Letters of the Lost

During World War II, a unit of Japanese soldiers came to Rook Island as part of their forces’ naval defense. They spent their days watching for an American attack that never came, and searching for an ancient Chinese treasure that they never found. In the end, they never left. As you explore the island, you’ll often run across their old fortifications, which have since been repurposed by generations of smugglers, fugitives, pirates, and the occasional tourist.

Several of the soldiers died holding letters, and they tell the story of what happened to their unit. Each Letter you find is worth 500 EXP, and most of them are also surrounded by useful items and loot boxes.

Finding six Letters unlocks the Japanese Tanto, which is a free upgrade to your standard machete. It’s available from any vendor.

#1: Sato’s Letter

About 300 meters northwest from the Southview Gas outpost, there’s an old anti-aircraft battery by the side of the road. Sato’s corpse can be found at the base of its cannon.

#2: Hyogo’s Letter

On the southwest peninsula of the North Island, north of Sunset Cove, there’s an old anti-aircraft emplacement on the eastern coastline. The easiest way to get inside and find this Letter is probably to jump up onto the base of the cannon. From there, it’s a straight shot to the soldier’s final resting place.

#3: Mori’s Letter

This Letter is found about 360 meters east from Heron’s Perch on the North Island, close to the pig icon on the map. When you see the Letter icon, go 60 meters north of it to find a small, well-hidden cave entrance in the side of the hill. Inside, you’ll find a mummified soldier and two loot boxes.

#4: Ren’s Letter

There’s a peninsula south of the Temple of Stone that’s home to a lot of cassowaries. It also features an old WWII bunker that can be difficult to find a way into, but there’s an unobstructed doorway on its east side. Inside, you’ll find this Letter on a soldier’s body.

#5: Mogi’s First Letter

About 300 meters east of the Amanaki Outpost, there’s a small, well-hidden cavern tunnel in the hills near the river. If you zoom your map in all the way, it’s just visible as a small black dot across one of the smaller trails. It’s a bit more likely that, if you’re tracking the Letter’s icon on your map, you’ll find it by sliding down to the cavern’s exit from the hillside above.

#6: Mogi’s Second Letter

South of the Hubris Farm, there’s a short peninsula with a collapsed bunker built into it. This soldier’s corpse is huddled inside the bunker’s doorway. There’s a Wanted: Dead quest out of the Hubris Farm that leads you straight here.

#7: Mogi’s Third Letter

Directly north of AM 12, there’s a curved peninsula with a nearly intact bunker at its end. It’s surprisingly large and has a lot of loot in it, but the dead soldier holding the Letter is easy to overlook. He’s near the entrance to the bunker in a locker room, next to a couple of trash cans, and you’re likely to mistake him for a pile of random debris the first time you see him.

#8: Mogi’s Fourth Letter

About 370 meters east of the Hubris Farm, right where the road curves south, there’s a wooden gangplank at the top of the hills on the north side of the road that looks like it’s a random chunk of debris. If you climb the hill and look at it from the north, it’s actually part of some very effective camouflage for a dugout. It contains two metal loot chests and a dead soldier, who is holding this Letter.

#9: Tadao’s First Letter

There’s a ruined bunker west of Radio Tower #10, on the coastline, with this Letter inside it. It’s directly north of the Trial of the Rakyat stone for Bull’s Eye.

#10: Tadao’s Second Letter

Along the coastline south of Kell’s Boat Repairs, there’s another old Japanese bunker by the side of the road, with this soldier inside the only part of it that still has a roof.

#11: Shinji’s Letter

This is almost disappointingly easy to find. Directly north of Tequila Sunrise on the North Island, there’s another old bunker that’s standing wide open right by the side of the road. Go inside, and you’ll find this soldier lying inside near a window. He’s surrounded by ammo and a couple of metal loot chests.

#12: Hayato’s First Letter

On the east coast of the North Island, north of Tequila Sunrise, there’s a cavern by the side of the main road, attached to a shallow ravine near a wooden bridge. This soldier is found at its end.

#13: Hayato’s Second Letter

Southwest of Nat’s Repairs on the North Island, there’s an old bunker at the very end of the peninsula. Part of it is half-sunken on the peninsula’s southern shore, and just inside its doorway, you’ll find the corpse of a Japanese soldier clutching this letter. Relic #80 is in the same general area.

#14: Hayato’s Third Letter

Look inside the bunker just north of Turtle Hill on the South Island.

#15: Hayato’s Fourth Letter

Starting from the Lazy Shore Marina on the South Island, go southwest, across the river, and look for a rocky hole in the ground at the end of a small side trail. You can use some vines to slide down through the hole into a shallow pool, where you’ll find a loot box and the Letter.

#16: Masahiro’s Letter

Southeast from the Echo Camp fast-travel point on the South Island, there’s an anti-aircraft gun pointed out towards the southern seas. The soldier holding this Letter is sprawled in the tall grass nearby.

#17: Hurk’s First Letter

Follow the coastline west from the East Ridge Camp on the South Island and look for the old anti-aircraft battery. The dead soldier is inside.

#18: Hurk’s Second Letter

South of the Longshore View outpost, there’s a bunker built into the face of the cliffs overlooking the ocean. There’s a barely visible path that leads from in front of the bunker’s observation slit to a doorway in the cliffs, which lets you get into the bunker to take the Letter.

#19: Hurk’s Third Letter

There’s a small settlement east of the fast travel point outside Gaztown on the South Island. If you zoom the map all the way in, you can see a small side trail that extends east off of the main trail. One of the Supply Run quests also sends you here at its end.

Once you’re here, you can look behind a shack and find a ladder that leads down into an old trench. At its end, you can find a mummified soldier clutching the Letter, with three grenades, some ammo, and two medkits nearby.

#20: Hurk’s Fourth Letter

Start at Thurston Town and go west, following the South Island’s northern coastline. About 840 meters from Thurston Town (or if you prefer, 430 meters northwest from Delta Camp), there’s a wrecked bunker on the shoreline facing north, right by the side of the road. It’s a little tricky to find your way inside, but the entrance is on the west end. The final Letter is held by a dead soldier, slumped on a mattress in the corner of the basement.