Ghost Recon Breakpoint sees you wage a war for survival against rogue Ghost Cole D. Walker, aka the very intimidating Jon Bernthal. Your battleground is the high-tech island of Aurora. It's an island of mercenaries, mud, drones, and danger, so getting all the intel you can before taking on the Wolves is crucial. That's what this guide is for.
These tips will help you prep for combat in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and cover the basics of sneaking, shooting and staying alive. For more detailed dives, check out our overview of Ghost Recon Breakpoint's weapons and our Breakpoint class guide.
Scouting is key
Every engagement in Ghost Recon hinges on how much information you have about the enemy. Knowing their location, equipment, cover and exit routes before you’ve even fired the first shot can be the difference between a smooth slaughter and barely clawing through a messy shootout.
Find a decent hiding spot nearby and throw out your drone (by default with the X key). From here you have a bird's-eye view of the immediate vicinity and can pin enemies to track their movements, see a vague description of their loadout, their gear level, and which faction they belong to.
Don’t ignore the minimap. It can show you vital information about where enemies are clustered (red splotches on the map) and your detection level. It won’t stop you from the odd ambush, but it gives you a mighty good idea of where the action currently is.
Stay hidden
Going loud is an option, but you are a Ghost, so it’s best to take things slowly and quietly. This is doubly important when you’re playing solo, where no help is coming.
Compared to Wildlands, Breakpoint has a much more sophisticated stealth system. Enemies can detect you visually, through sound, through gunfire, and through the carnage you’ve left behind. There are also UACs, helicopters and road patrols that can catch you out and quickly turn into a blazing gunfight.
With that added complexity, Breakpoint’s new camouflage system is an absolute godsend.
Go fully prone, and on most natural ground (i.e. not rocks or cement), you’ll be able to roll around like a pig in muck to blend in better, at the cost of reduced horizontal turning. This is a brilliant trick, as it lets you stay hidden until enemies are almost directly on top of you. It can also quickly break the line of sight of anything that is investigating your location, including Azrael UAVs.
You can’t move while camouflaged, but keeping in foliage while crawling will ensure you remain hidden to almost the same degree. If the corners of the screen are darker than normal, you’re well-hidden.
Make sure you equip a suppressor to at least one of your guns. This reduces its damage output, but that hardly matters if you can aim. While it won’t stop enemies from pinpointing you after firing a few times from the same position, meaning you should relocate between shots, it will make them take longer to find you.
Pin your objectives
Ghost Recon Breakpoint has a surprisingly advanced objective system, and it’s worth getting the hang of it before all those side missions come pouring in.
It’s not just story and side missions that can be pinned. Any objective—Ghost War, weapons, attachments etc.—can be tracked on your HUD, and more information can be found just by hitting the TAB key. Nearby side missions will also appear in the HUD, letting you save their location and return to them later when you have the time.
Best of all, everything you pin is colour-coded and corresponds with a pip on the HUD that shows you where to go. Knowing which missions you’re heading for at a glance without having to read a single word is massively useful when also trying to avoid a team of Wolves.
Look after yourself
One of the biggest changes between Wildlands and Breakpoint is the increased emphasis on survival. It isn’t a full-blown Sims-style system, but your survival needs will catch up with you if you ignore them for too long.
There are two significant elements of Breakpoint’s survival system: Stamina and injury.
Stamina dictates not only how far you can sprint, but also how smoothly you can traverse the terrain. Run out of stamina and you may find yourself rolling down a hill, taking damage along the way before coming to an ungraceful stop at the foot of a Wolves unit. Stamina automatically regenerates if you stop performing actions that use it up, but it can be semi-permanently depleted by pushing beyond the limit instead. At that point, the only thing you can do is drink clean water to regain the full amount.
Injuries do much the same thing for your health bar. Take a nasty fall or an unlucky shot, and you’ll incur an injury. This both blocks an entire segment of your health bar (two for a critical injury) until mended and slows down your movement to a sad limp. To patch yourself up, find some syringes—a disposable item that lets you heal while moving—or use the medical kit, which never runs out but prevents you from moving while being used.
It’s always a good idea to deal with injuries when you can, as you never know when an ambush or patrol is going to stumble across you. Last thing you need is a broken leg when doing a runner through three miles of jungle.
To keep injury and fatigue at bay, temporary buffs can be applied at the Bivouac in the Preparations menu. Stretching and Hydrate can improve your stamina and reduce how quickly it depletes, while Eating will add a nice 40% injury resistance.
Call in the crew
If you find yourself hitting a brick wall, Breakpoint does feature drop-in/drop-out co-op. Either invite a friend or open your game up to the public (press the O key by default) and hope a few people come to your aid.
Co-op has its upsides and downsides. On the one hand, gung-ho teammates can ruin your meticulous sneaking plans. On the other hand, there’s someone who can spot enemies, revive you, man the guns in certain vehicles while you drive, and a full team can instantly kill a whopping 12 enemies thanks to the sync kill drone consumable.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint’s Auroa is a much more punishing place than Wildlands’ Bolivia ever was. Hopefully these tips will help you survive long enough to take out the Wolves relatively unscathed.
