Assassinations

Min and his generals aren’t the only ones who can wage a psychological campaign. Assassination quests are all about striking terror into the hearts of your enemies by sneaking in, putting one of their leaders to sleep for good, and disappearing without a trace.

Assassination quests always have four parts:

1.Kill the commander without anyone seeing you.

2. Loot his body for his dog tags.

3. Hide his body to create confusion (optional).

4. Leave the area while remaining undetected.

As always, Assassinations are highly open-ended quests, so you can complete them any number of ways. For example, some players will slip in, kill only the commander, and slip out. Others will make sure no one sees them by systematically stealth-killing every enemy in the base. Both strategies are fine, as far as the game is concerned. So as usual, our advice here should be considered guidelines for those who want them, not rigid rules for those who don’t.

One final note: the locations listed here are where the quests are assigned. The actual area of operations is typically a short jog away.

Bhirabata Outpost

Location: x:533 y:810

Some guards are occupying a good vantage point in the mountains. Why not show them they’re far from immune up there?

You’ll need some handy grapple-swinging techniques just to reach the vantage point, but once you see the stone arch, you’re nearly there.

The commander is pretty well protected by heavies and other units, mostly facing south. Not an easy approach if you want to stay stealthy. But you can climb the ledge to the north of the stairs even though it doesn’t have blue ropes on it.

Hug the cliffside to the north, scrambling over the rocks until you can drop down behind the crates beside the house.

Watch out for the heavy on patrol. When he goes by, you’ll have a straight shot to the back of the house and the commander.

If you don’t care about stealth, snipe down as many of the enemies from afar as you can (be sure to use a silenced weapon and move around a bit so they can’t zero in on you), then use the same path to approach. You should be able to eliminate nearly every enemy in the camp before you actually get there.

Keo Logging Camp

Location: x:419 y:760

An influential commander is taking a break at a confiscated house. Seems like a good opportunity to exert some influence of your own.

Note the sniper on the roof as you approach. He’ll need to go down. But there’s a good chance they’ll overlook his body if they don’t hear the shot. Don’t try to skirt around the compound using the road to the north. It’s at the bottom of the hill, which gives the enemies on the slope a great angle from which to see you, but leaves you with lousy shooting angles to snipe them.

The camp’s east side is bordered by dense scrub and fencing, perfect for hiding. This is one of those camps where it’s a perfectly viable strategy to make some noise to let them know you’re here—take out the sniper on the roof, or the heavy flamer if the sniper’s already down—and then pick off the defenders from cover as they come to investigate.

It makes for a funny-looking screen, but in-game he’ll never know what hit him.

Finally, be aware you can shoot right through the wicker fencing here.

Kyra Tea Terraces

Location: x:391 y:330

If you’ve played through the campaign mission “City of Pain”, you should recognize the location of this quest. It’s the warehouse where you snuck onto the truck. The enemy placement is slightly different, but most of your previous strategy should still work.

Killing the commander is easy. He stands right at the loading platform, in full view from a full 180-degree arc. However, his underlings are arranged all around, so looting and moving his body without anyone noticing is a much tougher proposition.

You have two basic options. One is to insert just as you did before, sneaking in through the green fence around the warehouse or dropping through the hole in the ceiling. Just make sure to tag the guard to the west of the warehouse, because he’ll wander in and out and has a great chance of seeing you.

There’s also usually a guard inside the building with the commander, so you’ll have to deal with him. Your thrown rocks are key here, as they can pull guards into safer-to-kill locations and even get the commander to move away from the open doorway, where too many outsiders have a chance of seeing you nab him.

The second option is to systematically wipe out any enemy who could see you commit the act. We’d start on the northeast corner, near the shack, and work counterclockwise around the perimeter.

Our favorite trick? Snipe the explosive barrels across the lot, then slip into the warehouse and plant C4 when everyone runs to investigate. Once they reset, snipe any potential witnesses from the roof and then blow the C4 at the commander’s feet.

If you have it, the Drag Takedown move is very useful here. With it, you can immediately pull the commander’s body back into the warehouse. Without it, he’ll fall off the loading platform, forcing you to jump down and carry him all the way around the warehouse, in full view of anyone left alive.

Lhumtse Barracks

Location: x:784 y:602

Long sight lines exist in this location, making it one of the more challenging stealth approaches. And the yard filled with pumped-up chargers doesn’t help a bit.

So forget stealth and go for speed. Set up on the rocky hill to the northeast and grab a silenced sniper rifle with a decently sized clip. Use it to pop the two mortar operators, the commander, and the barrel at the base of the building all in quick succession.

Next, sweep south and hit the explosive barrel near the guard post, then peg the chargers who are probably now looking around the yard wondering what happened. You may have to move around a bit to keep them from zeroing in on your position, but there shouldn’t be too many left.

Once the area’s clear, slide in, take and loot the commander’s corpse, and slip away.

Pranijagat School

Location: x:348 y:623

First things first, get off the road. The commander is about to come up the road in a truck and, if he sees you, the quest fails.

Going in through the front arch is risky, but if you don’t care about stealth there’s a barrel right beside the guard working on the car.

Instead, skirt around the north, through the forest, and you can come in through the east side of the compound, which is patrolled by a single guard.

The commander’s in plain view of everyone, so your chances of a stealth takedown are limited. However, if you’re patient, he’ll wander alone into the garage. Once he does, you can use thrown rocks to lure him out back and take care of things in private.

Rochan Brick Co. Shipping

Location: x:392 y:504

As you approach the island temple this quest sends you to, veer south of the east-side stairway—which just isn’t a very stealthy approach vector—and go up the slope, where you’ll find a great bush to hide in and survey the scene.

You’ll see a grand total of four enemies, which makes this a pretty simple quest whether you want to go stealth or sniper. If you’re going stealth, just stick to the edges and draw your targets out (the shack to the south has a very close body-dumping spot, incidentally). For a sniper with a silenced weapon, it’s possible to trepanate all four targets from the safety of your bush if you shoot quickly and accurately enough.

Rochan Brick Co. Storage

Location: x:441 y:540

If you approach the farm from the south, you can get a good view of the chaos from the rocks above. It looks as if the farmers and their animals aren’t thrilled with a convoy of thugs rolling through their property. Bet you can ease their suffering.

The civilian here is allowed to see you, so don’t worry about her. The three soldiers up top are a challenge, but you can completely avoid them.

It’s possible to draw the commander behind the house near the water’s edge. When he walks onto the lower pathway to the west, drop down behind the house and throw a rock down the path.

When he investigates, drop to the shed along the shore and keep throwing rocks. Drop him like a stone, toss his corpse in the shed, and disappear to collect your winnings.