Regarding scarcity of ammo as well as things like lockpicks, crowbars, etc, let me offer a "Number 11", which I myself didn't recognize until second playthrough. Adding some scroll-down space because this is a bit of a spoiler..... ...the DUMP, in the Port Cacao area. I cleared this sector on first run, but never noticed that once it is under control, the Dump has a unique operation available: "Harvest Junk". Yields tons of parts, gunpowder, lockpicks, magazines, crowbars, wirecutters, explosives components, armor weave/ceramics, etc. Once I realized this, ammo shortages were never again a problem, and also all those other things which are fairly rare for loot drops; they're plentiful here. I've since sided with both junkyard gangs in different runs, "Harvest Junk" was consistently available afterward, so I don't think it's tied to which side you support in their feud. (edit; since typing this comment a while back, I've paid closer attention. Seems it does matter which side is supported. It's the current "ruling faction" (Nobles?) which provides Harvest Junk option. That's probably why I "never noticed" on my first playthrough...it really wasn't there. So, side with the old lady, lol). What I do is park one person here full-time, alternating between junk-scavenging and ammo/explosives-crafting. By late-game, had three full 6-person squads all with multiple 500-round stacks of AP ammo for all the calibers they were using. More utility-type items like lockpicks & crowbars than could ever use. Free-to-hire Larry is a good candidate for this job, because he's not very good in most respects, but does have good Explosive stat for ammo-crafting. (I also use him to quickly train up other mercs into "mid-range" Explosives - about 50/60-ish - so they can at least recognize landmines and use grenades/etc tolerably well).
Fantastic! This is a perfect example why you must open the OPs info on ALL sectors. There are special OPs in seemingly empty sectors that can spawn special events and influence other sectors.
Thanks for the tips and tricks 👍 this will come in very useful hope it will make the game enjoyable looks like a brilliant one will get back to you if I come across any problems thanks again durky
Glad to have you here. There is a JA3 googledoc that a few people had put together, you might want to look for it via google. "Jagged Alliance 3 google doc" or something along those lines. I found it via Reddit and used it for this video.
Hello Syken! Very helpful tips if I knew it before I have started but now I have most learned by myself. Tip number ten was new for me. Unfortunately I have lost Livewire during a fight. She was killed by a rocket. According to number two: My mercs all have a sniper gun. I hate this kind of sneaking. I am to slow to manage it. Thanks for this video!
Do you generally use multiple squads? If so, how many and why? Perhaps to manage takeovers of areas/mines? Does it really matter if you train militia with your main squad or a second one? Any advice on maybe some more advanced tips etc you may have gleaned would be appreciated. Your guides are really helpful to learn and help master this game.
Hi Zion, I tend to run two squads. The first one until I have enough income to substantiate the second one. In my main playthrough, I ended up with the free characters and basically hired trainers to make them great, but it equally works if you are just hiring a second squad. My experience is that you get more done when one trains / guards an area and another one pushes forward.
Jagged Alliance series veteran here. As in playing Jagged Alliance 2 like an addict ever since it came out and now JA3 as well. Generally I would recommend having one main squad you do most of your offensive fighting with and a second one for menial tasks like training militia or transporting equipment. Because of the way XP is allocated, you weaken yourself in the long run if a second squad does a big part of the objectives. Essentially you take a sector with the primary squad and then secure it with the secondary. Also, at least initially 4 mercs per squad is plenty.
Something I would like to know but have not been able to figure out is how Difficult Levels effect XP and drops. You can switch level during play, which if you wish, allows mines to be more productive while on First Blood, and enemy soldiers are much squishier. I have not found any difference in map based loot but enemy weapon drops are a little better on Mission Impossible, maybe. End of battle, special task XP is higher on MI, but quest XP seems to be the same. The only other thing that keeps me on MI level for battles is that I think tough enemies are worth XP, but I don't know if that is true. There is no vanilla way to track merc XP numbers. I just heard there is a mod that gives you that info, so if someone is using it, do the 2 shot baddies give more xp than the one shot baddies? Are there any other differences that can be confirmed?
I don‘t think that xp is affected by difficulty level. There is kill and quest xp and both are static to my understanding. The value is simply divided by the number of mercenaries that you have. So, if you want to level faster, you need to fight more or reduce the team size.
Thank you for making a response on my query! I got the XP mod and I can add more light to this conversation. Special missions are the same across difficulty levels. Sector conquest on MI is about 30% more XP then FB. With the XP mod I have discovered a background accrual of XP that is also better on MI. How you can farm this background experience is still a question. I think it’s split between successful actions like hitting bad guys, discovering stuff during combat, and getting an attribute boost. In one small battle of three Mercs versus eight my MI got a secret 100 XP on FB and about 150 on MI. I’m guessing you have to be a code reader to get more detail, but even if you have a mob of Mercs in one place, I would guess the active ones will get more credit than the ones that hide the whole time.
Took a while to train them. Once you get your hands on the north two mines, you are set to hold them for as long as you like. They produce enough income for one team forever. Plus they never run out (even on impossible difficulty).
...as a 'smart gamer' i knew most of these things before i started, so i approve the list and agree that these things are important, or at least good to know before starting ...
For reference, these have been recorded after I finished my blind run. It is a collection of things that I found out during my run and found it was worthy of sharing it with others :)
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #1 НАЧАЛО ПУТЕШЕСТВИЯ [Новый сезон] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/380Q7gLWGvk/mqdefault.jpg)
Just starting this game and must say this is one of the most useful guides esp to newcomers to the series like me
Great to hear that Kenneth, good luck on your run! :)
Regarding scarcity of ammo as well as things like lockpicks, crowbars, etc, let me offer a "Number 11", which I myself didn't recognize until second playthrough. Adding some scroll-down space because this is a bit of a spoiler.....
...the DUMP, in the Port Cacao area. I cleared this sector on first run, but never noticed that once it is under control, the Dump has a unique operation available: "Harvest Junk". Yields tons of parts, gunpowder, lockpicks, magazines, crowbars, wirecutters, explosives components, armor weave/ceramics, etc. Once I realized this, ammo shortages were never again a problem, and also all those other things which are fairly rare for loot drops; they're plentiful here.
I've since sided with both junkyard gangs in different runs, "Harvest Junk" was consistently available afterward, so I don't think it's tied to which side you support in their feud. (edit; since typing this comment a while back, I've paid closer attention. Seems it does matter which side is supported. It's the current "ruling faction" (Nobles?) which provides Harvest Junk option. That's probably why I "never noticed" on my first playthrough...it really wasn't there. So, side with the old lady, lol).
What I do is park one person here full-time, alternating between junk-scavenging and ammo/explosives-crafting. By late-game, had three full 6-person squads all with multiple 500-round stacks of AP ammo for all the calibers they were using. More utility-type items like lockpicks & crowbars than could ever use. Free-to-hire Larry is a good candidate for this job, because he's not very good in most respects, but does have good Explosive stat for ammo-crafting. (I also use him to quickly train up other mercs into "mid-range" Explosives - about 50/60-ish - so they can at least recognize landmines and use grenades/etc tolerably well).
Great Tip Cragnamorra,
appreciate sharing it.
Fantastic! This is a perfect example why you must open the OPs info on ALL sectors. There are special OPs in seemingly empty sectors that can spawn special events and influence other sectors.
Thanks for the tips and tricks 👍 this will come in very useful hope it will make the game enjoyable looks like a brilliant one will get back to you if I come across any problems thanks again durky
Let me know how it went.
Hey syken! Loved all your xcom videos! Happy to see you here. Where is that weapon chart you refer to?
Glad to have you here. There is a JA3 googledoc that a few people had put together, you might want to look for it via google. "Jagged Alliance 3 google doc" or something along those lines.
I found it via Reddit and used it for this video.
Hello Syken! Very helpful tips if I knew it before I have started but now I have most learned by myself. Tip number ten was new for me. Unfortunately I have lost Livewire during a fight. She was killed by a rocket.
According to number two: My mercs all have a sniper gun. I hate this kind of sneaking. I am to slow to manage it.
Thanks for this video!
Appreciate your comment and you are very welcome!
Do you generally use multiple squads? If so, how many and why? Perhaps to manage takeovers of areas/mines? Does it really matter if you train militia with your main squad or a second one?
Any advice on maybe some more advanced tips etc you may have gleaned would be appreciated. Your guides are really helpful to learn and help master this game.
Hi Zion,
I tend to run two squads. The first one until I have enough income to substantiate the second one.
In my main playthrough, I ended up with the free characters and basically hired trainers to make them great, but it equally works if you are just hiring a second squad. My experience is that you get more done when one trains / guards an area and another one pushes forward.
Jagged Alliance series veteran here. As in playing Jagged Alliance 2 like an addict ever since it came out and now JA3 as well.
Generally I would recommend having one main squad you do most of your offensive fighting with and a second one for menial tasks like training militia or transporting equipment. Because of the way XP is allocated, you weaken yourself in the long run if a second squad does a big part of the objectives.
Essentially you take a sector with the primary squad and then secure it with the secondary.
Also, at least initially 4 mercs per squad is plenty.
Another useful tip: If you lose control over a depleted mine it will continue to produce diamond shipments you can intercept.
Good tip, thanks for sharing.
Good to know, thanks Syken!
Happy to help!
Excellent, thanks 🙏
You are welcome!
Big tip to avoid rage quitting: make sure you have AP rounds for all your main weapons ASAP, in preparation for "the event".
Good tip, that is helpful.
Could you share a link to the Google sheet you reference? Thanks!
I think that I linked it in the comment section, IIRC
I can’t seem to find it any comments on this video nor the descriptive text.
Something I would like to know but have not been able to figure out is how Difficult Levels effect XP and drops.
You can switch level during play, which if you wish, allows mines to be more productive while on First Blood, and enemy soldiers are much squishier. I have not found any difference in map based loot but enemy weapon drops are a little better on Mission Impossible, maybe.
End of battle, special task XP is higher on MI, but quest XP seems to be the same.
The only other thing that keeps me on MI level for battles is that I think tough enemies are worth XP, but I don't know if that is true. There is no vanilla way to track merc XP numbers.
I just heard there is a mod that gives you that info, so if someone is using it, do the 2 shot baddies give more xp than the one shot baddies?
Are there any other differences that can be confirmed?
I don‘t think that xp is affected by difficulty level. There is kill and quest xp and both are static to my understanding. The value is simply divided by the number of mercenaries that you have. So, if you want to level faster, you need to fight more or reduce the team size.
Thank you for making a response on my query! I got the XP mod and I can add more light to this conversation. Special missions are the same across difficulty levels. Sector conquest on MI is about 30% more XP then FB. With the XP mod I have discovered a background accrual of XP that is also better on MI. How you can farm this background experience is still a question. I think it’s split between successful actions like hitting bad guys, discovering stuff during combat, and getting an attribute boost. In one small battle of three Mercs versus eight my MI got a secret 100 XP on FB and about 150 on MI. I’m guessing you have to be a code reader to get more detail, but even if you have a mob of Mercs in one place, I would guess the active ones will get more credit than the ones that hide the whole time.
Tipp #10: You must have spent many ingame weeks just to train the mercs. At what stage of the game did you do that?
Took a while to train them. Once you get your hands on the north two mines, you are set to hold them for as long as you like. They produce enough income for one team forever. Plus they never run out (even on impossible difficulty).
when you are doing the stealth part, what does the big red skull icon with like a cross behind it mean?
That is the silent kill mechanic, bascially whilst you are in stealth, you have a chance to instantly kill an unsuspecting target.
...as a 'smart gamer' i knew most of these things before i started, so i approve the list and agree that these things are important, or at least good to know before starting ...
For reference, these have been recorded after I finished my blind run. It is a collection of things that I found out during my run and found it was worthy of sharing it with others :)