On Explosions and other such things, in the Land of Spicy Meatballs
Just Cause 3 is one hell of a game. There are tons of large explosive things to blow up, and tons of awesome ways to blow them up. But what about when you finish the main part of the game, and after you’ve blown the tiny bits of every Di Ravelloian soldier out of the bases and towns they’ve occupied? That’s what I’ll be doing here, compiling some of the goofy things I or other people have done to screw around with the physics and explosives of Medici.
Easter Eggs
There are a bunch of easter eggs in Just Cause 3, and a whole list can be found here. My favorites would have to be the wreck of the Mile High Club (a blimp strip club from Just Cause 2), the landfill with copies of Just Cause 1 & 2 buried in it, and finally, the DK pistol, commonly known as the Balloon Gun. These sweet little pistols inflate Rico’s head to about 10x size when he picks them up, and can be shot at NPCs, making their heads larger the more times you shoot them. The interesting part is that when they die or become unattached from the ground, they will immediately begin to float upward! The speed of their floating depends on how many times they’ve been shot. This adds a few cool little options to gameplay (which I’ll detail below), and yet another way to mess with the physics.
Screwing Around with Physics
The Just Cause games are known for their questionable physics, like self-reeling grapples, grapples that can be shot from a gauntlet that somehow don’t break your arm, falling 10 kilometers and landing on your head without dying, and cargo jets that only need 50 feet of flat land to take off. But these, of course, just make the games what they are! Many of the activities I’ve put below abuse the physics of Medici, and I highly suggest not trying any of them at home.
- Bombing Run (Helicopter Style) -
If you go to a naval base, most will have a few of those nice, bright red mines floating around in the water. Fortunately for us, they aren’t attached to the sea floor, and you can tether them to whatever you want. For this, grab a helicopter, preferably one with high power/pull, and grapple as many mines as you want to the bottom of the chopper, but don’t reel them in (they’re light as hell, and will fly into the chopper and blow you up :P). Then start flying over to your target, and whenever you’re over something hostile, release your grapples and watch as you rain death on the unsuspecting fools below you. Guaranteed to not attract heat*.
- Tactical Airdrop -
To start, you’re gonna need a shitload of takeoff room as well as the cargo plane unlocked. The only runway I’ve found to be big enough for said plane is the far North-Western one, so head over to there and Rebel drop it. I do advise turning off the Plane Nitrous, as it can mess you up later. Now for me, any vehicle always drops sideways, and the cargo plane is no different. So you’re going to have to turn the damn thing 90 degrees to get it lined up, as well as back it up for a good takeoff. Next drop a vehicle of your choice (mine is the Bavarium-shielded tank) behind the cargo plane, and after opening up the back hatch, carefully load your vehicle in. Make sure to center it both sideways and forwards/backwards as best you can too, so that your plane doesn’t drift off course while flying. Then go ahead and close the back hatch, and climb into the cockpit of your plane. I also advise going for a gentle takeoff, hence the lack of Nitrous (because it automatically kicks in), which usually throws your vehicle into the very back of the plane, unbalancing it and just generally messing everything up. Once you’re in the air and have picked your destination and are nearing it, fly maybe 1 kilometer above where you’re going to land, and get ready to go. When you’re approximately 3km away (it varies depending on speed and altitude) jump onto the top of the cargo plane and get into the cargo hold, and open up the back hatch. Then just drive out the back in your vehicle, and if your timing is right, you’ll land in the enemy base, ready to kick some ass. Your vehicle won’t take any falling damage, either. The Nitrous Jump mod is quite nice if you do miss the landing spot, and have to climb up some hills to get there.
- Propane Tanks -
Propane tanks have many uses both inside and out of Just Cause, but while in it, they can be used as the low-tech version of Touching the Ceiling (found below). Simply shoot a propane tank a single time and grapple onto its side, and you’ll soon find yourself flying up into the air**. Alternately, you can attach a few enemies to a tank and then shoot it, sending them on an unexpected and unhappy ride upward. A shot tank can also be grapple-reeled into an object for a makeshift rocket.
- Homemade Raft Balloon -
I know Just Cause 2 had a hot air balloon that could be steered by walking in the side of it and pushing it, but I’ve never seen it. Instead of that, we’ve got rafts in JC3, which can also be steered by walking into the side of them. To make this work, you’re going to have to find one of the few rafts scattered around (I prefer the one between a lake and a highway in central-western Medici, because there are people by the raft). The rafts come sealed in white metal cylinders, which you have to break open to get at the raft. Once you’ve got it open, move the raft over by the road and find a candidate for the balloon part. I’ve found that a single person works better than one for each corner, as they will be approximately the same distance from each corner, instead of a random distance, which throws off the levelness of the raft. One person is also faster to get. So once you’ve shot a person perhaps 4 times, get them floating and tether them to each corner of the raft. You shouldn’t start rising at this point, although if you get off the raft could take off without you :P. Whenever you’re ready (you may want to grab a sniper rifle to occupy you while rising) shoot your balloon-man a fifth or sixth time, and you should start going up. Then, just sit back and enjoy the sights of the Medician countryside.
- Floating Car -
I haven’t actually gotten this to work, but I know that others have. This follows the same principle as the Balloon raft, inflate some heads to the max and tether them to the smallest car you can find. You should be able to stand on top, or ride inside while it lifts off. This works with motorcycles too, but they have a tendency to flip upside down.
- Car Spin -
A favorite of mine, activate the Rocket C4 gear mod and find a car that’s annoying you. Maybe they even ran into you? Reckless drivers are the bane of Medician society. Once you’ve found a target, tether their car to the ground if necessary, and proceed to place C4 on the back left side of their car (behind the rear-passenger door and parallel to the way the driver is facing). The more C4 you have the better, and generally I do three on one side, and then two more in front of the drivers side door, again parallel to the way the driver is facing. Now just detonate the C4, and the car will start spinning very quickly around in circles. This may also work if you stand on top of the car, although you would probably get motion sick :P. If you get lucky enough to find the right car, this method can be used to spin the car in a different direction. Place C4 on the top and forward end of the hood and then on the back bottom of the car to make it spin (tethers are great for lifting the car so that you can place the C4 correctly, although the driver may die in the process).
- Touching the Ceiling -
Using the Balloon Gun, pump at least 4 shots into a person (the max seems to be 6), depending on how fast you want to rise. 6 works the best and you’ll rise the fastest. Now that their head is as large as yours, either kill them or kick them so that they lose gravity, and start floating upward. At this point you have to be quick, and grapple onto them before they get out of range. If you’re having trouble with this, try grappling them to a barrel first, and then attach yourself to the side of the barrel. If they’ve been shot enough, you won’t have to worry about the normal Reel-and-Kick initiating, because they’ll be rising much faster than you can without doing an accelerated reel. You’ll start hauling ass upward, and can just relax like good Rico in the picture below, and when you hit the world ceiling (only a bit above the tallest mountain) any balloon-person will pop, and you’ll fall back to the earth. Although it may seem impractical, this can actually make for a hilarious getaway if you’re near death and close to an enemy soldier :D
- Rocket-Boosted Cars -
If you really want to get a car going to it’s top speed, equip the Rocket C4 mod again and slap some explosives on the back of whatever car you’re driving. You can also do it to a car you aren’t driving to blast the car forward*** and send some poor unsuspecting civilian to an explosive death.
- Rocket C4 + Balloon-Headed person -
If you find somebody you really don’t like, inflate their head, attach some C4 to their ass, and initiate the launch. You should see them fly off into the sunset, trailing black smoke around in circles. Followed by an explosion in the distance.
* Enemies don’t seem to realize that their friends have been blown up. If you use mines from allied bases, they won’t get mad either.
** Do consider de-attatching before the tank explodes.
*** Also comes with Reverse
I hope you all enjoyed! I do apologize for the mediocre images though. I tried to take some more relevant screenshots on my Xbox One, but apparently you need Gold for that :P. Also, remember that this is definitely not a complete list, so please feel free to suggest any of the stuff you guys do to mess around!
On Explosions and other such things, in the Land of Spicy Meatballs
Just Cause 3 is one hell of a game. There are tons of large explosive things to blow up, and tons of awesome ways to blow them up. But what about when you finish the main part of the game, and after you’ve blown the tiny bits of every Di Ravelloian soldier out of the bases and towns they’ve occupied? That’s what I’ll be doing here, compiling some of the goofy things I or other people have done to screw around with the physics and explosives of Medici.
Easter Eggs
There are a bunch of easter eggs in Just Cause 3, and a whole list can be found here. My favorites would have to be the wreck of the Mile High Club (a blimp strip club from Just Cause 2), the landfill with copies of Just Cause 1 & 2 buried in it, and finally, the DK pistol, commonly known as the Balloon Gun. These sweet little pistols inflate Rico’s head to about 10x size when he picks them up, and can be shot at NPCs, making their heads larger the more times you shoot them. The interesting part is that when they die or become unattached from the ground, they will immediately begin to float upward! The speed of their floating depends on how many times they’ve been shot. This adds a few cool little options to gameplay (which I’ll detail below), and yet another way to mess with the physics.
Screwing Around with Physics
The Just Cause games are known for their questionable physics, like self-reeling grapples, grapples that can be shot from a gauntlet that somehow don’t break your arm, falling 10 kilometers and landing on your head without dying, and cargo jets that only need 50 feet of flat land to take off. But these, of course, just make the games what they are! Many of the activities I’ve put below abuse the physics of Medici, and I highly suggest not trying any of them at home.
- Bombing Run (Helicopter Style) -
If you go to a naval base, most will have a few of those nice, bright red mines floating around in the water. Fortunately for us, they aren’t attached to the sea floor, and you can tether them to whatever you want. For this, grab a helicopter, preferably one with high power/pull, and grapple as many mines as you want to the bottom of the chopper, but don’t reel them in (they’re light as hell, and will fly into the chopper and blow you up :P). Then start flying over to your target, and whenever you’re over something hostile, release your grapples and watch as you rain death on the unsuspecting fools below you. Guaranteed to not attract heat*.
- Tactical Airdrop -
To start, you’re gonna need a shitload of takeoff room as well as the cargo plane unlocked. The only runway I’ve found to be big enough for said plane is the far North-Western one, so head over to there and Rebel drop it. I do advise turning off the Plane Nitrous, as it can mess you up later. Now for me, any vehicle always drops sideways, and the cargo plane is no different. So you’re going to have to turn the damn thing 90 degrees to get it lined up, as well as back it up for a good takeoff. Next drop a vehicle of your choice (mine is the Bavarium-shielded tank) behind the cargo plane, and after opening up the back hatch, carefully load your vehicle in. Make sure to center it both sideways and forwards/backwards as best you can too, so that your plane doesn’t drift off course while flying. Then go ahead and close the back hatch, and climb into the cockpit of your plane. I also advise going for a gentle takeoff, hence the lack of Nitrous (because it automatically kicks in), which usually throws your vehicle into the very back of the plane, unbalancing it and just generally messing everything up. Once you’re in the air and have picked your destination and are nearing it, fly maybe 1 kilometer above where you’re going to land, and get ready to go. When you’re approximately 3km away (it varies depending on speed and altitude) jump onto the top of the cargo plane and get into the cargo hold, and open up the back hatch. Then just drive out the back in your vehicle, and if your timing is right, you’ll land in the enemy base, ready to kick some ass. Your vehicle won’t take any falling damage, either. The Nitrous Jump mod is quite nice if you do miss the landing spot, and have to climb up some hills to get there.
- Propane Tanks -
Propane tanks have many uses both inside and out of Just Cause, but while in it, they can be used as the low-tech version of Touching the Ceiling (found below). Simply shoot a propane tank a single time and grapple onto its side, and you’ll soon find yourself flying up into the air**. Alternately, you can attach a few enemies to a tank and then shoot it, sending them on an unexpected and unhappy ride upward. A shot tank can also be grapple-reeled into an object for a makeshift rocket.
- Homemade Raft Balloon -
I know Just Cause 2 had a hot air balloon that could be steered by walking in the side of it and pushing it, but I’ve never seen it. Instead of that, we’ve got rafts in JC3, which can also be steered by walking into the side of them. To make this work, you’re going to have to find one of the few rafts scattered around (I prefer the one between a lake and a highway in central-western Medici, because there are people by the raft). The rafts come sealed in white metal cylinders, which you have to break open to get at the raft. Once you’ve got it open, move the raft over by the road and find a candidate for the balloon part. I’ve found that a single person works better than one for each corner, as they will be approximately the same distance from each corner, instead of a random distance, which throws off the levelness of the raft. One person is also faster to get. So once you’ve shot a person perhaps 4 times, get them floating and tether them to each corner of the raft. You shouldn’t start rising at this point, although if you get off the raft could take off without you :P. Whenever you’re ready (you may want to grab a sniper rifle to occupy you while rising) shoot your balloon-man a fifth or sixth time, and you should start going up. Then, just sit back and enjoy the sights of the Medician countryside.
- Floating Car -
I haven’t actually gotten this to work, but I know that others have. This follows the same principle as the Balloon raft, inflate some heads to the max and tether them to the smallest car you can find. You should be able to stand on top, or ride inside while it lifts off. This works with motorcycles too, but they have a tendency to flip upside down.
- Car Spin -
A favorite of mine, activate the Rocket C4 gear mod and find a car that’s annoying you. Maybe they even ran into you? Reckless drivers are the bane of Medician society. Once you’ve found a target, tether their car to the ground if necessary, and proceed to place C4 on the back left side of their car (behind the rear-passenger door and parallel to the way the driver is facing). The more C4 you have the better, and generally I do three on one side, and then two more in front of the drivers side door, again parallel to the way the driver is facing. Now just detonate the C4, and the car will start spinning very quickly around in circles. This may also work if you stand on top of the car, although you would probably get motion sick :P. If you get lucky enough to find the right car, this method can be used to spin the car in a different direction. Place C4 on the top and forward end of the hood and then on the back bottom of the car to make it spin (tethers are great for lifting the car so that you can place the C4 correctly, although the driver may die in the process).
- Touching the Ceiling -
Using the Balloon Gun, pump at least 4 shots into a person (the max seems to be 6), depending on how fast you want to rise. 6 works the best and you’ll rise the fastest. Now that their head is as large as yours, either kill them or kick them so that they lose gravity, and start floating upward. At this point you have to be quick, and grapple onto them before they get out of range. If you’re having trouble with this, try grappling them to a barrel first, and then attach yourself to the side of the barrel. If they’ve been shot enough, you won’t have to worry about the normal Reel-and-Kick initiating, because they’ll be rising much faster than you can without doing an accelerated reel. You’ll start hauling ass upward, and can just relax like good Rico in the picture below, and when you hit the world ceiling (only a bit above the tallest mountain) any balloon-person will pop, and you’ll fall back to the earth. Although it may seem impractical, this can actually make for a hilarious getaway if you’re near death and close to an enemy soldier :D
- Rocket-Boosted Cars -
If you really want to get a car going to it’s top speed, equip the Rocket C4 mod again and slap some explosives on the back of whatever car you’re driving. You can also do it to a car you aren’t driving to blast the car forward*** and send some poor unsuspecting civilian to an explosive death.
- Rocket C4 + Balloon-Headed person -
If you find somebody you really don’t like, inflate their head, attach some C4 to their ass, and initiate the launch. You should see them fly off into the sunset, trailing black smoke around in circles. Followed by an explosion in the distance.
* Enemies don’t seem to realize that their friends have been blown up. If you use mines from allied bases, they won’t get mad either.
** Do consider de-attatching before the tank explodes.
*** Also comes with Reverse
I hope you all enjoyed! I do apologize for the mediocre images though. I tried to take some more relevant screenshots on my Xbox One, but apparently you need Gold for that :P. Also, remember that this is definitely not a complete list, so please feel free to suggest any of the stuff you guys do to mess around!
