_ctOS CONTROL CENTER / PAWNEE

LOCATION // MAP

Location / Pawnee // ctos Control Center

1. Bernai Island Beatdown

Location / Pawnee // ctOS Control Center

Overview

Completion Points: Data hack from patrolling guard, then hack into ctOS control center

Dangers: Ten guards (Veteran x6, Elite x4), armed with shotguns and machine guns. One guard with data to hack. Two Shot-Callers. Reinforcements usually called after you defeat three guards.

Reinforcements (up to two foes—Gunman or Veteran—per vehicle), appearing on foot.

Insertion Points

This is also the City Hotspot known as Bernai Island. It is unique because you can only reach the island by water. Aside from the lighthouse, it is the only location not accessible by car. So either swim or pilot a boat to one of the following insertion points, and study the pathways across this compact island, filled with foes.

Covered Jetty (West)

This is the ideal location to begin your infiltration, as it’s not populated by many guards (there are only two and they aren’t that close). You can take either of the island’s paths to the harbor or a third perimeter path to the left (north), around the edge of the main building cluster ahead. Cameras are accessible, and it’s reasonably safe here.

Rusty Jetty (South)

Though it’s safer than clambering up at the main harbor, this out-of-the-way jetty and metal shack only allows you to sneak behind the harbor buildings to the right (east) after running along the shore for a moment. Fortunately, the guard you need to hack is on the other side of the first building you’ll see, so you can use cameras to gain his data.

Main Harbor (East)

Most of the guards are concentrated here, and if you’re looking for a violent firefight, this is the place to start one, though it’s much better to begin from the middle of the island where you have actual cover. Highly dangerous (unless you’re floating by on a boat, trying to hack the guard with the data), there are three points to step off onto:

The south jetty leads to a fishing shack and the guard with the data. But you have to face all the enemies from here to the control center.

The central jetty means you’re seen from both sides and have nowhere to retreat to, so this isn’t a safe position, though the moored boat means you can use this as an escape route.

The steps by the marsh grass to the north, at the side of the stilt shack, allows swift access to and from the control center. It is a good place to sneak up and onto, providing you haven’t already been discovered.

Rugged Rocks Jetty (Northwest)

This rickety jetty has a pathway that hugs the northern rocky hill and allows you to head to the front of the control center area, but you must navigate past the guards. First, though, it joins with the Covered Jetty (West) and is another good option for mooring your boat, as foes never check this far.

Island Interior and Control Center

If you’re viewing this island from above, there’s a lean-to in the central hill overlooking the four fishing huts of the harbor. It’s worth checking these huts, as there are enough junction boxes, canisters, and turpentine cans to create a firework display of explosions; this helps you remove the foes in this rather confined area. The foe with the data you need begins at the south shack and patrols northwest. The control center is up a rocky beach path to the island’s northeast.

Progression Plans

The west and south jetties are the best places to start your infiltration. You’re also fortunate that any reinforcements that are called don’t arrive by boat (only pedestrian guards show up), and you’re on an island! As long as you’re careful, you can use stealth and your smartphone without needing a gun—though a firefight on this island is explosively entertaining too.

Passive // Smart: Minimal Human Interaction on the Isle

Difficulty:

If you want to obtain the data and hack the control center without even touching any enemies, step off at the rusty southern jetty and move quietly to the steps behind the first harbor cottage. Hide here and access a camera, point it toward the guard with the data, and hack him.

Now simply move from camera to camera until you reach the guard with his own camera; he’s northeast of the main harbor, on the small sandy path up to the intrusion location. Explode the junction box by the side of the intrusion point so the guard with the camera heads up the path to inspect it. Then hack when the intrusion point becomes visible in the guard’s camera view. Easy!

Aggressive // Smart: Attacking Your Targets Using Guile

Difficulty:

This route begins at the west jetty. Use the cameras to mark all the foes you can, then creep up to the lean-to atop the small hill and remove the foe under the metal roof. Then head south, toward the cottage with the hotspot check-in on it, and bring down the second enemy.

Continue around to the building on the island’s southeast section, creeping around the water’s edge and dropping the foe guarding the jetty near an explosive canister. Then sneak all the way back and bring down the foe on the left-hand path, above the cottages and overlooking the west jetty.

Five to go! By now, the guard with control room access has wandered up the lower path behind the cottages, so follow him to the rock, attract the guards using the phone by the log pile, and when they both turn to look, quickly tackle them before they see you. Quickly return to the path and remove the foe at the start of the rocky path to the access router.

Three to go! The remaining enemies are in the harbor area and don’t need to be confronted. However, you can coax them away from the jetties, where it’s impossible to melee-strike them without being noticed, by blowing up the junction box next to where the nearest guard is standing. The others begin to fan out and hunt. Simply retreat to the upper path and the grassy area, and follow them, then tackle them one at a time.

Aggressive // Violence: Furious Gunfire to Create a Corpse Pile

Difficulty:

With ten guards and nowhere to run, violence can escalate more quickly than normal, and if you’re on the harbor side of the action, you can find yourself easily outgunned. However, there are a few methods to ensure you overrun this area single-handedly:

Start from the west jetty, and shoot the foes from range, waiting for others to appear and then tagging them from the safety of the boats and other cover on the beach area.

The shotgun is an exceptional weapon in this close-quarter fighting. Lurking behind cottages and stepping out and blasting foes is straightforward and effective.

You can attempt to lay traps with lures or IEDs along the pathways where the enemy walks. Lob grenades at the cluster of foes on the harbor jetties too.

Sniper rifles aren’t as helpful, unless you moor yourself on a boat, out of range of the enemy, and start very-long-range takedowns; it’s like shooting fish in a barrel!

By far the most impressive (and dangerous) takedowns occur by setting off chain reactions. From point-blank range, you can blast turpentine cans with your shotgun into foes running at you, and they explode a second later. Or shoot (or hack) the junction boxes and blast the pressurized canisters and other explosive scenery to thwart foes; hacking is also feasible, but it’s easier to shoot during a fracas. Grenades can set off explosions across the harbor jetties too.

Gaining Control

Once you’ve dealt with the island’s guards, move to the router box (physically or remotely) and hack. After solving the hotspot, there are three Video Logs to hack and watch and the ctOS server to hack (via a quick camera change).

Solution: Hotspot

You can hide to the side by the AC fans to minimize your chances of being spotted while you hack the access point. After hacking the hotspot, you’re free to leave; just hop over the rocks to your left and swim to freedom (and out of the search area) or start a vicious firefight.