Guns

Finding Weapons in Bolivia

There are over 100 weapons waiting to be found and unlocked in Bolivia, and while that might seem overwhelming to think about, there are simple ways to make finding them an easier proposition.

When you find Intel in a province, you can use it to uncover the locations of Skill Points, resources, Side Missions and—you guessed it—weapons and parts. You won’t always get to choose to reveal weapons and parts with the first Intel you pick up, but if at first you don’t succeed… Jump from Intel to Intel in a given province and you’ll eventually uncover the option to have all weapons and parts in the province marked on your Tacmap. This will make finding new gear as easy as opening your map and marking it. You’ll still have to sneak past OpFor to actually lay hands on the goods, but knowing the location is half the battle.

Stats

Every gun in the game is broken down into seven individual stat groups which help explain a gun’s weaknesses and strengths. Pay close attention to these, as they help you understand how the gun will behave before you’ve even equipped and fired it.

You will also want to take special care while equipping and unequipping parts onto your guns. Most parts will have an immediate effect on specific stats when you add or remove them. This will allow you to increase particularly low stats to negate weaknesses in a weapon, or improve on an already solid stat to make a strength an even greater boon to your operation.

Damage

As the name implies, Damage is the amount of hurt per bullet your lead-slinger deals. This stat reflects mostly the caliber of the weapon and the power of the round used (For example, 9mm is a larger caliber than 5.56 NATO but the 5.56 NATO round travels at higher speeds due to the amount of gunpowder in the cartridge which buffs the amount of energy delivered on impact.) The higher the bar, the more death you’ll deal. The lower the damage…well, let’s just say, there are always headshots.

Accuracy

Accuracy isn’t about the general accuracy of a weapon when fired, it’s about how much the gun sways left, right, and up, along with the spread of the weapon. Because a weapon has many moving parts, the bullets are not always shot on the same axis as the barrel itself (and even the barrel moves and bends when firing in full auto) which generates spread. A high Accuracy stat means the gun’s going to stay right around where you’re pointing as you hold the trigger down, while a low Accuracy stat means the gun will swagger like a drunken pirate walking the plank.

If your chosen weapon’s Accuracy is low, try firing single shots or in small bursts to help keep it under control.

Handling

Handling is greatly affected by the weight of the weapon, which in turn affects its mobility. When using a heavier weapon, it will take longer to stabilize the weapon after you point it in a different direction, or aim down the sight. This also slightly affects your movement and reload speed. Basically, you can shoot things faster with a lighter weapon than with a heavy weapon. However, the advantage of a heavier weapon is that it absorbs recoil better so is easier to control under fully automatic fire. Even with a high Handling stat, you’ll still need to make minor adjustments to your aiming while firing to stay on target, but with practice this is almost a non-issue. Just like weapons with low Accuracy, if the weapon that has stolen your heart has bad Handling, try firing in bursts or single shots to avoid difficulties.

Range

Range is the distance a bullet will travel before gravity stuffs it to the ground. A higher Range stat means your bullet will travel farther before it makes a dramatic curve toward the solid earth below, while a lower stat means you’ll need to be up close and personal if you want your bullets to actually hit their intended targets. Besides distance, Range also expresses how well a weapon maintains its damage potential over distance. Weapons with a low Range lose a lot of damage quickly at long ranges while weapons with high Range values see the damage per bullet value drop significantly less. Aside from adding additional parts, there’s not much that can be done to mitigate a bad Range stat, save for trying to compensate by raising your gun above your target before pulling the trigger. This is a high-level skill that takes a lot of practice with a given weapon to become adept, but it is possible, especially with sniper rifles. Besides distance, Range also expresses how well a weapon maintains its damage potential over distance. Weapons with a low Range lose a lot of damage quickly at long ranges while weapons with high Range values see the damage per bullet value drop significantly less.

Always make a point to test your weapons out before taking them off into battle. Find a nice, long stretch of land and take a few practice shots at a target of your choice to get a feel for when the bullet is about to drop. If it falls shortly after being fired, you can bet that that weapon is intended for close-range combat, while the inverse means that your weapon is meant for far fights. Experiment and you’ll get the hang of it.

Rate of Fire

Rate of Fire is just that: the rate at which your gun fires bullets. A high Rate of Fire is not always a good thing, just like a low Rate of Fire isn’t always bad; it really boils down to factors such as magazine size, Accuracy, Damage, and Handling. If your Rate of Fire is high, but your magazine can only hold 20 bullets, you’ll burn through them before you can try to compensate for muzzle climb or sway. On the flip side, if your Damage is low, then a low Rate of Fire isn’t a great thing, especially if you’re under enemy attack and you’re backed into a corner—you’ll need firepower to break out of those situations and a low Damage stat mixed with a low Rate of Fire doesn’t really provide that. What it boils down to is the specific weapon itself and the weapon type it belongs to. A sniper rifle or a shotgun with a low Rate of Fire is par for the course, while an SMG, which generally has low Damage stats, that has a low Rate of Fire is a promise of choppy waters when things get tough.

You’ll need to know what your weapons are supposed to be used for in order to know if their Rate of Fire is going to be an issue, so make a point to read our descriptions for each weapon type if you want to get a clear idea.

Noise Reduction

This stat provides answers to a simple but important question: Can this weapon be used for stealth? If the Noise Reduction is less than a quarter full and/or has no attachable suppressor, then the answer is no.

Noise Reduction determines the likelihood of being detected by enemies when you fire your weapon. If it’s high, you’ll be able to take out enemies and they’ll be none the wiser. If it’s low, then you should take note that your gun doubles as a bullhorn which sounds at every pull of the trigger. The Noise Reduction stat is really only effective when it’s 75% or higher. If it’s lower than that it’ll become very difficult to gauge whether or not an enemy will hear you when you fire, making it a toss up on when you’ll be detected or not. That’s why you should generally only worry about Noise Reduction if your weapon can have a suppressor equipped.

Penetration

Penetration is your weapon’s ability to shoot through walls and objects. If it’s high, your bullets will pass through objects like they are spectral. This can be particularly effective if you’ve marked enemies and they move indoors. With a high Penetration weapon, you could shoot at the wall where the enemy’s mark is and still take him out. If there’s something you need destroyed, but it’s behind an object or a wall, high Penetration can help you with that.

Low Penetration, on the other hand, just means that your bullets will stop as soon as they hit an object or a wall. It won’t have an effect on your gun in a negative way, it will just limit any additional options that a high Penetration would allow.

Stability

Guns are powerful devices that create tiny explosions inside of narrow chambers to propel projectiles toward a desired location. It’s no wonder then that guns often have the tendency to push and pull in different directions while firing. Accuracy and Handling have direct influences on where the gun is likely to go when you pull the trigger and how violently it will move while getting there. If your Accuracy and Handling are low the gun will spray up, down, left and right at random. There are ways to manage this movement, but a lot of it comes down to having decent Accuracy and Handling stats—though, it should be noted that a high Rate of Fire can play a big part in instability as well.

More than anything, however, you’ll want to have a solid Accuracy stat. The Accuracy stat determines how much your gun sways left and right while you hold the trigger. It’s very difficult to control or predict, which makes a weapon with low Accuracy very challenging to use. Handling, on the other hand, determines how much your gun will climb while you hold the trigger. This is much easier to predict and control than a bad Accuracy stat. You’ll always know where the gun is going to go with high Accuracy, but low Handling, it’s going to go up! Simply pulling down your weapon while you hold the trigger will help to negate this climb. This will take a bit of practice and you’ll have to use more or less force while firing depending on the weapon, but once you have a grip on a weapon’s muzzle climb, you’ll have little issue dropping enemies with weapons that have even the lowest Handling stat.

Make sure to always test your weapons and get a feel for them before taking them into combat. It’s important to know how your guns work and where they’ll pull when you pull that trigger.

Parts

While exploring, you’ll not only find new weapons, you’ll find parts for those new weapons. Weapon parts allow you to customize your weapon and adjust its stats. If a weapon has a particularly low Accuracy stat, you can equip a new scope or maybe replace the barrel to raise it, for example. While you have the ability to customize your weapons to fit your playstyle, you’d be better off trying to remove a gun’s particular weakness by attaching parts that boost its lowest stats. There are enough guns around that you’ll have little issue finding a weapon that fits your style, but if parts are properly attached you can turn weaknesses into strengths and good stats into great stats.