Jagged Alliance 3 – Combat Tasks Guide and Tips

In this article about Jagged Alliance 3, we will explore the mechanics of combat tasks, the various types of tasks you can undertake, and the rewards that await you.

Introduction

Just a heads up, most of the info in this article is based on personal experiences and a lot of trial and error. I haven’t had the chance to dig into the actual source code, but if I find any more accurate info, I’ll be sure to update it. If you have any comments, feel free to post them here or on my HIVE blog version of this guide.

So, every now and then, you’ll get a random mission that one of your mercs or your whole team can take on. It’s totally up to you whether you want to tackle these combat tasks, but there are some sweet benefits if you manage to pull them off. This guide is here to break down how combat tasks work in all their glory.

Sometimes, when you’re in a sector with hostile enemies, you might receive a combat task. (Basically, if the sector starts off peaceful but can turn into a warzone due to scripted events, talking to NPCs, or attacking friendly NPCs, then you won’t get a combat task). There’s a bit of randomness involved in whether or not you get a combat task, which merc gets it, and what the task actually is.

From what I’ve seen, it seems like there’s some sort of cooldown on how often a specific merc gets a combat task. As you can see in the screenshot above, it’s possible for the same squad to get multiple combat tasks in a single day, and you can even get combat tasks in neighboring sectors. However, there are some battles and sectors that just don’t seem to generate combat tasks, no matter how many times you try to reload. Once a merc completes a combat task, it looks like they might have to wait a few days before they’re eligible for another one.

Now, it’s pretty rare, but there’s a chance that more than one merc can get a combat task. I’ve had a few instances where I got two combat tasks at the same time for different mercs. However, I’ve never had more than two combat tasks at once.

List of Combat Tasks

Alright, kiddos, let’s talk about combat tasks in this game. There are 20 different tasks that you can come across. These tasks usually involve killing enemies in specific ways, targeting certain body parts, using particular weapons, or dealing/receiving damage.

Now, when it comes to weapon type tasks, the game checks what weapons you have equipped or in your inventory. So, make sure you have the right tools for the job. However, anyone can get the task to “kill an opponent with an unarmed attack.” So, even if you’re not carrying a weapon, you can still throw some punches.

Here’s the thing, though. The combat tasks are completely random. If you reload the game before entering a sector, you might get a different task assigned to a different mercenary. It’s like a surprise every time!

Oh, and one more thing. Aimed melee attacks don’t always count for some of the body part targeting tasks. So, keep that in mind when swinging your weapons around.

Now, let’s take a look at the 20 combat tasks I’ve discovered so far:

• Careful Combatant: The team needs to take less than 50 damage in the conflict.
• Ardent Defender: No merc other than XXX should take wounds from damage this combat.
• Destruction Distributor: XXX needs to inflict 150 damage to the enemies.
• Headhunter: The team must make 5 headshots.
• Mutilator: The team must make 5 limb shots.
• Put This Apple…: XXX needs to hit 3 enemies with headshots aimed 3+ times.
• Make Them Suffer: The team must kill 3 enemies with attacks in the groin.
• Elusive Killer: XXX needs to make a kill and never suffer damage in the combat.
• Stealthy Approach: XXX needs to start the first combat in stealth, and the team should kill 2 opponents before the end of the first turn.
• Killing Spree: XXX needs to kill 2 opponents in the same turn.
• Point-Blank: XXX must kill 2 enemies at point-blank range.
• Specialist: The team must make 3 kills with special attacks. (Mobile Shot, Run and Gun, Pin Down, Long Burst with a machine gun, Launch Rocket (i.e. RPG-7), Brutalize (i.e. Knife or Unarmed), Charge, Throw Knife, Throw Grenade, and Throw Stick Grenade definitely count as special attacks. I suspect that Distracting Shot and unique mercenary-specific attacks probably count as well. Triggering a remote detonation or shooting an explosive (such as a proximity explosive nearby) does NOT count though.)
• Handgun Kills: The team must kill 3 opponents with a handgun.
• Automatic Kills: The team must kill 3 opponents with assault rifles or SMGs.
• Sniper Rifle Kills: The team must kill 3 opponents with a sniper rifle.
• Shotgun Kills: The team must kill 3 opponents with a shotgun.
• Machine Gun Kills: The team must kill 3 opponents with a machine gun.
• Explosive Kills: The team must kill 2 opponents in explosions.
• Melee Kills: The team must kill 3 opponents with melee weapons. (Melee takedowns via stealth do not seem to count.)
• Brutalizer: XXX must kill 1 opponent with unarmed attacks.

Rewards

Completing a combat task has three potential benefits:

• XP: When you finish a combat task, the assigned mercenary will earn around 300 XP. The amount of XP can be affected by the mercenary’s Wisdom stat and the presence of Teaching or Old Dog. For example, if a mercenary with 100 Wisdom completes a combat task without Teaching or Old Dog, they will receive 360 XP. However, if there is a mercenary with Teaching on the team, the same mercenary with 100 Wisdom can receive 396 XP.

• Possible stat point: There is a chance that the assigned mercenary will gain field experience for a random stat point upon completing a combat task. However, this is only possible if there is an available point in the “statGainingPoints” pool. If you haven’t received sufficient XP or if the pool is empty due to recent field experience gains, you may not receive a stat point. If there is an available point in the pool, it appears to be random whether or not you gain a point. Reloading the game sometimes results in a different stat increasing, but most of the time, reloading doesn’t seem to change the stat type.

• $2,000: Every 5 combat tasks you complete, you will earn $2,000. The first time you complete 5 combat tasks, you will receive an e-mail about “A.I.M. S.T.A.R.” Subsequent completions of 5 combat tasks will result in a “Loyalty Rewards” e-mail.

If you lose track of how many combat tasks you have completed, you can check your History and count the number of completed combat tasks. By cross-referencing the dates of your Loyalty Rewards e-mails, you can figure out when your last multiple of 5 was.

Are They Worth Completing?

In general, it’s a good idea to try completing the combat tasks. The main benefit is earning XP, and there’s also a chance to increase a stat point. However, the $2,000 reward for every 5 combat tasks isn’t really that significant. So don’t expect to become a millionaire from it.

Whether or not you should attempt a combat task depends on various factors. Consider the specific task, the mercenary involved, your team composition, and the nature of the battle. For example, the number of enemies and the battlefield layout can make a difference.

It’s usually fine to play a little sub-optimally to complete a combat task. For instance, you can let one mercenary get more kills or use different weapons. Sometimes, it’s worth taking a small risk for the sake of completing a task.

However, if a combat task is too dangerous for a particular mercenary or your entire team, it’s probably not worth attempting. Unless you’re okay with save scumming (reloading a previous save), there may be some combat tasks that are impossible or too risky to complete.

Here are a few examples:

• Some mercs won’t realistically be able to kill an opponent with an unarmed attack. So if a mercenary who usually stays in the backline gets this task, it’s best to pass. It might also be too risky for support mercs to kill two enemies at point-blank range.
• Killing opponents with melee weapons may not be feasible for certain mercs or on certain maps.
• In the early game, when you have fewer action points and limited weapon choices, many mercs may struggle to kill two opponents in the same turn.
• Headshots and groin shots usually aren’t a problem since they deal extra damage. However, limb shots normally do less damage. So if you’re being swarmed by enemies, you might not have the luxury of making limb shots when each shot needs to be a kill shot.
• If you get the Ardent Defender combat task (which only they can take wounds) for a mercenary who doesn’t make a good tank, it may not be worth putting them in harm’s way. Safety first, folks!

Bugs

There are a few cases where at first I thought it was a bug but it turns out to be working as intended:

• If you don’t get a $2,000 A.I.M. reward when you complete a combat task, it’s probably NOT a bug. You only get the $2,000 for every FIVE (5) combat tasks you complete.
• If you don’t get a stat point when you complete a combat task, it’s probably NOT a bug. You only get a stat point if there is an available point in the “statGainingPoints” pool.

And there are a handful of situations where I have encountered apparent bugs:

• On rare occasions, I haven’t gotten any XP from completing a combat task. That seems like a bug. However, make sure to check the Snype summary and scroll up – sometimes the XP gets earned earlier in the sequence which makes it easy to miss.
• On one occasion, the combat task didn’t seem to trigger/complete correctly when another squad in the same sector performed the requirement. That’s just a single anecdotal occurrence and maybe I missed a detail. I normally don’t have multiple squads in the same sector so I haven’t tested this much.
• One bug with the Elusive Kill combat task (should make a kill and never suffer damage in combat) is that if you kill the final opponent with a stealth kill, combat ends, you gain control of the sector, but the combat task does not complete (it remained uncompleted in the upper right corner of the screen). My guess is that the combat task conditions don’t always account for combat ending with a stealth kill. When I reloaded and killed the opponent normally (with a non-stealth kill), the combat task completed correctly. This happened in Version Wolf (1.4.1). I have tried this in Version Larry (1.5.1) and it seemed to work correctly, so hopefully this bug has now been fixed.
• One bug with the Stealthy Approach combat task (should start the first combat in Stealth and the team should kill 2 opponents before the end of the first turn) is that it really means before the enemy takes any action. If you kill one enemy with a stealth kill but this activates other enemies (who move and attack), then you will fail the combat task even though it is not yet the end of “Turn 1” (at least how the saved game labels Turn 1).