How to play the raid in Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a step forward for the franchise in a number of ways, one of which is the inclusion of raids for the first time. And, unlike Ubisoft's other tactical shooter, The Division 2, the first raid in Ghost Recon Breakpoint is included as part of the launch package, Operation Greenstone.

Here's what you need to know and how you play it.

What is the Ghost Recon Breakpoint raid?

The raid in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, while connected to the main story arc of life and happenings on Auroa, is an entirely separated mission and also entirely optional. As in other games, such as The Division 2, the raid is designed to be hard and is for high-level players to take on.

It takes place on Golem Island, up in the top right-hand corner of the map, the landmass shrouded by clouds. It's called Project Titan and it involves "super robots."

How to play the raid

There are two parts here. The first is whether you're ranked high enough to play the raid and the second is where you find it.

The latter is easier to address first. The raid is accessed through Jericho, one of the ex-Skell Tech employees who call Auroa home. Jericho can now be found with the homesteaders at Erewhon. When you're there, you can find her just off to the side of the war room where you find Mads Shultz. Jericho is at a desk in front of a laptop.

But, and this is the key part, you can't play the raid until your gear score is 150. There wouldn't be any point going in under-geared because the raid wouldn't last long and you'd probably fail. After all, raids are meant to be extremely challenging.

So, at least for the first part of your Breakpoint playtime, the raid is off-limits. It's the only part of the game currently locked behind a gear score, and that's probably for the best. Everything else in the game you can attack whether you're geared up or not.

As of November 28, the Raid, Project Titan, is open to players to attack following an initial volcanic eruption.

Project Titan introduces a four-player raid, which will test the teamwork and ability of the most experienced players as they take on the game's toughest end-game challenge. Project Titan takes place on Golem Island, an entirely new location off the coast of Auroa featuring unique environments full of sulfur, ash, and an active volcano. To successfully complete the raid, players will need to destroy four bosses: Baal, Quantum Computer, Gargoyle, and Cerberus.

A brief explanation of gear score

The gear score is one of the newest mechanics in Ghost Recon and has been one of the more debated topics in the run-up to the game's launch. If you've played The Division 2, it's a fairly similar idea. As you progress through the game your character will become more powerful, level up and earn higher level gear.

The gear score is a representation of the overall quality of the equipment, and your gear score is an average score of all your currently equipped gear. Gear has different rarity, different perks, and while higher level enemies can still be taken out with a single headshot, they may well be better armored or faster, or able to take you out with ease in some other way. But if you're fearless and have superb aim, you can still get it done at any gear score.

So how do you get a better gear score? Loot, buying weapons and gear from the shop, blueprints for weapons on demand, ultimately the same way you would increase it in any looter shooter. When you're out exploring or completing missions, keep your eyes peeled for the large military crates. Not all contain weapons or gear, many contain Skell credits, which you can then spend on gear.

And as Maria Shultz tells you in one of the tutorial missions, if there's a ton of enemies close by a crate, the chances are higher you're going to like what's inside.

More raids to come

Ghost Recon Breakpoint has a pretty hefty year one content plan, including new raids. Currently, episode two is set to have a "raid update" while episode three will add a new raid to the mix.