On the North Island, most of Vaas’s pirates wear red shirts and masks. On the South Island, Hoyt’s mercenaries are dressed in gray and wear body armor. By way of comparison, the Rakyat tend to dress in blue. When in doubt, your crosshair turns green when pointed at a civilian or friendly target.
In addition to your standard-issue mercenary or pirate, which can be adequately described as a guy with a social disorder and an assault rifle, there are four specific enemy types in the game that behave according to different patterns. These can be identified at range by what weapons they carry, their uniforms, or by the icons that appear over their heads when you tag them.
Out in the world, many of the troops you encounter are going to be those standard-issue gunmen. Their standard operating procedure is to initially hunt for cover, hiding behind the nearest tree, vehicle, or building, before moving into a flanking position. They’re very good at using superior numbers against you, and if you allow them to do so, you’re going to be in serious trouble. Your best bet is to eliminate each one in turn quickly and decisively, before they have the chance to get tactical. They’re occasionally joined on patrol by the following type of character.
Charger
These guys are often tweaked out on something chemical and are not particularly burdened by a fear of death. Some favor knives, some carry shotguns, and others prefer to use Molotov cocktails with absolutely no thought given to whether or not it’s a good idea. In all three cases, their basic strategy is the same: they run straight at a target and keep attacking until either they’re dead or it is.
Note that chargers’ knives can bypass body armor and inflict damage directly to your health bar. This makes them much more dangerous than you might expect. You can have a lot of fun with them if you lay a bunch of land mines directly in front of yourself, and then antagonize them with a couple of warning shots. Exit the chargers, often in pieces.
Molotov chargers can be harder to deal with. You can identify them from a distance by the bottles strapped to their vests, or by the fact that they’re usually drunkenly staggering around. Hitting a Molotov charger in the chest or back often ruptures one of his firebombs and engulfs him in flames. This does not necessarily kill him but does mean he often comes reeling at you.
When you’re attacking outposts or going on story missions, you can also run into these more specialized troops.
Sniper
There are two kinds of snipers in the game. The first, and more common, is a guy with an SVD, who can often be distinguished from his forebears by the fact he’s sweeping his entire cone of vision with a laser sight. This lets you see him from a long way off, but by the same token, he can also see you from a greater range than any other enemy. A shot from a sniper can knock off up to two blocks of health while simultaneously damaging your body armor, and if snipers have you in their sights, they don’t tend to miss. The only way to avoid sniper fire is to break the line of sight; just sprinting to the side won’t work.
The second variety of sniper is carrying an RPG-7, which may constitute an abuse of the term. They do not use a laser sight and are usually only identifiable by the presence of the RPG-7 itself. If alerted to your presence, they retreat to a safe distance and pelt your position with anti-tank rockets. Their aim isn’t great and the rockets are easy to see coming, but it’s still something you want to deal with early on. The advantage to an RPG is that they only have to get lucky once.
Heavy
These guys are draped in full-body riot armor and carry PKM LMGs. When they spot you, their favored approach is to walk straight toward your position and pour bullets into you until you drop. Thanks to their armor, they can shrug off most small-arms fire and are immune to standard Takedowns. To kill a heavy easily, shoot off his mask and then take a headshot.
One advantage you have is that, as you might notice when you’re dealing with chargers, body armor doesn’t protect very well against knife attacks. If you’re at melee range with a heavy, you can take him down in a few panicked swings, although he’s likely to be firing at you at point-blank range the entire time. Late in the game, you can unlock the Heavy Takedown skill to quickly eliminate them. Once you have Heavy Takedown, any Takedown method, such as pulling them into a river or jumping on them from overhead, will work to eliminate a heavy.
If you’re stuck dealing with a heavy at medium to long range, your best bet is probably to use explosives or Molotovs. Heavies move slowly and in straight lines, so it takes a trivial effort to get one to chase you right to where you left a few C4 charges. They also crumple like anyone else if you manage to find a mounted gun to use against them.
Heavy Flamer
These are a specialized unit used to guard outposts on the South Island. Unlike their machine-gun-wielding brethren, a heavy flamer wears a full-body fireproof moon suit and carries a flamethrower. This makes it tricky to deal with them at melee range, as Jason tends to panic if he’s on fire.
As with heavies, they’re immune to Takedowns until you acquire the Heavy Takedown skill, and most of the same rules of engagement apply. Stab them to death from behind if you can, and if you can’t, use high explosives or a mounted gun.