Ubisoft's latest not-political-we-promise extrajudicial kill-'em-up is here, and it's a toughie. To help you get the best out of Ghost Recon Breakpoint, we've compiled a few tips and
1: Pick the right class
The first choice you make with Ghost Recon Breakpoint's gargantuan skill-tree is which class you want to roll with. Field Medic, Assault, Panther, or Sharpshooter.
Each of these has different perks, abilities, and strengths and then a final, ultimate, "technique," which is charged differently. The Panther, the game's stealth class, fills up their technique gauge with kills from stealth, kills and damage on drones, and close-range kills. Fill the bar as a Panther, and you can toss down a smokescreen, letting you vanish mid-firefight to vanish and live another day.
Panther also gives you passive bonuses letting you move faster, be harder to detect and then there's the small fact that suppressors equipped to your handguns and submachine guns don't nerf the damage.
Which is great if that's the way that you like to play.
On the flip side my personal favorite, the assault class, gives me extra health and injury resistance, a range of bonuses to assault rifles and shotguns, and the particular technique gives me massive recoil reduction and damage resistance for a time, with each kill lengthening the time it's active for.
Challenges for each class rely on adhering to these playstyles, so if you make an aspirational pick and say, go for sharpshooter before spending every minute two meters from the enemy in an endless firefight.
2: Turn off guided mode
I want to preface this point by saying: play however you want. If you just want to go from marker to marker hoovering up loot, don't let anyone stand in your way.
However, because such a massive part of the game is the recon aspect, the game's guided mode, which provides you with a few sketchy notes about the location of your mission and leaves you to work it out by looking at a map, is the way to go.
Playing with friends, this gives the people traveling with your something to do beyond watching the ground go by beneath the helicopter skids, but it also means you're more likely to stumble into something exciting.
3: Use your drone
If in doubt, scout and scout again.
In the game's opening moments you're given a powerful drone which is invaluable for scouting and gathering intel on a wide range of things. You can use this drone to identify enemy emplacements, spot patrols or even in co-op guide a friend through a hostile area, or act as a spotter for a friendly sniper.
Often, if a problem is kicking your butt, you can throw a drone at it to start unpicking it.
4: Rest, eat and drink
In the game, of course. We're not your parents. It sounds silly, but the "military survival" at the heart of Ghost Recon Breakpoint is for your own good. You don't get weaker if you skip meals, resting and water in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, but using them with give you powerful buffs.
Taking advantage of those buffs is the number one way to boost your combat effectiveness early game, with a rest at a Bivvy giving you a 60m boost to a stat of your choice.
5: Don't stress about your early choices
Outside of your choice of gender and face during the character correct screen, every single decision you make in the game can be changed or re-worked. Weapon attachments are reusable, classes can be changed and that weapon you love? You can find it again.
Have fun, experiment, and don't be afraid of taking some risks. Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a lot more open than its predecessor Wildlands, but also most open-world shooters out there, so if you're not enjoying a particular aspect, rework it and try something new.
Take on the Wolves
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint takes players to a high-tech island that has been taken over by renegade spec-ops soldiers. Launch a war of stealth against the Wolves - alone or with your friends.
