Combat

Whether it’s an enemy, vehicle, or a deer in the middle of the road, you must fight your way through all of the enemies in Just Cause 3, and this section tells you how.

Finding Weapons/Ammo

Weapons storage can be found and raided for grenades and ammo within police stations and other fortified structures. During combat, you can collect ammo by running over a weapon with the same type of ammo. For example, if you’re using a shotgun, kill an enemy holding this weapon, then run over the gun to pick up the ammo.

Weapons can be switched out for your currently equipped gun by pressing Triangle/Y. Switching weapons to something that is compatible with your enemy’s ammo type keeps you in the fight longer.

Grenades can also be collected during combat. They have a floating grenade icon above their location. Simply run over the grenade to collect it.

Melee

Pressing Circle/B unleashes a highly damaging elbow on your enemy, knocking them back with the ability to kill them.

Tether

Your tether can be used for traversal, combat, stunting, and destructive fun. The tether could be considered the highest damage weapon since it can one-shot kill most enemies by throwing them or tossing objects at them.

Tether Kick

Tap L1/LB to tether an enemy just like you would tether to an object you want to pull yourself toward. This sends Rico flying feet first at the enemy, kicking the enemy a short distance leaving Rico standing and ready to fight the next enemy.

Tether Throw

Tether an enemy to an object, then increase the tension (L2/LT) before pressing Circle/B to send your enemy flying off into the direction of the other object you had tethered.

You can also tether pieces of the environment to the ground near the enemies, pulling towers of explosive barrels down onto the them. This is extremely helpful when you’re out of ammo or grenades.

Dual Tether

Tether two enemies together by firing the first tether hook, then release while aiming at the second target. Once you have the enemies connected, increase the tension.

Two-Handed

Two-handed weapons are great against infantry. They hold a medium amount of ammo, but can make short work of fuel tanks and armored infantry. Since two-handed weapons carry less ammo, make every shot count. Headshots are extremely effective with these weapons. Choose between assault rifles, an LMG, or shotguns.

Assault Rifles

Assault rifle choices vary, each offering different benefits for their use. The U-39 Plechovka and CS Predator provide fully automatic rates of fire, but inflict less damage than the others. If you’re a more accurate shot, consider taking the CS37 Misfortune. It allows for three-shot bursts. The UPM61, another good choice, fires one shot with each pull of the trigger.

LMG

The Urga Vdova 89 is your LMG. While you’re likely to miss a load of shots while using it, this isn’t a problem because this machine gun carries a ton of ammo. It’s great against enemies and destroying bases, but ammo is sometimes hard to come across so you may find yourself searching for a new weapon when you run out.

Shotguns

Shotguns have the most damage of all two-handed weapons. This comes at a price, however. They are effective only at close range, which means you must tether your way in close to the enemies to deal damage. You have the choice between a semi-automatic U-96 Kladivo or the fully automatic Automat U12.

Dual-Wield

Dual-wield weapons are your standard fare. Ammo for these guns is easily found on enemies and inside weapon racks. They excel at close range engagements, but can still prove to be a threat at mid-range if accurately used.

Pistol

Pistols are semi-automatic, meaning that only one shot is fired each time you pull the trigger. They deal more damage than SMGs, but require precision and a quick trigger finger to dispatch groups of enemies.

SMG

Submachine guns, or SMGs, are automatic handheld weapons, firing their entire clip if the trigger is not released. Firing in controlled bursts helps conserve ammo. Due to their lower accuracy, get in close before spraying bullets at your target.

Exotic

There are two very different weapons in the Exotic weapons section, and both are unlocked by collecting vintage parts.

The CS44 Peacebringer is a high powered revolver. It is easily the best mid-range option in the Dual-wield section. Landing headshots at range is the best way to eliminate enemies with this gun, as its slow fire rate loses most close range battles.

The U-24 Zabijak is the only shotgun in the Dual-wield tree. You need a long to mid-range weapon like an assault rifle equipped in your two-handed slot to help you work your way in close against the enemies. While the U-24 can take down destructive objects, it may not be the best choice as you will be very close to the explosive or other object you’re destroying.

Special

Special weapons are in the Destruction wing of the weapon sets. These guns are meant to deal large amounts of damage quickly. Use Special weapons against groups of enemies, vehicles, and destructible objects.

Rocket Launchers

While rocket launchers are easily the best weapons for taking down buildings and vehicles, ammo is scarce in most places. Even with gear mods, you still carry a very limited amount of ammo.

Rocket launchers should be used primarily against armored vehicles and larger structures, leaving your grenades and other weapons to destroy light infantry vehicles and their occupants.

Grenade Launchers

Grenade launchers deal less damage and are less accurate than rocket launchers, but those effects are countered by the increased ammo count.

Use grenade launchers to kill groups of enemies at a time, aiming for the center of the group and letting splash damage do the rest of the work.

Aim for weak points of larger destructive objects, such as support beams or exposed panels, to get the most out of every shot.

Sniper Rifles

While sniper rifles allow you to kill most human enemies with a single shot, you need to use the scope and aim for headshots on the tougher ones.

Sniper rifles can also be used to destroy objects from far away. Carefully plot out every shot. For example, to destroy a water or radio tower, you must aim for the support beams, taking them out until the structure is critically damaged and begins to collapse.

Exotic

The sole Exotic of the Special weapons family is the Urga Stupka-210. This initially can only be found behind Ancient Tombs after you’ve paid your respects. Once you’ve visited every Ancient Tomb, the Urga Stupka-210 becomes available for Rebel Drops.

The Urga Stupka-210 is a hand-held mortar that packs quite a punch.

Aiming this weapon is a little bit of a challenge. There is no clear indicator where the round will land, so you must adjust by aiming up or down to increase and decrease the range that the mortar round flies before impacting a target.

You can use it at close range for the greatest success, but this will most likely knock Rico over during the ensuing blast. Taller object make easy targets for the Stupka-210 so use it on things like radio towers or statues.

FOW

FOW Weapons are easily the strongest, most destructive weapons in the game. Each one is rewarded as a prize for completing different missions.

Dionysus PLDS-H: Unlocked after completing Missile Cowboy mission, this weapon grants you the assistance of a fighter jet that drops a payload of bombs on any target or location you mark.

The Thunderbird: This weapon can disable vehicles and Bavarium shields from long distances and becomes available after completing the Tangled Up in Blue mission.

M488: Fire the M488 from a distance and watch a small apocalypse happen on its target. Much like a rocket launcher, this weapon fires a rocket straight at its targets, but this one has a Bavarium powered warhead!

Grenades

Grenades are a great choice when taking on groups of infantry. Using them against larger groups of enemies conserves lots of ammo, helping to ensure you never have to run from battle.

When parachuting down into an area, you can use grenades to take out pieces of equipment or some emplaced enemies to make your landing area much safer. Grenades can be upgraded in the Mods menu.

GE-64 (Planted Explosives)

After completing the second mission, you are awarded with the GE-64 explosives. These can take a variety of forms, depending on the Mods you’ve equipped. They give you a fighting chance against tanks and other heavy vehicles, regardless of any other weapons you’ve equipped.

Use them to destroy anything and everything that gets in your way. Set up a trap for the enemy by placing them in the road or on a wall, then lure your foe toward the explosives.

Place them on some destructible objects like fuel tanks, billboards, or statues, then move away from the area before blowing them up to make yourself a bit harder to find.