Okay. The title of this guide isn’t entirely accurate. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint does mention some of the stuff I’m about to explain. The problem is that Breakpoint also tries to go over about 400 different gameplay systems at once (sometimes poorly) in its opening few hours. It’s easy to miss some vital stuff. But have no fear, we’ve got you covered with our Ghost Recon: Breakpoint tips and tricks guide.
Stats – What Do They Mean? – Ghost Recon Breakpoint Tips
One of the new features in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is the addition of leveled gear. Your guns and clothing now have levels attached to them, but Breakpoint does a poor job explaining what it all means.
Your character has a Gear Level which is based on the average score of all your equipped guns and armor. You can increase your Gear Level by finding or buying higher level stuff. Guns have another layer of stats on top of their Gear Level, though. Hover over a gun on the Loadout page and you’ll see a bunch of unlabeled stat bars depicting the various attributes of the gun. If you want to know what these mean, you need to edit the gun in the gunsmith.
More Ghost Recon Breakpoint:
- Ghost Recon: Breakpoint Factions Guide – Battle Rewards Explained
- Ghost Recon: Breakpoint Class Guide – Best Skills For Each Class
- How to Hold Your Breath – Ghost Recon: Breakpoint Sniping Tips
At the gunsmith you will see that the five main stats on your weapons represent accuracy, handling, range, mobility, and recoil. But even on this screen there are four weapon stats still not labeled, for some reason. The first symbol below the main stats — the one that looks like a muzzle flash — is your gun’s damage stat. This gives you idea of how much damage each shot does. The symbol to the right of that shows the caliber of bullet that the gun fires. It’s not all that useful, but I guess it’s cool to know. The magazine symbol below shows the clip size of the weapon. Finally, the rectangular symbol that looks like two arrows chasing each other shows the reload time for your weapon.
Now let’s say you have two identical guns: one at level 10 and one at level 50. Their stats will be the same. They’ll have the same rate of fire, reload speed, etc. The only difference between those guns is the Gear Level. Enemy soldiers also have levels and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint applies combat modifiers to them based on your level relative to theirs. When you boil it all down, it just means you will take more damage from, and inflict less damage against, enemies that have bigger numbers than you. Avoid tangling with higher leveled foes until you’ve geared up. Unless…
Boom, Headshot! – Ghost Recon Breakpoint Tips
Remember all that level stuff I was just talking about above? Well, there’s a loophole in the leveling system; headshots kill most enemies in one blow, regardless of level. Ubisoft presumably realized you can’t have a stealthy, realistic shooter where enemies can tank a full SMG clip to the face. And so the developer compromised. That means, if you want to play Ghost Recon: Breakpoint as a stealth ‘em up, taking out enemies with precision strikes and never getting shot at, you can just ignore all that level business altogether.
But be warned. Some armored enemies do take multiple headshots before going down, so watch out for the massive guys with the Gatling guns. Just make sure you land a few headshots in quick succession and you’ll be fine. Don’t tangle with vehicles above your level, though. You’ll have a bad time no matter what you try.
Bivouac Paddywhack, Give a Ghost a Bone – Ghost Recon Breakpoint Tips
Yeah, I had no idea what a bivouac was either. It turns out it’s an adorable little temporary campsite where you can roast s’mores, sing songs, and order new helicopters from Amazon Prime. It’s like futuristic military glamping.
Bivouacs are also the fast travel points in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. You can find them all over the map and, once you visited one once, it’s unlocked for fast travel forever. Bivouacs can be seen from a distance, too. Just look out for a rising smoke column in the sky.
Bivouacs serve more purposes beyond just convenient movement. You can activate one of several temporary buffs at the campsites by eating, drinking, or polishing your rifle (steady now). Bivouacs are also the only place where you can switch between classes. Then you have access to the crafting menu where you can make consumables, as well as the shop if you need to buy new guns, vehicles, or customization options. Finally, you can call in any of the vehicles you currently own to your Bivouac, which is handy if you need transport in a hurry.
Inverted Players Beware! – Ghost Recon Breakpoint Tips
I swear there are dozens of us. DOZENS! Sadly, Ubisoft have given an enormous middle finger to the inverted player base of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, thanks to the way helicopter and drone controls work. In short, when controlling helicopters or drones, you can’t invert the camera controls without also inverting the movement controls on the same axis.
This is an enormous oversight on Ubisoft’s part and makes flying a real pain in the ass. You’ll have to choose which option is the least egregious to you — playing with the backwards movement controls, or backwards camera controls. Hopefully the developers will patch it, but for now we just have to suck it up.
You Can Turn Off Automatic Shoulder Switching – Ghost Recon Breakpoint Tips
Here’s another camera-related foible, but this one can mercifully be fixed. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint has a nasty habit of automatically switching which shoulder you aim over when in cover. You can disable this feature in the settings menu. Look under the Gameplay section. It’s the fifth option down, entitled Reset Camera Side (Leaving Cover). Turning this on will ensure that your camera reverts to your chosen side when you leave cover.
Picking Up Bodies Takes Forever – Ghost Recon Breakpoint Tips
I know Breakpoint is aiming for realism, and I know human corpses are bloody heavy… That is to say I assume human corpses are bloody heavy, but the amount of time it takes to pick them up is ridiculous. If you think you can quickly take someone out and move the body before anyone sees, then think again. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been spotted while locked into the seven-hour corpse retrieval animation, as Nomad hefts up a massive sack of meat onto their shoulders. It’s almost never worth the effort of moving corpses. Just turn anyone that would normally see the body into another corpse and save yourself the hassle.
Motorbikes Are Deathtraps – Ghost Recon Breakpoint Tips
The option to ride a motorbike in Breakpoint is just a slow, circuitous suicide button. If you get on one of these deathtraps, your life is forfeit, and there’s no longer anything I can do for you. I know I sound like your doting mother right now, but just trust me. They have terrible handling (especially off-road), offer no protection from enemy fire, and are extremely fond of defying the laws of physics by hurling you into a tree. Honestly? Just walk. It’s good exercise anyway.
Prone Camo Is a Life Saver – Ghost Recon Breakpoint Tips
A returning feature from Ghost Recon: Wildlands that we’d all rather hoped would just bugger off for the sequel are the omnipotent helicopter patrols. These all-seeing assholes fly around Auroa looking for trouble. Their favorite play is to wait until you’re sneaking up on an enemy base and then fly overhead, spotting you and alerting the whole zone. Luckily, there is now a reliable way to evade these aerial menaces: prone camo.
If you lie prone on the ground, you can press a button to enter prone camo. This makes you invisible to enemies unless they’re basically right on top of you. The prone camo button is A on Xbox, X on PlayStation and space bar on PC. You can also use this to hide from ground-based enemies, too, so long as they don’t step on you.
And that’s all we’ve got for you for today! These are our best Ghost Recon: Breakpoint tips and tricks that we could think of after our time with it. Now get out there and show the Wolves who’s boss (and seriously, stay off motorcycles — they’re awful).
