These Ghost Recon Breakpoint tips and tricks will help you survive in Ubisoft’s latest open-world tactical shooter. With enormous regions filled with collectibles, missions to discover, items to equip, and plenty of enemies to eliminate, there’s an overwhelming number of systems and objectives thrown your way right out of the gate. Our Breakpoint survival guide helps breaks down combat, multiplayer, classes, and how to get the best weapons and gear so you can jump right in.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint tips and tricks
Weapon and Gear scores aren’t everything
Like The Division 2, there is a score attached to every single weapon and piece of gear you find in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. These scores are an indication of an item’s power level. That said, you shouldn’t select your loadout based on scores alone. You’re playing a tactical shooter and sometimes the weapon with the highest score isn’t the best one to use.
For example, if you have a gun with a score of 100 and a gun with a score of 105, and you find the weapon with the lower score is in your preferred class or easier to handle than the one with the higher score, then simply stick with the one you prefer. Don’t force yourself to use a gun that isn’t as effective for you despite its power. If you are playing competitive multiplayer, be advised that both weapon and gear scores don’t even matter.
Wait to upgrade weapons
One of the first things you’ll learn in Breakpoint is how to upgrade your weapons. This is done by feeding them parts and resources from other weapons you have scrapped. This can certainly make them more effective, but you’ll be getting new weapons at such a fast rate that it isn’t worth doing it until you near the end of the game.
Additionally, upgrading weapons to the second level requires a skill to be unlocked, but you are better off spending your skill points in other places during the early hours of the campaign.
Know your classes
There are four different player classes to choose from in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, but they function a little bit differently from classes in other shooters. You can unlock one at the beginning of the game and then unlock additional classes by earning skill points, after which you can swap between them. Classes don’t affect the weapons you can use, but each class has a unique ability and serves a particular role in combat.
If you are playing on your own, we suggest playing as either the Field Medic or Panther classes. The Field Medic is the only class that can self-revive, meaning you will not be immediately killed if you are knocked down, while the Panther is great at escaping dangerous situations.
- Field Medic: Wields a healing drone that can heal and revive teammates. Has a medical kit class item that heals injuries and grants extra health. Can also revive and carry bodies faster and self-revive.
- Assault: Class ability grants more resistance to recoil and damage, and can be extended and given healing with kills. Uses gas grenade that does damage over time, deals bonus damage with assault rifles and shotguns, and has extra health.
- Panther: Class ability is a “Cloke and Run” technique that allows you to disappear, and the class item is a spray that makes you undetectable to drones. Has bonus stealth, faster movement, and damage on suppressed handguns and submachine guns are not reduced.
- Sharpshooter: Can use “Armor Buster” to deal more penetration damage, and can launch sensors to mark targets in a large area. Also has more breath control when aiming and does bonus damage with sniper rifles and DMR weapons.
Transmog your gear
In multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft, there is a system called Transmogrification that allows you to change the appearance of your weapon or equipment to match your preferred look while retaining the same stats.
This system is also available in Ghost Recon Breakpoint by using the customization tool in the main menu. It only applies to clothing and armor. Don’t like the baseball cap you’re wearing but love its gear score? Make it look like a sleek helmet without changing its properties. You can even change the color of your outfit to get your soldier looking just the way you want.
Aim for headshots
This particular Ghost Recon Breakpoint tip and trick will keep enemies from being alerted to your position while infiltrating an area. The best way to do this from afar is to line up headshots, as this will kill almost every enemy in the game in just one hit. A dead enemy can’t call for friends, and if you’re using a scoped weapon, they might not even realize where the shots are coming from.
The exception to the headshot rule is the armored enemy type, which has a helmet and typically wields a large mini-gun. However, these enemies can still be killed in two headshots, which is the fastest way to take them out of the picture. If you’re using a sniper rifle, you also don’t need to be quick as careful with headshots, as a bullet to the chest will kill most standard enemies.
Headshots will be better for taking down players in competitive multiplayer, as well, but we would recommend a few shots to the chest in most instances.
Swap shoulders
Unless you’re playing in the first-person, you can switch between one shoulder to the other at any time by pressing the right bumper. This can make it easier to traverse certain parts of the world, but it is also crucial when facing enemies in close quarters.
If a hallway is to your right, position the camera in a way that doesn’t require you to expose your position in order to line up a shot. You can also click in the right stick to move from first-person aiming to third-person aiming. This can be very useful when another player is trying to flank you in Ghost War. It isn’t nearly as precise, but it gives you more situational awareness during hectic moments.
Spawn a helicopter
The sheer size of Auroa can make getting to your next objective a daunting task in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, but Ubisoft has accounted for this by giving you access to a helicopter nearly everywhere you go. At any Bivouac fast-travel camp you have unlocked, choose to rest and then go to the “Garage” tab you find on the right side of the screen.
Select the helicopter and then break camp to find it located right next to your current location. There is no limit to the number of times you can do this, so stop wasting time and get to your next objective in a hurry. Just be aware that there are no weapons on the default helicopter, so you will want to stay away from enemies during your journey.
Look for smoke signals and investigate everything
What you won’t want to stay away from while flying the helicopter are smoke signals. Towers of smoke will be visible all over the map from the sky, and these are undiscovered Bivouac locations. To unlock them, simply lower your helicopter and hover over them. You don’t actually need to land in order to gain access.
Additionally, you can unlock a ton of Bivouacs in regions you haven’t even been to by talking to people and investigating items in the world. When questioning a civilian or viewing an item, you will often get the option to locate a new blueprint, location, or Bivouac. Unless it’s a weapon you’re dying to acquire, choose the Bivouac, as it will make it much easier to reach areas later in the game.
Take down drones
There are a few different types of flying drones you’ll encounter in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and they must be dealt with extreme care if you hope to stay alive.
Standard small flying drones will often fly around areas populated by soldiers, and they will appear on your mini-map as orange blotches just like the soldiers do before being marked. Use your drone to get up high enough to mark them, and then try to avoid them as you enter the area yourself.
If you do shoot them, most will only take one or two shots to destroy, but they will then crash down to the ground and explode. This sound will send soldiers into a panic, so wait until you’ve clear out an area first.
You will sometimes run into Drone Swarms, which are made up of several smaller drones. Because drones are equipped with weapons, your best strategy in these situations is to simply avoid them, or pick them off from afar.
One other type of drone you’ll encounter somewhat randomly resembles a small airplane. This drone won’t attack you directly, but when you see its icon on your mini-map, hit the floor and use your prone camouflage, as it can relay your location to other enemies. We’ve even had it jam our radar so we could not see where enemies were approaching from.
Take out reinforcement callers first
Once enemies know something is afoot at their location, they will start to mobilize and hunt you down. One of them, however, will start phoning for reinforcements. You can discover who it is by the little broadcasting symbol on their head. This will be visible beforehand if you mark them with your drone.
When an alert on the screen says that they are calling for reinforcements, do not panic. As long as you take this enemy out before it says “Reinforcements Incoming,” they won’t actually show up and there will be confusion over the airwaves. Your best bet is to stealthy eliminate the caller before anyone knows you’re there at all.
Remove your suppressor before combat
When things inevitably don’t go the way you plan, don’t limit your damage output by keeping a suppressor on your weapon. They’re included on most assault rifles, submachine guns, DMR weapons, sniper rifles, and handguns by default, and reduce noise at the cost of lower damage.
Aim your weapon and hit left on the direction pad to remove the suppressor, and this will increase your firepower instantly. Just make sure you put the suppressor back on in the event that you’re able to vanish again, or enemies will find you much more quickly.
It can also be beneficial to have one weapon suppressed while another isn’t, so you can go from stealth to action with less downtime. This works well in late-game competitive scenarios, as well, particularly if you have been marked by the enemy team.
Equip your preferred item before entering combat
One bizarre feature we discovered in Ghost Recon Breakpoint is that it will often choose which item on your selection wheel should be equipped whenever you respawn after being killed. If you had your syringes equipped, you might discover a rocket launcher equipped in its place after death.
This discovery comes only when you try to use the syringe and accidentally blow yourself up, so ensure the correct item is equipped before you head back into combat. If you need to add an item from your inventory to the selection wheel, you must also then equip it with the wheel.
Editors' Recommendations
- How to kill Cole Walker in Ghost Recon Breakpoint
- Ghost Recon Breakpoint review: A breaking point
- How to change Alexa’s name (or change what she calls you)
- Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Captive Cord location for Essence of Failure quest
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — everything we know
