Just Cause 2 Missions Guide

Just Cause 2 Missions Guide
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Just Cause 2 Missions

In Just Cause 2 you are Rico, a man on a mission. The mission, as it turns out, is to blow up as much stuff as possible. You don’t need to participate in the faction missions to do that, but it is generally the best way to go about it.

Just Cause 2 does not really have an “official” mission structure, with the exception of Stronghold missions. However, you’ll find that the missions in Just Cause 2 (with the exception of the Agency missions, which advance the story) generally fit in a few categories. These categories are, as I call them, Escort, Capture, Defend and Destroy. I will cover all of these including, of course, the Stronghold missions.

Escort Missions

Everyone loves Escort missions. Not.

Escort missions can be very frustrating in any game, but they’re not too terrible in Just Cause 2. The people you will be escorting are built like Sherman tanks. They can easily take a few bullets. You also will most often end up driving some sort of vehicle - usually a car - to transport the person that you are escorting from point A to point B. This is good news because the car will protect the person you’re escorting, although it can be bad news if the car blows up with you and the escort in it.

The skill you’ll use most often during escort missions is car surfing. When you’re in a vehicle you are usually defenseless. There are only a few vehicles which give you access to weapons while you’re driving, which means you’re going to be defenseless. But that doesn’t keep the Panau military from shooting at you with all kinds of weapons.

To stop them you’ll need to stunt jump to the top of your vehicle and return fire. The vehicle will continue to drive in whatever direction you were going, so as long as you’re on a straight stretch of road you can do this without too much trouble. While surfing your vehicle you can return fire. Killing the motorcycle riders is easy - just shoot them - but taking your jeeps can be more difficult. The best way to do it is to either shoot out their tires (they will flip) or use the grappling hook to grapple a jeep to a nearby obstacle (the jeep will reach the end of the rope and then flip).

If you’re vehicle does look like it is about to explode, don’t worry. You can in fact get out of the car and your escort will follow you. In fact your escort will follow you on foot, and if you’re close to the drop-off location you can just walk the remaining distance.

Capture Missions

In a capture mission your job is to kidnap someone and return them to a faction location.

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Catching up to the person usually isn’t too difficult, but at times it can be a problem. You won’t always be given the best tools for your pursuit. In one mission, for example, I was kicked out the side of a helicopter and told to capture a guy in a limo. When I missed my initial grapple, I was left on the side of the road with nothing to drive. That was annoying. The black market dealer can be your friend in these situations. Order a fast car and things will be much easier.

Actually kidnapping the person you’re supposed to capture is usually pretty easy. There will usually be a few guards in their vehicle, but you can take them out easily. Once you’ve captured your target, the mission basically turns into an escort mission. You have to take the captured target to a faction hideout while being chased. The same tips apply as apply to escort missions.

Defend Missions

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There are a handful of missions in Just Cause 2 where you’ll be asked to defend something which the Panau military is coming to destroy.

These missions usually begin with you in one location, away from the area to be defended, and the Panau military in a different location heading towards the target you’re trying to defend. To an extent, these missions start off with a race. You have to get to the target you need to defend before the Panau military does.

Getting there is usually best done by using a jet. The Pell Silverboat 6 available from the black market dealer is relatively inexpensive and extremely fast. You won’t always have to use it, however - a fast bike or car can often get the job done without costing you a penny - so you’ll have to use your own judgment.

Once you’ve reached the target you need to defend you’ll have to fight off the incoming Panau attackers. They are usually clearly marked. For example, in one mission you’ll have to defend a silo against some helicopters. The helicopters are marked. You don’t have to worry about them sneaking up on you.

The key to the defense is simply to keep the pressure on the Panau military. They actually are very easy to distract. If you are firing on them, they will stop attacking the target and start attacking you instead, at least while you’re in the general area. The best defensive is a great offense.

Destroy

These simple missions require that you destroy a target. Sometimes the target is a building or several buildings. In others the target is a person. There is even a mission where you have to destroy a space rocket as it leaves the launch pad.

My advice in any of these missions is simple - steal a military helicopter. That isn’t to say that you can’t complete the missions without them. You very well may be able to, but you’ll find that the missions are harder and take much longer to complete. A military helicopter will allow you to rain down destruction. In many such missions you won’t even have to worry about return fire because the target doesn’t have any SAM sites guarding it.

Obtaining the military helicopter can be the biggest challenge of these missions. You can of course buy one from the black market dealer if you’ve earned access, but this is an expensive way to complete missions. A better alternative is to cause chaos until your obtain heat level three. That is when the military sends helicopters after you. Simply hijack the one that comes to take you out. It is usually best to do this before you actually start the mission because some destroy missions have a time limit or don’t allow you to go too far away from the target you’re supposed to destroy.

Stronghold

Just Cause 2 Stronghold Missions

The only type of mission which is officially listed in Just Cause 2, Stronghold missions are missions in which Rico and a group of Panau’s finest thugs aim to take over a military base owned by the Panau military.

You and the thugs in question will be delivered to the Stronghold mission location by helicopter. One of the thugs will be a technician who is capable of hacking a computer inside the base. The goal is to protect the technician on the way there.

As you proceed inside the base you’ll be blocked by numerous obstacles. The first is usually the gate, and after that the obstacles are typically in the form of mounted guns. At each obstacle the technician will pause and ask you to take care of the problem before you proceed. The best way to do this is usually the flank the position.

Once you reach the panel, the technician will tell you he is beginning to hack the base and he needs you to defend him while he completes his work. The Panau military will then show up, including a base commander. Get out your big guns for this! You’ll usually be confronted by a couple military trucks, fifteen or twenty infantrymen, and sometimes a helicopter. The good news is that they are usually too busy shooting at you to shoot at the technician, but the bad news is that they’re all shooting at you! If there is a mounted gun nearby which you can pick up and use, do it.

After you have killed the base commander and all other nearby enemies the technician will let you know that the mission is complete.

This post is part of the series: Just Cause 2 Guide

Need help blowing things up in Just Cause 2? This Just Cause 2 guide can help. The full guide includes tips on weapons, missions, vehicles, stunts and general strategy.

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