Last Edited: May 14, 2019 at 5:42 AM
In Rage 2, you’ll be thrust into the Wasteland early on in your adventure, and while you’re tasked with seeking out three allies to enact Project Dagger, there’s a lot to explore and many things to miss that won’t find on the main story path.
Below are several key things you should do first when playing Rage 2.
Get the BFG 9000 (Deluxe Edition)[edit]
This little tip is only for players who have the Deluxe Edition of the game – but it’s important to note as you can easily miss this when leaving Vineland for the first time.
Deluxe Edition players get access to the BFG 9000 from Doom, but you have to find it first.
When leaving Vineland after the tutorial and driving your new Phoenix car, keep a lookout for a falling red meteorite that will hit the ground just past the second three-way intersection to the right and up past Vineland.
Look around for an impact site in the hill by the converging roads, and you’ll spot a broken red rock that holds the BFG 9000 inside. It’s important to note that while deadly – ammo for the BFG is scarce. You won’t find it out in the wild or at bandit camps. You can only buy it from weapon merchants in the Trading Outposts – and they sell BFG Plasma Capsules for $1,000 each!
Get the Combat Shotgun (Story Mission)[edit]
You technically have three character you need to find and help in the Wasteland, and it might not be clear what awaits you down each path. Most other weapons you can obtain in Rage 2 are all found in Arks that are scattered around the map, but one of them is part of the main story.
Travel to Gunbarrel to meet the man John Marshall in his bar, and accept his quest to rid the sewers of the mutant presence under the town. As you head down into the depths, you’ll soon find an Ark buried under the town that you alone can access – and you’ll get a Combat Shotgun inside.
The Combat Shotgun is an incredibly important weapon to have early on, as it boasts great damage at close range, and its alternate fire and knock people back and into the air – even when out of range of a normal shotgun blast.
While exploring and taking out points of interest can be fun in the opening hours, they’ll be a lot more fun when you have several powers to use in combat. Many of them are hidden in Arks all over the Wasteland – but there’s a few that you can get to early on that aren’t heavily defended.
Travel to the Junkers Pass Ark in the Twisting Canyons region, not far from Vineland. It’s located in the center of the region, on a hill just south of the Crusher Nest.
Once you clear out the bandits infesting the Ark, you’ll get the Shatter ability It lets you dash into enemies and send them flying with a huge force push, and will also strip the armor of tough targets (if your target reticle is yellow, you’ll now the enemy is armored and can be sundered by the ability).
Another very important Nanotrite Ability to get early on is the Slam power – as it can let you launch above and down into a group of enemies to kill them or send them flying, which is great crowd control.
You can find the ability hidden at the Earthscar Ark in the Torn Plains region. It’s located near the center part of the region in a ruined city area, between two Bandit Camps – the Forward Command Post and Vandal Villas.
Like the Junkers Pass Ark, the difficulty is still low and you’ll be able to tear through the bandits guarding the Ark easily. Once you have the Slam Ability, you can use it to get the literal drop on enemies by looking for the height advantage whenever possible, and leap from higher buildings onto enemies below.
Obtain the Smart Rocket Launcher[edit]
Just as important as getting the Combat Shotgun, having another weapon to swap to is a great bonus to have early on, and the Rocket Launcher can help you decimate foes both big and small.
You’ll find this weapon hidden in the Strongbox Ark, which is located in the Torn Plains, not far South of the Earthscar Ark that holds the Slam ability, and it’s just Southwest of the Boombox Pit Stop.
This Ark is a bit tougher and has a bit more bandits defending it – but the payoff is well worth it. The Smart Rocket Launcher has a secondary lock-on feature that can fire a cluster of bombs at up to two targets at once, making it great for paving the way.
Help Out Dr. Kvasir[edit]
Of all the three characters to help out in your adventure, we highly recommend finding and assisting Dr. Kvasir first. This is because the Search and Recover projects he provides may give you the biggest return on your investments for the rest of the game.
After you finish his quest to go to the Eden Space Station, you can stat investing in projects like Collectible Tracking for Data Pads and Storage Containers, which will ping when close to these items that can help you get rewards faster to earn more money. He also has projects that let you mine Feltrite faster and collect more from fallen enemies – which is always needed.
However his best perk isn’t one of his projects. Once you reach level 7 by finding Arks, Ranger Echos, and collecting Data Pads and Ark Chests, you’ll unlock the Icarus Gyrocopter, which lets you summon the only flying vehicle in the game that makes exploration and traversal a breeze.
Obviously, you won’t be able to get Dr. Kvasir to level 7 right off the bat, but you can start helping him out long before you meet him in person by making sure you stop to inspect Arks and Ranger Echo sites. Each Data Pad you find gains you 10 points, each Ark Chest you open nets you 20, and if you spy any Drone robots hiding along the sides of buildings (listen for their strange buzzing) and shoot them down, you’ll get 60 points.
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