Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon – Wildlands: Ultimate Guide, Part 1
Released on March 7th by Ubisoft Paris, Ghost Recon – Wildlands
For a more advanced player, I’d suggest visiting part 2 of this guide.
We also have a Youtube Wildlands Playlist dedicated to helping you find the collectibles! Check them out below:
Get to know the map:
After you have created a character and entered the game, the most important thing to do is to understand the in-game map, known as the Tacmap. The Tacmap is absolutely crucial for effective game play, and understanding it will help you enormously in your overall gameplay experience. New icons keep appearing on the map as you progress in the game and acquire new information. These icons are comprised of places/items that you will visit/use quite often, such as enemy bases, weapons, side missions, and skill upgrades. Take your time and get to know the map as much as you can before you begin to play, as it will help you a lot in making progress in the game. Some areas are greyed out in the map and cannot be accessed in the beta version of the game. They will be opened to access in the final release of the game, which is expected to be out soon.
Choose Weapons Wisely:
Before you go on to explore Bolivia and take on missions, make sure you are equipped with weapons suited for the job. Playing alone in single player missions will require a quite different selection of weapons than playing with other players online. My personal preference when playing alone is a medium-range weapon equipped with a silencer, and a sniper rifle. This ensures your capability to engage in assaults, while maintaining the stealth that is much needed in this game. You can choose any weapons combination you prefer, but do make sure to consider both the stealth of your profile, and your ability to engage in close quarter battles.
Supplies are Vital:
Whether you are attacking enemy strongholds or exploring the open world, always keep looking for supplies in your surroundings. They are marked as green icons on your mini-map and can be seen shinning in the open world. These supplies consist of Communication supplies, food, medicine, and fuel. Make sure you pick up these supplies when you find them because you are going to need them for purchasing new skills for your character.
Regularly Upgrade Skills:
As you gain resources and earn skill points, you will be able to purchase skills for your character. You need specific supplies and a certain number of skill points to upgrade/purchase skills. You earn skill points by advancing in levels, which requires completing main missions and side missions. As you progress in the game and upgrade your skills, they become more costly. Advanced level skills need a high number of supplies and skill points.
Travel Sonic-Style:
Driving around in Bolivia in order to get to places to complete missions and to find collectibles can take a long time, especially when you are traveling from one side of Bolivia to the other. The game provides a solution to this problem by offering Rally Points. Rally points are locations on your Tacmap marked white. You can fast travel from one Rally Point to other in a comparatively little time. Be aware that if you are engaged in a battle, or have been discovered by enemies and are being chased down, you won’t be able to use a Rally Point, for as long as they are at your tail. When you intend to use a Rally Point, try your best not to be discovered by enemies, and if you are seen by them, you either have to eliminate all enemies, or flee the scene and come back after a while to be able to use the Rally Point. Using Rally Points can save you an enormous amount of time when you are looking for any collectibles/supplies you might have missed, or while you are going different places on the map in order to complete main story missions.
Keep an Eye Out for Collectibles:
You will come across collectibles as you play the game. Location of collectibles is discovered by acquiring Intel and by interrogating enemies. Collectibles consist of weapons, intel, files, and other items. Always make sure to pick them up whenever you find one, because they award you XP for your character.
Focus on the Main Missions:
The game consists of different kinds of missions; however, your top priority should be the main story missions. As the name reveals, it is a sequence of missions built upon each other, and awards higher XP as compared to other types of missions. Completing these missions also unlocks additional missions and bonuses. Some of the main missions have specific intel and documents related to them which you need to procure before you can unlock that mission. The intel and information can be gathered from civilians and enemies. Once you complete a mission, the intel/files required for the next mission will be marked on your map and you will need to collect them in order to unlock the next mission. In addition to the main story missions, some side missions can also be generously rewarding, particularly the Rebel Ops side missions which unlock a whole new skill set known as the Rebel Support. This set offers unique tactical skills such as calling in for a vehicle drop or distracting your enemies. They also boost up your characters XP, making them even more worthwhile.
A Word on Resources:
Resources are scattered across Bolivia and you can use them to buy skills/upgrades for your character. Always remember that every single type of resource will help you one way or the other to make your character stronger. Some side missions, upon completion, will grant you a huge amount of one particular type of resource which will help enormously in buying certain skills for your character. These skills include, but are not limited to; ambushing an enemy convoy, and assaulting enemy bases and formations.
Stay Off ‘Off-Road’ Driving:
Since the game is open world, you have the full freedom to choose any path when attempting to reach a destination. You can choose the main roads and highways, or if you prefer off-road driving to cut distances short, you’re free to do so by all means, but do keep in mind that doing so can put you into some unexpected and undesired situations. While it is true that using main roads for travelling across Bolivia can sometimes cost you a good amount of time when you are going for long distances, but compared to the problems that you can face on your off-road endeavours, I would highly recommend using main roads/highways only. The first and foremost reason for this is that the majority of land in Bolivia is not suitable for off-road driving. It may seem tempting at first if you compare the on-road and off-road distance to a particular area on the map, but once your vehicle flips over because of a series of bumps, or you end up slamming your vehicle into a tree or a rock, or even worse, if your vehicle drops off a cliff on an off-road voyage, you might end up regretting your choice of taking the ‘short-cut’. Unfortunately, even off-road vehicles that are supposed to be highly specialized in this regard, such as jeeps and trucks, will leave you disappointed and will fail to deliver the off-road experience you expected. Although it is not exactly always the case, and there do exist some safe cut-through paths on the map, but for most of the time, trying sticking to main roads/highways as much as you can.
Be Particular About Your Ride:
Connecting to the previous section, while it is true that using main roads to travel can sometimes take quite a while, you can compensate for that by either using Rally Points for fast travel, or by choosing the perfect vehicle for the ride. The game offers a wide variety of means of transportation to you, from motorcycles and trucks to helicopters and jet planes. Always choose a ride that not only is the most efficient, but can also help you in keeping your profile low. Although using helicopters and jets might seem tempting and they do indeed offer the shortest travel time of all, be aware that they can be instantly detected by enemy radars if you fly near an enemy base and you may end up becoming the target of their missiles in no time.
Fast Travel Trick:
This is a neat trick that comes in really handy when you are playing multiplayer online with any number of other players on the internet. While not engaged in battle, you can use fast travel to reach another players position. This helps enormously in exploring Bolivia and completing missions that might not have been unlocked by some players. Even new players, who haven’t unlocked their Rally Points, can use fast travel to immediately reach another players position. Be advised that this only works in multiplayer online battles.
Congratuations on getting through this guide! Now go visit our more in depth part 2 guide.
