A Short Hunt
It’s been a while since you’ve heard anybody quote scripture while pointing an AK47 at your head. Why not go see what Longinus wants?
It seems he needs you to help him atone for his sins. Specifically, you’ll need to find a “lost sheep”, follow it to a “vault”, and bring whatever you find in that vault back to Longinus.
It’s always a bit of a challenge to filter the assignment from the sermon with this guy, so you’ll be forgiven if you don’t immediately realize he’s telling you to follow a smuggler back to his hideout without getting caught. Once the quest text clarifies it for you, jump on the conveniently located quad ATV out front and track down that “sheep.”
Sure, the quad eats terrain like this for breakfast. But there’s a road, like, TEN FEET to your left.
When you reach the quest marker, you’ll see the smuggler drive by, trailed by a truckload of lackeys. Follow him. He sticks to the roads, so you can switch to the spare truck to tail him if you don’t want to stay on the quad. Whatever you decide, just stick to the usual, “not too close, not too far” strategy (80–100 meters seems to work just fine) and he’ll be none the wiser.
When the smuggler pulls to a stop at the “vantage point” (a sort of scenic overlook with a cave behind it), your assignment will change from “follow” to “kill”. Grab your guns and head up the hill.
Two quick tips for the upcoming fight: First, stealth isn’t really necessary here, because the half dozen or so enemies you’ll encounter can’t call for reinforcements or kill hostages or anything like that. Second, most of those enemies are gray-and-red-clad Royal Army regulars, but the smuggler himself is the guy dressed a little bit like a fireman.
With the “sheep” slaughtered, it’s time to enter the “vault”, also know as the cave, and see what he had hidden.
Looks like a couple guards and a bunch of crates. Oh, and some blood diamonds on the desk.
Grab the diamonds and head back outside, where more soldiers await. Take them down any way you like (sniping from the cave is a good way to start), then borrow one of their trucks to make your escape.
Despite the quest briefing, you’re not actually going back to Longinus’s hilltop tent. Instead, you’ll take the diamonds on a strangely peaceful getaway ride to the drop point, an unassuming shack along the river.
Recompense
Another lost sheep to track down, snuff, and loot. Okay, we’re getting the swing of things now. This time, the quest marker will put you in the middle of a bridge and tell you to stay hidden as the smuggler passes underneath in a RHIB. There’s a fence right on the bridge you can crouch behind.
Once the smuggler passes under you, leap off the bridge and swim to the nearby jet ski to trail him.
Keep your distance. You won’t miss a thing if you hang back 100 meters or so. When he pulls over, do the same and follow him up the hill. You’ll reach a rocky slope with a smattering of soldiers spread across it, which leads to a pretty cool cave-temple-turned-evil-guy hideout.
The guards here go down easily, but the smoothest strategy may be to snipe the defender playing lookout on the southwest corner, then charge the rest. If you move swiftly, you can wipe most of them out before they even get a shot off.
At this point, there’s a decent chance the smuggler (if he’s still alive) will actually make the very bad career choice to charge out of his hideout and attack you directly, accompanied by a few more assaulters.
Easy pickings.
Search the smuggler’s body to get the vault key and head into the cave to see what you can find.
Behind the locked vault door, you’ll be met by a few more guards—note the explosive tanks in the room—as well as a lovely Kyra statue and, in the next room, another velvet burrito of blood diamonds lying open on the table.
Oddly enough, the hardest battle of the quest is still to come. As with your previous assignment, reinforcements have arrived, and they’re much tougher than the area’s original force. You can still take them, but you may wish to soften them up with a few grenades thrown from inside the tunnel.
Once that’s done, all that’s left is to jump on your jet ski (or the smuggler’s RHIB, if you prefer) and take a short and peaceful voyage across the water to the drop point. Mission accomplished.
A High Price
Same basic procedure as before, but this time the quest marker sends you to a cliffside overlook with a buzzard nearby. That’s a little too convenient to be coincidence, isn’t it? Sure enough, a two-car convoy will roll by on the road below. Hop in the buzzard and give chase—but again, keep your distance. No swooping in and pounding them with a grenade launcher. Yet.
The cars will come to rest atop a gentle hill with a little cabin on top. Now you can thump ‘em with grenades from above. Or, you know, land and do it the old-fashioned way.
The enemies here include a sniper, so take him down first. The only possible threats among the remaining defenders are a heavy gunner and the smuggler himself, who will probably be hiding inside the cabin. If you can, huck a grenade through the door or window to shut him down.
Loot his body and head down the stairs at the rear of the cabin to the cache.
The basement underneath is actually several times larger than the cabin above, and leads to a legit shootout with more than half a dozen Royal Guard troops. After mowing through them, you’ll find the diamonds on a desk against the far wall.
On your way back out, pause at the stairs and toss a grenade through the window to soften up the reinforcements.
Regardless of how well you throw, the cabin offers excellent cover from which to clear a path through your enemies. When they’re down, jog or fly to the dropoff box at the ominously named site, the Lagoon of Tears.
A Final Penance
Wow. What’s scarier than a Bible-quoting arms dealer? How about a sloshed Bible-quoting arms dealer? Longinus doesn’t so much give you this quest as he does collapse in a heap, but you pretty much know the drill by now.
Jog over to the quest marker and use the grapple spot just to the east to reach the vantage point. You’ll see two defenders and a charger standing near some sawhorses on a side road. The smuggler will pull up in a technical, pick up the charger, and continue down the road.
Now, you have options. You can jump in the unarmed jeep that should be right next to you on the road. You can take a buzzer, if you rode one to get here. Or you can run down the road on foot until you reach a guard post where a fully-armed technical is just waiting for you to steal it from its owners.
Whatever you do, get it done quickly so you can follow the smuggler’s vehicle. Keep an eye on your mini-map as well, because he’s going to turn off on a little mountain road near Shining Minds Reformatory and you don’t want to miss the turn.
He’ll stop at a remote cabin protected by a few guards, including a heavy gunner.
Take them out however you like. They’re not great strategists. You can literally snipe the smuggler’s entire contingent of bodyguards from the approach road.
After taking down the smuggler as well, head to the cache under the porch. But blow up the barrels nearby first.
Below, you’ll find the usual larger-than-above room, minimal resistance, and the blood diamonds.
Head back up the stairs, but be careful. Remember when you blew up those barrels earlier for no reason at all? This is why.
Yep, the reinforcements include a sniper. So, while blowing the barrels does remove them as an offensive option, it also keeps them from blasting you to atoms if an enemy aims wide. Fair trade, we’d say.
The bad guys will also co-opt the technical out front if you left it operational, but you can just blow it up now with a well-aimed grenade. Or not, because once the soldiers here are all dirt-napping, the only thing left to do is get to the dropoff. And that’s a much faster trip on wheels than on foot. Especially when you run into more troops at the fork in the road.
For once, Longinus is actually present at the dropoff location. And he sobered up quick. He also gives you a little something: the Lk-1018 launcher, which is basically a portable, vehicle-demolishing mortar. Good gift.
