The short description of this mission - your brother was murdered on the island of Altis. There is a good bit of back story to it, but essentially you are landing on the war torn island to retrieve your brother's body. He is laying in one of the hundreds of churches or chapels that are scattered across the island. It's up to you to search, find clues, and gather information to find him and bring him home.
I start out with a backpack and a small 9mm machine pistol at the insertion point. I need to find my brother and bring his body back to the boat to complete the mission.
The task is enormous. The island is enormous. Let's go...
I make my way down the coast to the south. The mission has supplies scattered throughout the island in small caches. You can loot the caches and sell whatever you don't want on the open market to build up cash to do other things like gather intelligence or purchase fuel or transportation.
The first building I come to I'm unsure how this mission is structured. Do I shoot everyone? Who are the enemy? Is someone hunting me? I cautiously advance...
I find my first loot box. Each one contains items ranging from totally unimportant (a baseball hat) to extremely useful (advanced rocket propelled grenades). The loot is randomized and limited so that the extremely good stuff is hard to find and persistence will lead to good equipment...
After finding a few more loot boxes I start to upgrade my equipment. Soon I find one with an M4 in it and seven additional magazines. You can carry additional equipment in your backpack or on your tactical vest, but the weight penalty will slow you down and fatigue you faster. I feel like I'm ready for battle once I get the M4 though...
As you walk you encounter people, some of whom you can converse with (they have blue circles over their head). Some might have useful information, but most don't. Thus far, nobody has shown any aggression toward me. If you talk to enough people, they can start helping you build a picture of where your brother's body might be by excluding certain places...
One down, two hundred + more to search...
I come to my first bigger village and am on alert as I enter the town...
As I work my way through the town investigating loot boxes and asking people questions, I hear a rumble coming from the south side of the town. A BMP rolls down the road and dismounted infantry sweep through behind it. I stay down and let them pass...
After lots of boxes, I find a weapon that I absolutely fall in love with: the MX 3GL with a kick ass optics system. Cha-ching!
I query one civilian and he offers to share some information with me if I do a contract for him. I'll do whatever it takes...
My map thus far reads like a diary. The red marks are places that have been discounted by local intel and I've made other notations on the map to show areas I've cleared or places where I found loot I couldn't carry, but might want to revisit...
I move into position on the big hill north of the target area and use the optics on the rifle to survey the scene. Finally I spot a pair of soldiers moving across the hill to the south. To this point I've played for a couple hours and haven't taken a single shot. The anticipation is palpable - as though I've been hunting a prey and I'm ready to squeeze the trigger. I fire. The bullet misses. I make an adjustment and fire a few more shots and walk the puffs of dirt onto the targets...
Whatever it takes...
The hit leads to valuable, no - extremely valuable information. It basically lets me know I need to be on the east side of the island. Unfortunately, I have no vehicle and no way to get there...
A few vehicles are scattered around the island in various states of repair. You have to hunt for them to find them and in my first hours of playing I never spot one and am forced to plod along on foot. Now that I know I have such a far distance to travel, finding a vehicle becomes my primary focus.
One of the guys I prod for information is an Ion guy from the VRANA corporation - which some might remember from Take On Helicopters...
In some locations, instead of loot there might be a laptop which can sometimes yield additional information. Most don't, but some do...
The loot boxes or other information are denoted by floating 3D symbols. I find a village that is loaded with loot and scurry about trying to judge what to sell, what to keep, and balancing that against what I can stuff in my pack...
I come across another character in my travels who offers me another contract. Hoping for another information "circle" that will overlap the last and further refine my search area, I readily take up the task. This one is another assassination and I work my way into position...
This time the target is a small squad of soldiers who are a bit more game than the last guy. They spread out under fire and it becomes a bit of a slog against them as I have to run down into the town and root them out. Thank God for save games!
I eventually take out the stragglers in the squad, but my reward is only cash and not information. I'm disappointed. As I pack up and head out of town my eye comes across something that stands out. A truck! A truck! I'm like Tom Hanks dancing on the beach after creating fire...a truck!!
She's seen better days, but I get in and it starts up. There is only a touch of fuel but I drive her back to the town I just cleared and find a gas station to fill her up...
A truck means I now have a place to store vast quantities of crap and I suddenly become a gear hoarder. I continue to sell most stuff I find, but some of the more cool or potentially useful items I shove in the back of the truck. According to the
Pilgrimage Mission Guide there are a lot of ways to get more information and there are small tricks and side missions that might be worth completing to help you further your goal. The warring armies have bases and officers that can be of particular benefit if you have the ability to take them on. With my cool rifle and a load of gear in my truck, I decide to take a side trip toward one of the military locations that my questioning has revealed...
As I approach the military area, a forward observation post is parked in the crossroads. I'm able to back my truck away without them spotting me. In retrospect, I probably should have parked the truck off the road in the woods, but I hop out and move forward on foot to assess the situation. Lucky for me, the squad leader in the last skirmish had a pair of binoculars that I inherited...
The checkpoint only consists of a single vehicle with one troop inside manning the turret gun and one stationed outside of the vehicle. I come up with....a PLAN!
My spiffy new rocket launcher could do the job...
But I have a better plan. I spend ten minutes sneaking circling around to the back of the checkpoint through the woods and get on my belly, crawling up behind the checkpoint. I close to under a hundred meters, hold my breath, and take out the outside troop with a single shot to the head...
I jump to my feet as the turret swings but I cross the short distance and nestle up against the vehicle. The operator fires the gun as I get closer, but I manage to get under the stream of bullets before it swings enough toward me and it can't depress enough to hit me...
As I lay under the vehicle contemplating what to do..I hear a racket approaching from the south. Oh crap..if this is another vehicle I'm dead meat. A shadow flashes by on the ground nearby. A helicopter! They called in an attack helo..!
I sit as still as a mouse. The helo makes a few orbits and thankfully heads away to the south. Whew! Now what to do? I keep expecting the soldier in the vehicle to dismount to try to kill me, but he sticks to his literal gun and it swivels if I try to get out away from the vehicle. Finally, I just resort to brute force and stand next to the window and unload my .45 pistol at one of the side windows. I don't have a direct shot at the guy because he is above me, but somehow my bullets (ricochet?) and I manage to kill him...
Now - I have the Ferrari of vehicles! OMG - I'm in heaven. I've probably spent about 15 hours in game now and I feel like I've worked my way into this great position. There is a real sense of building something up and accumulating stuff and ownership through hard work. Though I've not played Day Z, I can start to appreciate the draw of it with gathering resources and stuff...but this all leads to a purpose - finding my brother, so it adds an end goal which is nice.
I drive my new MRAP back to where I left my truck. I've already grown attached to my beat up truck, but I have to leave it behind. I park the MRAP near the back of it and start transferring equipment into my new ride...
All I need is some music man!
I continue heading south toward the military base. I'm really digging the optics on my MRAPs turret since it allows me much better recon ability in the FLIR mode...
As I get close to the military base, I see this group of GRAD type vehicles. I keep my MRAP behind a hill and go rummaging around through my inventory box. I don't want to use my guided missiles against these targets so I find an old fashioned RPG that I looted and take a few rounds with me up to the hill...
Whoosh! My first shot is pitifully short, but I make the adjustment and the subsequent rounds are right on target...
In retrospect, this attack was probably not a good idea, and was born of confidence in my new equipment. I should have guessed what the consequences would be...
As the rockets rain down around me I see my vehicle take some hits. I scurry back, climb into the gunner position and lay into the helo as he comes around for another pass. I shoot until the turret runs out of ammo but I must get some hits on the chopper as his top rotor stops and he starts circling around lazily losing altitude. I grab a missile launcher and watch him come down....
He lands hard, but intact a few hundred meters away and the crew scurries out. I immediately take them under fire and take down one of the pilots...
Then I see something strange - this pilot is surrendering! Who knew!!?
I chose to interrogate the pilot about my brother. He has no information. Whatever it takes. I feel bad about it, but I'm still angry about the destruction to my brand new vehicle. I take the dark path in the moral fork in the road and pull the trigger...
Of consolation, a search of the pilot's body reveals hidden information and a bunch of other locations become red Xs, although they are outside of the zone I've been given information about already..but the pilot intel does reveal the location of more enemy force locations...
I walk over to the helo. Heck, if it isn't damaged, I can hop in the thing and be on the east side of the island in two minutes! I get in, but it is damaged and will not start. I have a toolkit, but apparently you have to be a mechanic to fix things and I'm a demolitions guy I think...
I look with disgust at my vehicle. It is full of great gear, but all of the tires are blown out and it won't budge. Craptastic. I could always reload to a save prior to me dropping the RPGs on the GRADs, but I take the bad with the good (except for outright dying) and figure that is the way the story is supposed to go..
As I move around I see a bit of red in my periphery and I get fatigued quickly. I was injured in the helo attack, but used a medkit to patch up but it didn't do the whole job. I have plenty of medkits, but I can't figure a way out to totally heal myself. According to the mission guide, if I can find one of the secret hideout locations I can stash gear in a fireplace and also go to sleep to heal myself. No luck on finding one of those yet though. I continue on foot toward the enemy base, lugging what gear I can. I mark my MRAP location on the map in case I can return to it later.
As I enter the town near the military compound I hear a bunch of rumbling in the streets. I advance cautiously and find a bit of a Jessica Lynch situation. This convoy of GRADs has gotten all twisted up in the tight roads and now they are jammed up and trying to reverse course. They have no escort and the truck drivers are easy pickings. I methodically kill them all. After each I climb in, turn off the engine, and eventually silence returns to the village. A very bloodthirsty few minutes...
I take to the high ground over the military compound and come across a little outpost and campground. Oddly, these guys are colored green on my map and not red, but they shoot at me anyway. I thought I might be able to somehow recruit them, but that was a mistake. I lob a grenade and take them out...
This looks like some sort of encampment where I can store stuff (?). It isn't until later that I read the guide and maybe this is the place I can rest and heal and store stuff? I don't know....
The enemy base below has roving patrols and maybe a couple dozen troops doing various things. I command tent is defended by fixed emplaced heavy guns. I see a pair of recon soldiers on the highway and take the opportunity to take them out since I don't want any marksmen making my life difficult later on during the assault...
My RPG shot kicks over the hornet's nest and the fight is on. I shoot from high on the hill and try to take out the enemy from afar, but eventually I have to move down into the streets to root out the rest of them. It becomes a close quarters affair. I run out of ammo for my beloved rifle and have to pick up weapons from fallen soldiers...
These guys surrender and I have myself another vehicle, although this one lacks the roof mounted turret gun. And look at all that stuff they dropped! Woot!
What happens next will remain a secret because I'm sure it violated some Geneva Accord regulations. Suffice it to say the men had no actionable intelligence on them...
I take the truck, hide it, and continue my advance on the enemy command tent. That battle gets up close and personal as well as grenades fly and much crawling and dodging ensues...
I take control of the .50 caliber and use it against them...
I penetrate the base, and after a bit of a cat and mouse with the enemy officer, I take him out and gather a bit more intelligence. I find I'm actually able to disable the tripod mounted .50 caliber and grenade launcher, and, being the hoarder I am, I pack them into one of the vehicles to take with me...
I've worked my way across the south side of the island. Now I'm determined to just head to the east side of the island so that I can start narrowing down further my brother's location. The road takes me past the airport, which is apparently an important base to perhaps take down because it can yield good information and maybe even troops or something that you can use?
I finally break out my good equipment because the airfield is abuzz with enemy activity...
The End.
Yeah. The End. Want to know why? Because I upgraded to the helo DLC and now my savegames don't work! Did I say any curse words about that? Quite a few. I invested probably 25 hours or so in building up the progress of this mission and now it's all gone. Stupid, stupid me. Unless someone has a secret to get it working, I'm stuck here and will have to start all over again. The mission is so much fun that I *will* start it over again and finish it up..but it is pretty demoralizing to get so invested in a story and have it abruptly come crashing down due to a technicality. If I could roll back to the previous version and complete the mission I would, but I can't.
Whatever the case, the mission is awesome and fun a single-player guy like me that likes sandbox missions with lots of persistent stuff on the map.
Rydygier made a great mission with a great design - I can't wait to re-run it and take it to its conclusion.
Mission here:
LINK to SP PilgrimageApologies for the cliffhanger...
BeachAV8R
