Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands has all the appearances of a generic shooter, despite being anything but. Part of what keeps Wildlands fresh and original is its upgrade system that encourages exploration and collection rather than just mindless shooting.
In order to get better weapons, items and abilities, you have to combine upgrade points, which you can earn and find throughout the game in a traditional way, and one of four resources you find spread out among the fictionalized Bolivia. You need both, so you can't just kill people to grind experience, you have to move around the world, seek out and extract either Food, Fuel, Comms Tools or Medical Supplies.
But, I've sure you've figured that out by now. The real question is: what should you focus on? We got you covered. Here are the five best upgrades you should focus on in Ghost Recon Wildlands.
5. Extra Sync Shot (For single player)
Remember that cool thing that you can do in Co-Op and that was advertised in single player, where you target enemies and have your squad take them out? Well, when you start the game solo, you can only do that with one of your squad members. In order to get your whole team in on it, you need to fully upgrade the Extra Sync Shot ability in the Squad Category.
If you're only playing the game multiplayer, you can avoid this. But even one time playing solo without it, and you'll wish you had it. The good thing about the A.I. is that it never misses. This will be costly, but you only have to upgrade it twice, as opposed to almost everything else that requires four upgrades to max out.
4. Thermal Vision
Another aspect that keeps Wildlands fresh is its day and night cycle. Darkness will obviously make stealth missions easier, but then there's the problem of that pesky darkness. In case you didn't know, you already have night vision, available by pressing N on PC. But it's not the best for stumbling around in the dark, as background objects such as buildings and trees make it hard to distinguish a person.
Thermal Vision, on the other hand, is the ultimate tool for singling out the living from the inanimate. You won't want it on all the time, obviously, as it can be grating to the eyes and make noticing other important objects more difficult. But, having it on to spot dudes and take them out before they ever know you're there.
3. Drone Range
This is definitely something you'll want to max out early. If you want to play Wildlands to its fullest potential, stealthily taking out an entire camp of UNIDAD troops, for example, is one of the best ways to do it. But it's also very difficult, especially if you don't know what you're getting yourself into. It's OK to become a Drone whore.
I throw my drone out on every major area, sometimes multiple times during that area to spot people and important objects. The main issue you'll run into using this strategy is Range. It can't travel very far by default, so you'll likely have to already put yourself in danger before you can properly assess it. Fully upgrade the range, and it will net you an additional 130% horizontal range.
2. Stamina
This may just seem like it's addressing a minor inconvenience, but you'll definitely want boosted stamina in several key situations, such as running away, or working in large bodies of water (one particular province is made up mostly of islands on a great lake). If you can't find yourself a boat on bodies of water, you'll have to swim, and swim often.
And, what makes boosting your stamina so important is because the final rank of Stamina is not just a percentage bonus. You unlock unlimited stamina at max upgrade level. Run, swim, jump, dance, forever and ever and ever. You're not longer merely addressing one minor inconvenience, you're completely fixing dozens.
1. Stable Aim
Stealth obviously rests on the idea that no one knows you're there. That is, you need to kill someone before he realizes that you even exist. If he hears a bullet flying by his face, he's probably on to you. But it can be hard to land a long-range sniper shot, especially since you probably won't unlock a good scope for quite some time and Wildlands does not use a hitscan mechanic for it's guns. It's all bullet drop, baby.
But you can fix that with Stable Aim, that will give you a 65% sway reduction while ADS using a sniper rifle. This makes landing tough shots a hell of a lot easier, which, in turn, makes staying undetected a lot easier. I can't tell you how many times I've blown my cover by missing a shot I should have had easily. Since I fully upgraded Stable Aim, that number has been cut in half.
Bonus Tip: Medals
The Santa Blanca Cartel gives out accommodations that they, for some reason, leave lying around on tables in their outposts. Luckily for you, these special medals actually give you an extra bonus to these stats on top of the bonuses you get for upgrading.
Take for instance, the medal below, which will give you an additional 15% movement reduction on top of the 65% movement reduction you get from a maxed out Stable Aim. Each of these skills will tell you in what province you can find the medal, so you can hunt them down as needed.
