Stranded

How Stranded Works

Where: a snowbound stretch of North Korea, straight after Survivors. This is the campaign’s only open combat mission: a large map with a river, a railway, villages and eleven enemy outposts, and a Base Camp that you return to between jobs.

There are three main objectives, Disable the Jamming Station, Destroy the SAM Site and Secure Explosives in the Bunker, and they can be done in any order. The order on this page (Jamming Station, SAM Site, Bunker) is the one that hands you each tool just before you need it: the Jamming Station gives you bomb drones for the SAM Site, and the SAM Site has the night vision goggles for the Bunker.

Getting around: there are vehicles all over the map, and you can fast travel between Base Camp, the main objective sites and any outpost you have cleared. Clearing an outpost also marks nearby crates on the tacmap, and the tacmap shows coordinates, which is how most crate and note guides give locations. When you first leave Base Camp, pick the option “I’ll find my own path…” to roam on your own.

Base Camp and Scavenger

Base Camp is where Kal waits and where you spend Supplies to repair or make weapons and gear. Scavenger (gold) asks you to repair everything there. Supplies come from yellow crates, from bags lying around the map and from supply drops that fall from the air from time to time; anyone opening all 26 crates and picking up what they pass should have enough with some to spare.

• Mortar: 30
• Scoped LMG: 30 (opens once all the main objectives are done)
• Silenced assault rifle: 25
• Silenced sniper rifle with thermal scope: 20
• Silencer for the KG-7 Vulcan: 10 (you have to pick up the Vulcan on the map first; there is one at the SAM Site)
• Grenade launcher: 15 or 30, see below
• Pistol underbarrel shotgun: 5
• Semtex: 5
• Molotov: 5
• Snow Ghillie Suit: 15
• Tactical Boots: 20
• Tactical Gloves: 15 (open after the SAM Site is destroyed)

What it all costs: PowerPyx prices the grenade launcher at 15 Supplies and gives 195 for everything; Game8 prices it at 30, which would make the total 210. The other eleven prices match. Some entries say “make” rather than “repair”; they still count for the trophy.

Disable the Jamming Station

Where: a radio station on high ground in the north-east, with Kal covering you. Do this one first: it gives you the Drone Operator Tablet, and bomb drones make the SAM Site and its trophy far easier.

• 1

  Up the cliff

  Take the path up the west side of the cliff and wait for Kal’s callouts before pushing on. A dead soldier on the way up has a note. Near the top a helicopter sweeps the slope with its light: keep behind rocks, trees and bushes until it passes.

• 2

  Through the station

  The station is full of soldiers; stealth is easier, but you can fight. Your way to the tower runs through the main building next to it. The station has five notes: in the first building, in the soldiers’ quarters, in the locker room, in the main control room, and on barrels on the helipad. The yellow crate is at the tower itself, low down, on the way up.

• 3

  The tower and the Drone Operator Tablet

  Climb the tower on its pipes and ledges while Kal covers you. One soldier is in a room on the tower that Kal cannot reach: kill him and take the Drone Operator Tablet. Bomb drones now come out of the green drone chests, here and all over the map. Use them on the reinforcements that arrive, then keep climbing and use the panel at the top.

• 4

  The helicopter

  An enemy helicopter arrives when you use the panel. Two bomb drones bring it down. Then parachute off the tower to finish the objective.

Destroy the SAM Site

Where: a missile site by a large statue, reached across the river. This objective holds Incoming!, so arrive with bomb drones if you have them.

• 1

  In by the river

  Swim across and take out the guards quietly. Kal and Dunn join you behind; follow their callouts and keep quiet until you reach the site, then clear it with them.

• 2

  Hold the site

  Once it is yours, the enemy counter-attacks with infantry and vehicles. Restock at the statue, where there are drone chests, and defend. The last vehicle is a BMP; thermite grenades or two bomb drones deal with it.

• 3

  What to take with you

  Before leaving, pick up the night vision goggles nearby (the Bunker is pitch dark) and the KG-7 Vulcan sniper rifle by the yellow crate at the statue: until you have picked it up, its silencer cannot be repaired for Scavenger. The site also has three notes: in the first house on the left as you come in, on a concrete block near the statue, and just above the crate.

Secure Explosives in the Bunker

Where: an underground submarine base under Infantry Checkpoint #4, with Kal. Bring the night vision goggles from the SAM Site.

• 1

  The way in

  The outpost on top has one gap, a broken wall on the left; slip through it and down the hatch. You can also clear the whole outpost for its supplies. The yellow crate is at the bunker entrance.

• 2

  Restore the power

  Climb down, switch on night vision and follow the passage to the submarine bay door. Its switch has no power. Follow Kal underwater into the next rooms (there are soldiers waiting), surface on the left and reconnect the loose extension cord, then swim on to the generator and pass three skill checks to start it. Enemies then come through the door; kill them as they enter and you can walk back to the bay door instead of swimming, and open it.

• 3

  Three explosives, and out

  Restock and drop through the broken window. The three explosives are in crates marked with a triangle: one close to where you land, one towards the middle, and one in the far right-hand corner. Clear the area (a heartbeat sensor helps), then fight back out behind Kal and climb the ladder to finish.

Playing as Ko

After you finish one of the three main objectives, the game switches you to Lieutenant Ko Jin-Hyuk on the other side of the line. In this stretch you place two armored vehicles on vantage points around the map. Do not put them on the main objectives you still have to do: a vehicle placed there makes that objective harder for you.

All 26 Yellow Crates

Time to Crate (gold) asks for every yellow supply crate in Stranded, and there are 26. Twenty-four sit in fixed places; two move, one on a train and one on a convoy truck. Crates hold weapons, gear, armor plates and Base Camp supplies. The list below is grouped by how you reach each crate; tick them off as you go, because the game does not show which ones you have opened. Nothing is lost by opening all 26 in a single visit to the mission.

What is inside: IGN says the contents go by how many crates you have opened, not by which crate (the third crate always gives the same thing, wherever it is), and lists all 26 rewards. Game8 says the contents are random. Both agree that once you have everything, crates give armor plates and supplies.

The two moving crates

• 1. The train: a crate rides the train that loops the southern railway. Board it as it passes; Logistics Station #10, a train depot, and the water tower crate (no. 4) are both good places to wait.
• 2. The convoy truck: a crate in the back of an enemy convoy truck that circles the mountain Base Camp sits on; it shows red on the tacmap. It turns up around Infantry Checkpoint #3, often as reinforcements when a fight starts there. If it does not appear, fast travel elsewhere and back. Check the back of any convoy you destroy.

Climbs

• 3. Top of the Radio Tower: across the old bridge from Base Camp, the big blue-and-white tower. Ladder to the first platform, then the red-and-white ledges and copper pipes to the very top. Two notes on the way (Radio Tower, Top of Radio Tower).
• 4. Railway water tower: a water tower by the southern tracks. Climb the pipe; the train passes underneath, so you can also jump off onto it.
• 5. Logistics Station #100: after clearing it, climb the broken stairs and scaffolding beside the elevator, jump across to the broken elevator and back, and follow the red-and-white tape to the crate. The station has two notes, one in the green building and one on the elevator.
• 6. Jamming Station tower: at the comms tower during the Jamming Station objective, near the bottom.

Behind a keypad

• 7. South of Jamming Station container: code 8609.
• 8. South East Village container: by the bridge out of the village, code 0078.
• 9. Cliff Near Base Camp container: just north of Base Camp, code 0600.
• 10. Big Sign container: at a crossing on the main road, next to a large sign, code 1234.
• 11. Small Island container: on a little island in the river, by a watchtower, code 6789.
• 12. Hidden island bunker: near the foot of a cliff across the river, code 0008; drop through the trapdoor.

Puzzles and traps

• 13. The sewer: behind a locked gate under the water treatment building near Base Camp; you reach it through the crawl tunnels. See The Sewer Route.
• 14. The booby-trapped shop: a shop on a hill near the SAM Site, wired with tripwire explosives inside. Throw a grenade through the door first, and deal with the next tripwire before going for the crate. The smaller building beside it has a note, and the shop has another.
• 15. The house you enter by the roof: the front door is locked. Climb onto the awning over the chopped wood and drop in through the damaged roof; there is a note right below and the crate in the next room.
• 16. Artillery Battery #6: a container blocked by wooden crates. Blow them away with a grenade, another explosive or a mortar strike.

On the objectives

• 17. Bunker entrance: at Infantry Checkpoint #4, during the Bunker objective.
• 18. SAM Site statue: at the foot of the statue, with a note above it and the KG-7 Vulcan nearby.

Outposts (clear them first)

• 19. Infantry Checkpoint #1: by the river, in the white-and-green guard building near the bridge, next to green filing cabinets.
• 20. Infantry Checkpoint #2: the grey house next to the guard tower.
• 21. Infantry Checkpoint #3: the grey building with the red star.
• 22. Infantry Checkpoint #5: the grey building across the road from the guard tower.
• 23. Logistics Station #10: the grey building by the guard house, across from the train tracks.
• 24. Logistics Station #20: the grey building next to the green building.
• 25. Logistics Station #200: through the side door of the big blue garage.
• 26. Artillery Battery #7: the small grey house.

Keypad Codes

Six shipping containers and two hidden bunkers have keypads. Each has a note beside it with a clue, usually a list of previous codes; the code is the next one in the pattern. The codes are fixed.

• Base Camp container: 0024. The old codes go up by 6 each time.
• Cliff Near Base Camp container: 0600. The old codes are 9300, 6400 and 3500: each is 2900 less than the one before.
• Big Sign container: 1234. The old codes are 1000, 1200 and 1230: add the next digit.
• Small Island container: 6789. The old codes are 3456, 4567 and 5678.
• South of Jamming Station container: 8609. The old codes are 5903, 6805 and 7707: first digit up 1, second down 1, third stays 0, last up 2.
• South East Village container: 0078. The old codes are 0012, 0034 and 0056.
• Hidden island bunker: 0008. Its note says the code is the number of outposts along the river.
• Farm Field bunker: 0330. The four Logistics Stations added up (10 + 20 + 100 + 200). It holds supplies and a note, not a crate.

The Base Camp container: GameRant and IGN leave it out of the crate count and PowerPyx says it holds supplies, so for them it is not one of the 26. Game8 says there is a yellow crate inside. Open it either way: it is next to Base Camp and its note counts towards Noteworthy.

The Sewer Route

The hardest crate in Stranded. Go to the white-and-blue water treatment building close to Base Camp (marked with a question mark on the map), pick up the Water Treatment Note inside, and take the ladder on the far side of the building down into the sewer. At the bottom, the Sewers Note lies next to a locked gate; the crate is behind it, and you reach the other side through the crawl tunnels. Arrows on the walls give the way, but the trick is to count junctions rather than follow the arrows literally. Stay prone.

• 1

  First tunnel

  Turn right from the gate to the cardboard sign with the arrows, and crawl into the tunnel beside it. At the first junction go right, at the next go left, then pass one junction and turn left at the one after (skeletal remains ahead). Follow it to a ladder and climb.

• 2

  Second tunnel

  More arrows above the next tunnel. Right at the first junction, then left, then left again, then right (by a pipe sticking out of the wall), then left. Pass the next junction and turn left at the one after; a grey brick wall ahead means you are right. Drop down: the Sewer Smuggler Remains Note is on the floor, and the crate is down the ledge towards the exit.

Notes and Noteworthy

Noteworthy (gold) asks you to read 50 different notes. The campaign has 64 in all, and 58 of them are in Stranded; the rest are in Following Orders and Escape. Stranded alone has more than 50, so the trophy can be finished here. Stranded is also the only mission with a counter: open the backpack (Down on the D-pad) and the found total shows at the top as “X/58”.

Do the Following Orders notes count? IGN says Noteworthy counts notes from Following Orders and Escape as well; PowerPyx’s collectibles guide says any 50 of the 64, but its trophy guide says the four Following Orders notes do not count. Collecting 50 in Stranded settles it either way.

Most notes sit next to things you visit anyway, so picking them up on the crate route covers the bulk:

• Keypad notes: every container and bunker on the codes list has one beside its keypad, and a few have a second one on the side or inside.
• The objectives: one on the cliff path and five inside the Jamming Station, four in the Bunker, three at the SAM Site.
• Climbs and puzzles: two on the Radio Tower, three on the sewer route, two at Logistics Station #100, two by the booby-trapped shop, one in the roof-entry house, and one on top of the big sign next to the Big Sign container (climb the pipes on its right).
• Around the map: one in each of the two train cars standing near the Bunker, one under a bridge, one at the top of the southern monument (climb it by the red ledges), and others in houses, sheds, a village school and on a body by a statue. Outposts often have one.
• From the crates: two notes, the Supply Crates Weapon Inventory and the Supply Crates Equipment Inventory, come out of yellow crates (with the third and the fifth you open).
• Base Camp: five notes are tied to the Base Camp repairs.

The five Base Camp notes: IGN puts them on the desk to the left of the Base Camp entrance; PowerPyx says you get them by repairing and upgrading at Base Camp. Doing every repair for Scavenger gets them either way.

Leave for the Airbase

With all three main objectives done, talk to Kal inside Base Camp and choose to leave for the airbase. That ends Stranded and starts Defection. Talk to him only when you are finished here: crates, notes and repairs are all in this mission. Finishing Stranded unlocks Kal as an Operator for multiplayer and DMZ.

Mission Completion

✅ Before Talking to Kal...