Did Jackleg Joe for the first time today and Wow... what a pain in the butt! The worst part about the mission is the constant starting over if you get beat. Not extract to the start point in the room: Auto Extract to outside the room, fresh cutscenes, fresh bad guys, fresh Cuppa Joe. I went through this several times trying a variety of weapons before checking online for hints and tips. I'm tenacious(or pig headed...) like that. The first thread I came to was one where alot of the more experienced players spent more time riding the guy who posted about nearly giving up on the game altogether over his frustration rather than just accepting that the new guy was having trouble, helping him out, talking him off the ledge, and pressing on with the congratulations. In fact, more congratulations were given to people who boasted(posted?) on the troubled guys thread about how many times they themselves had defeated Joe.... Talk about kicking a guy when he's down...
Anyway, I read a few comments and tried a few things and eventually came up with this strategy which may or may not seem cowardly to some of the more gung-ho and team savy players but worked pretty well for a solo artist like myself. Maybe it'll work for some of you as well. Bear in mind, I did this with a 279 Ranked Survivalist using a VOT Blast Rifle with incendiary effects, a VBI PS-30 Slugger with some purple swirly as the effect status, and a VBI Sniper Rifle with a blue Bio-Hazard style effect symbol(sorry if my ignorance of status effect symbols is sub-par and irritates). My EGO primary is cloak but I rarely use it unless I'm actually doing some sniping. My active perk powers are Height Advantage, Hunter's Stance, and Hunker Down. I never got around to slotting my 4th. As you can clearly see, I marginally know what im doing. Here we go:
Waste of Perfectly Good Henchmen
Once the first cutscene ends and youre off and running, seriously... get off and running!! Duck to the front left of the room and take a snipers position behind the 2 barrels inside the caged crate. Kneel down and wait. At this stage, Rosa is indestructible which you can use to your advantage since she attacks the 99ers and doesnt take damage. During this period you can lie in wait for someone to cross your crosshairs, or just let Rosa handle the Henchmen since that is the objective at this point: "Neutralize Jacklegs Henchmen". There are about 10 in all with 2 Elites towards the end, thankfully no Goldrushers.
Cutscene With A Clue
A firebug pops up from one of the hatches in the front and rushes you, but Rosa pops his fuel tank and the bug instead rushes Joes position, blows up, and drops Joes very impenatrible shield. Back into the action and you find yourself back at the front of the room for all the world to see. Get back to your cover position and start prepping because this is where timing becomes crucial. While crouched down, make sure your weapon of choice is fully loaded at all times to alleviate the possibility of not getting the shot you want and then being stuck reloading while you have everyones attention. Ignore the 99ers and Rosa. She's a big girl and can handle things herself. Your goal is to rupture the firebugs tanks and then get ready to unload on Joe when his sheild fails. SO... you'll get the cue that a firebug is on the playing field. Leave cover either by jumping up on top of the caged barrels or popping out from behind them at the front of the room and take aim, ready, fire and pop the tank. If at first you dont succeed, try again or just kill the bug and wait for another. If you DID succeed, duck behind cover until you hear the poor little fella go screaming off while you watch the scaffold to spot Joes position. Once Ahkmed does his Suicide Bomber Bit, leave cover and unload on the now kneeling Joe. He may or may not be masked by a cloud of smoke from the explosion which is why it's essential for you to get a bead on his position before the fireworks go off so you can just start blasting, fairly certain youll score the maximum amount of hits on him before his shield goes back up. Once it does, take cover again. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
Here's where timing comes into play. I initially used my scattergun on the firebugs since it offered the highest likelihood of getting a hit but changed to the slugger for reasons that are still eluding me. I imagine I think it's because of the damage potential of the scattergun in a widely dispersed range vs. the slugger having a more focused potential for single shot dmg. I really couldn't say either way which one worked better, honestly. In any case, between aiming for the midget Johnny Blazes and switching to a high capacity rifle for Joe, eventually the ammo starts running low. For The Most Part, the other 99ers should be ignoring you but you may find a little love from them when you scramble to replenish the ammo. Just pop a firebug and while Joe is down, make a mad dash to the ammo cache on the now right hand side of the room since youre running to the rear to get it, hit the square button and run back. There is no load time on those ammo caches so you don't have to sit there like a potser waiting for a refill. It's strictly grab and go, and you'd better get going because you still have to get back in position for the next fire bug!
A Grand Finale
Presumably everything has worked according to plan(or as close as can be expected) and you've given yourself ample time between firebugs and fire fights to let your shield recharge, HP recharge, weapons reload, etc etc etc. Joe has taken all he's about to take of your bu!!sh1+ and has jumped down and Boy.. he does not think you're funny at All!! Some poeple... no sense of humor, ya know. He'll start off by unloading a barrage of grenades at your position. If you're well crouched down behind the barrels, you SHOULDN'T have an incident here other than to be shaken up a bit. He generally fires 6 at a time so just wait out the thunder. During your wait, Rosa is unloading on him. And since SHE is now, and not you, she gets his attention. Thankfully, Rosa sans Shields is still very much indestructible. So give yourself a moment for your shields to recharge, get your weapon of choice at the ready and fully loaded, and for God's sake change your underpants... Now that you've had a breather, just take shots at him from out or under cover. Be mindful of when he turns on you that you get yourself to a safe position, watching the indicators of where the grenades land so you dont find yourself squatting over one, wait for Rosa to earn his affections again, and get in your hits. At this point, I was using the sniper rifle and just taking shots on the fly, not actually trying to perfect the head shot count. Eventually he'll go down like a sack of potatoes since he is at half strength to begin with and doesnt have any shield any longer. Congrats!! You're the proud owner of... I dunno. A big smile. Final cut scene where Rosa seems to realize the value of all life and feels something akin to not elation over the fall of Jackleg Joe, but maybe you could be her big brother(sister), and afterall... isnt that what we all want? really? deep down inside?
...no? just me?... alrighty.
So there you have it. A not entirely easy way to defeat Jackleg but very informative(maybe even overly wordy?) and detailed so you can get yourself right and have minimal difficulties. All in all, the first 2 hours were very frustrating(and wallet draining with all the extractions...) for me until I used this strategy and had success. I had to revive myself once using this pattern and I cant remember if it was a firebug that got me or Joes grenades. It's all starting to fade off into a blur now. Guess it's a good thing I started writing this immediately after I finished the mission.
Oh! And here is a link to a youtube video that someone made. It's 16 minutes long and is a full walkthrough of this mission from outside the door at the beginning to the last cut scene. This person used a high capacity automatic rifle with a sniper scope attachment for better aiming. The recoil made it a little hard to get solid hits, but the amount of ammo fired was sufficient to get the job done. It's the only weapon he uses the entire time and it seems to work out pretty well, if exceptionally hectic at the end. I got winded just watching it...
So, I hope this helps people who are having trouble with Joe. I did and thought my turn around success might be handy for others. Enjoy!!
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