia here, because this place will get attacked heavily from there on. Your team will now attack F19, where you recruit Pierre. If you did everything right on Ernie Island and helped people and dealt with Bastien (without killing him), he'll join you. On your way back you should definitely visit Landsbach. If nothing else, it has a bunch of random loot. The container in Siegfried's room can have high level stuff. I got the M82 AMR sniper rifle from there, but the container also can drop the G36, FN-FAL and other nice stuff. Or just a bunch of ammo if you're unlucky. Anyway, the loot rolls on the first time you enter the map, so if you save before that and savescum your way through, you can do it until you get the M82. Ammo for it can be bought at the Pentagruel mine. To my knowledge that's the only place you can get that weapon before you progress into the lategame. NOW, after you're done in Landsbach, you go to Port Cacao. Take it over, get loyalty up, resolve the conflicts, do your quests, rescue Luigi (because you want to resolve this quest before you recruit Smiley, as recruiting Smiley requires you to help killing the Boss), and prepare for the N-Night fight. Use your time to finally get some rest, repair, distribute the good equipment you got, buy more if need be. Also recruit more mercs, because you'll absolutely need them. I don't know the exact triggers, but owning 3 mines seems to progress the game in some way and triggers the Corazon event. Which is why I advise against going to Port Cacao before you secured your position and recruited most free mercs; otherwise you'll have your hands full for the time being. At this point you'll also hit 100% loyalty with Pentagruel. Don't talk to Chimurenga, because the moment you get the mine is the moment Biff calls for help. Although you have a bit of time, because the attack squad will move through F13, which you previously took and hopefully fortified. If you have 8 veterans there, you can auto resolve the fight and you get more time to help Biff. If you were fast about it, you should also be around end of April at that point. That's where the Refugee Camp situation arises, either because a month has passed or because you have three mines. Whatever quests you didn't at the Refugee Camp become impossible now. The important thing here is that the game can and will wait for you. Now is the time to do all quests on the entire map, to train mercs, collect more equipment, get money to have the max of 15 AIM mercs and the 4 free mercs. Do whatever you have. Now we get to the spoiler-y part of the guide, so stop reading if you absolutely want the surprise. I won't give details, but once you visit the Refugee Camp, all your positions on the entire map will come under heavy attack. Auto-resolve can't deal with it, even if you have mostly elite defenders. In my current playthrough I'm right before this point, and my goal is to send teams of 2 or 3 good mercs to help defend the most crucial positions. I think I have enough mercs to deal with the Refugee Camp and have several of those small teams in Ernie, Diamond Red, Port Cacao, Fleatown, Landsbach and maybe Ille Morat. From what I saw, if the attackers take over, they seem to slaughter some of the people living there. So 2 or mercs and 8 veteran/elite defenders should hopefully help defend all those cities against the 12-14 attackers. The outposts and ports can and will fall, but you can always take them back rather quickly. And once you have most towns and mines secure and the outposts and ports back, you're in the perfect position to deal with everything else and hopefully win the game. Since the original question is where to go difficulty-wise, I'd say this is it. The most difficult fights on this route will be Fleatown Market, getting Graaf without losing slaves, and maybe taking D10 if you attack it at full strength and didn't manage to delay the battle starting before you got into a better position. Because if you come from the wrong direction, you'll deploy right at a guard and no way to avoid beeing seen the moment you unpause. Quest-wise the most difficult battles are saving Boss Blaubert from Luigi and then keeping Smiley alive through the church ambush and the Blaubert battle. Had to reload at the ambush, because on turn 1, before I even got to attack, a sniper shot at Smiley and killed him with a crit. Oh well. That's my take on where to progress. I hope this helps.

As a heavy user of night vision I can confirm that it indeed removes the penalty for aiming at night, which is the entire point of using night vision. Nights aren't as dark as they used to be, and with enough intel (and having Livewire with you) you can actually see all enemies on the entire map. There would be no point in having any kind of illuminated circle around you. Although, if you really want to, you can attach a flashlight to your gun. That aside, a bit more variety for equipment would be very much appreciated. As you say, there's no reason why I can't put a helmet on a gas mask. Or why I can't have something on my eyes, while the helmet protects the head. It's not like the helmets come with a face mask or anything, aside from the Deathsquad Helmet that is. And maybe ballistic goggles, actual camo kits, tactical earbuds, maybe the Spectra Gear for good protection for lower weight or more modern night vision options (like the fusion night vision that was available in the 2000's). Having only 3 slots for body equipment is a tad bit too limited in my opinion.

Until something is done about ammo drops or Bobby Ray's, I can only recommend using high accuracy single shot weapons at range to save ammo. Also to spread out the weapons you use, so they have different ammo requirements. Have 7.62 mm NATO snipers, either with the standard Gewehr 98 or the M24 sniper rifles you should find (I found one M24 at G8 on a corpse rigged with explosives, maybe the loot is fixed?), or the unique Gold Fever from A2 (which is guaranteed). In the poacher camp you can buy upgraded Dragunov rifles every day or two, they use 7.62 WP ammo (which you can get from AK-47's) and the upgrades that come with it (I think a thermal scope is part of it) make the weapon a good choice. Definitely worth it to drop by and get two or three of those. Then there's the G36 or the Steyr AUG, both can have a range of 30 and use a variety of weapon mods to make sniping at mid-range viable. They use 5.56 mm ammo, which should be plenty. I think it's more of a problem to actually get your hands on those weapons, I don't remember where I got them. More in the east I think, when I went to get Pierre. Now, I don't know if it was pure luck or if the loot is fixed, but I found the M82 AMR in Landsbach. Ammo for it can be found at a merchant in C7, where you can buy 30 x .50 HE ammo every day or so. Enough to last you for a while if you stock up on 100 shots or so, because you won't get more than one of those weapons anyway.

It's a merc later down the road. He'll will join you if you can convince him. You only get one shot at it, so read up a guide beforehand is my recommendation.

If you imply that I don't know we'll get them later on through paid DLC, well, I'm aware that there's a good chance this will actually happen. For now I only lament that we have only 5 people to recruit, while the other obvious choices just pack their stuff and go home. Or in case of The Beast, agrees to help you, but doesn't join. I'd prefer if they chose new people with new quests for DLC characters, not merely unlocking existing ones. That's the lazy option and I don't like it.

I picked Ira, but I don't just miss her as a very flexible and early free merc. I picked her because I think the game currently lacks a diverse cast of such flexible characters. People from the resistance, quest characters or members of organized crime (like Luigi). There are some I'm convinced were at least considered to be such options, like Deedee, Chimurenga, The Beast or Bastien. Yet they remain unrecruitable and play no role beyond a small encounter or two.

After playing more, I have a few things to add to my earlier assessment. - Allow crafting materials to go to the shared group inventory (like the mod from the workshop alrady does) - Allow to scrap knifes - Allow to put explosives in the shared group inventory, as they're technically projectiles (albeit thrown ones) - Allow to combine upgrade items with unique weapons (i.e. sharpening stone with "The Thing") - Bring back the online shop for basic items like ammo, and increase ammo drops - Change the traders, so that they have something like a shop and not a table with a 24h cooldown that only offers one single item

I'd say Fleatown, then up to the outpost (where you find Larry), then to the Refugee Camp and to unlock the communist questline and get the brothel quest going in Pantagruel. That paves the way to later go south and recruit Smiley once you go back to Fleatown. But before you go there, you first go west to recruit Flay, get the mine ($6k or $7.5k, depending on your choice there, no loyalty requirement), the unique sniper rifle "Gold Fever" and then you can mostly forget about the entire area. It never comes under attack, makes you a good amount of money and you have the benefit of an early free merc. With the Communist pamphlet in hand, and if you managed to get the ad for the brothel on it, you can hand it out practically everywhere (even to Flay when you recruit him) and under the most absurd circumstances, gives you free loyalty with Pantagruel and when you hit 100% loyalty there, you get the mine for free. A pretty powerful mine, which operates at $10k per day at 100% loyalty. With Fleatown you also have access to the medicine from the loot boxes to recruit Larry, who you can later fully restore in the hospital in H12 for another good free merc. So now you have Flay, Smiley and Larry. The free mercs, the money and the weapons provide you with enough means to get two full teams (or more) to actually fight the big battles, like rescuing Biff or defending the Port Cacao Museum from 20+ enemies. After that it's up to you where you go, but if you did everything right, you should be on your way to also get Pierre to join you for another free merc. To my knowledge there are no more free mercs beyond those, although I hope there are. But that's about how I think is a good way to approach the mainland.