Hidden Areas

[Oh. daesu]

Is there much in the way of hidden areas in the game? 

As it happens, my copter was shot down by a missile. Leaving me bobbing up and down in a lake in the Aqua Verde province. From there I could see a cave leading to a secret hideout. 

Though, really this secret place would have been revealed once you have gathered enough intel and went after the skill pts et.al. 

But still, I wondered if others have seen such hidden places. And also other pop references or easter eggs in the game.

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

@Voyager42 and I found a hidden drug cave off one of the rivers.  We ended up finding it because we were looking for an Intel point (!) and couldn't figure out where it was above ground (there weren't any buildings).  @Voyager42 caught it as I kept buzzing by.  We drove a zodiac into the cave about 1/2 way and then swam in the rest.  There were like 8-10 guys, some Intel and maybe a weapon crate, but not much else.  Still kinda cool and we probably wouldn't have found it if we weren't looking for the Intel.  

 

[quinch1199]

Lots of the hidden areas have Kingslayer collectables and nothing else so I'm not 100% sure Intel gathering will uncover them, that said I stole a Cartel two seat "Dune buggy" last night and spend more than an hour just driving through and around undiscovered areas! I wasn't uncovering weapon crates or medals etc but I uncovered Intel & Kingslayer files leading me to believe the two are discovered separately.

I could be wrong but maybe it works like this:

Story leads to Intel, Intel has three "flavours" - Story Missions, Materials (medals, skill points, side missions), Resources (weapon parts, convoys etc). 

Each of the Intel results leads you to areas to investigate. Once you've "Discovered" an area items like Kingslayer files appear. 

This is how its working it seems to me from my subjective viewpoint.

So random exploration is encouraged as you'll never get all Kingslayer files unless you visit "all the places". 

Thinking back to open beta actually this is correct. I'd collected ALL intel and completed all missions in the 2nd area we had to run with but still had officially one Kingslayer file to find. It was only on impulse that i wanted to climb the highest mountain....and there it was! It never showed up previously. However, I feel such places are marked with a "?" anyway to try and get you to go there aren't they? That I can't remember. 

So last night I explored ALL of Media Luna, Tabacal, Monte Punco, Espiritu Santo & Villa Verde. Literally well over an hour of just driving, occasional stops to collect Kingslayer files and i think i fired about 5 rounds the whole trip. 

Next up...Road Trip South! lol!

One such discovery last night was a shrine to "Mama Coca" ... just randomly in the middle of a Coca field. The other major discovery last night is how the Radio channel changes AND the chat of the Ai team mates changes as you move into different regions...its subtle but an astounding level of detail I was loving last night.  

 

[Oh. daesu]

@DeadSockPuppet yeah sounds like the same spot.

@quinch1199 glad to hear that. Eventually get to that approarch. So far, going for intel. Feels very different play when getting in and out of a compound without a shot as a good result.

 

[quinch1199]

So far, going for intel. Feels very different play when getting in and out of a compound without a shot as a good result.

That's the approach I try always, I tend to always have to take out snipers and a couple of sentries but I'm getting better at sneaking! (I managed to get in and out to get my Vector undetected!).

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

I can confirm that the Kingslayer files are kept in the hidden (?) areas.  Not all hidden areas have a file, but all files are in those area.  I confirmed this by finding a couple files in the first two areas that I hadn't collected by hitting those areas.