Ubisoft Paris released Wildlands on 7 March 2017 and handed players an open Bolivia divided into 21 provinces, all of them reachable from the first hour. The Santa Blanca cartel runs the country under El Sueno, and your four man Ghost team of Nomad, Holt, Midas and Weaver works through its structure from the bottom up. You can bring three AI teammates or three other players, and either way the sync shot is the mechanic the whole game is built around.
This walkthrough takes you from your first session to endgame content. Each phase has specific goals, priorities, and milestones. New to the game? Start with our beginner's guide first.
Quick Progression Summary
| Phase | Area | Focus | Role | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Start | Itacua | Sync Shot and the four man team basics | Drone Operator | 1-2 hours |
| 2. Early | Ocoro | The Santa Blanca hierarchy mastery | Drone Operator | 3-5 hours |
| 3. Mid | Villa Verde | Drone tagging and recon + gear | Sync Shot Marksman or Drone Operator | 5-10 hours |
| 4. Late | Montuyoc | Build optimization | Sync Shot Marksman | 5-10 hours |
| 5. Endgame | Media Luna | Min-max | Sync Shot Marksman or Rebel Support Specialist | Ongoing |
See our maps guide for detailed area breakdowns.
Phase 1: Getting Started (Itacua)
The one star province where the game starts and the only one designed as a teaching ground. Cartel patrols are thin, Unidad presence is minimal, and the terrain is open enough that you can practise droning and sync shots without a helicopter arriving mid-lesson.
Level/Difficulty: One star, levels 1 to 5 Key Rewards: MG121 light machine gun, M40A5 sniper rifle, Super Shorty shotgun, and the first skill point caches
What to Do in Itacua
- Learn Sync Shot and the four man team. Mark up to three enemies and the squad kills all of them in the same instant. Spend your first session getting comfortable with this.
- Pick Drone Operator as your starting role. See our builds guide for why.
- Provinces are not level scaled. Their one to five star ratings are fixed, so a five star province at level 5 is exactly as dangerous as it will be at level 30. That fixed difficulty is what makes early collectible raids viable, since the guards do not get tougher just because you did.
- Acquire your first weapons upgrade: 805 Bren A2 or whatever's available.
- Clear all main content before moving on.
Phase 1 Checklist
- Understand Sync Shot and the four man team fundamentals
- Drone Operator selected and functional
- Itacua main content cleared
- Ready for Ocoro
Phase 2: Early Game (Ocoro)
The natural second province at two stars, with more vertical terrain and the first camps that punish an untagged guard. Rebel strength here is cheap to raise, which makes it the right place to learn what mortar support actually does to a compound.
Level/Difficulty: Two stars, levels 5 to 10 Key Rewards: SR-635 submachine gun, 5.7 USG handgun, plus accessory cases that improve suppressors and scopes
What to Do in Ocoro
- Work on The Santa Blanca hierarchy. El Sueno sits above four branches: Security under El Muro, Production under El Yayo, Smuggling under Nidia Flores and Influence under El Cardenal. This system becomes critical from here on.
- Farm for 805 Bren A2 if you haven't already. It's the key upgrade for this phase.
- Weapon cases unlock the gun permanently across your whole save. Fly a helicopter to Montuyoc in the first few hours, land on a ridge, walk to the HTI case and leave, and you own the heaviest rifle in the game before the campaign's second mission.
- Complete all objectives before pushing to Villa Verde.
- Consider whether Sync Shot Marksman might suit your playstyle better than Drone Operator.
Phase 2 Checklist
- The Santa Blanca hierarchy integrated into gameplay
- 805 Bren A2 acquired
- Ocoro fully cleared
- Ready for Villa Verde
Phase 3: Mid Game (Villa Verde)
A mid-tier province with dense vegetation and a mix of cartel and Unidad patrols. The cover is good enough that a loud fight is survivable, which makes it a reasonable place to test the louder loadouts before you take them somewhere hostile.
Level/Difficulty: Three stars, levels 12 to 18 Key Rewards: 805 Bren A2 assault rifle, Dragunov SVD sniper rifle, M9 handgun, and several skill point caches
What to Do in Villa Verde
- Master Drone tagging and recon. Every Ghost carries a quadcopter drone that tags enemies through walls and keeps them marked. This unlocks a new layer of gameplay.
- Start working toward P416. It's the best weapon and becomes accessible around now.
- The AI squad will only fire a sync shot at a target you have marked, and they will not reposition to get line of sight. Check the little icons next to their names before you pull the trigger; a greyed out icon means that Ghost cannot see the target and the shot will be one guard short.
- This area is the main skill check. If you can clear it, you're ready for late game.
- Start investing in Rebel support from the Kataris 26 for the tactical depth you'll need going forward.
Phase 3 Checklist
- Drone tagging and recon mastered
- P416 acquired or in progress
- Villa Verde fully cleared
- Ready for Montuyoc
Phase 4: Late Game (Montuyoc)
High altitude terrain under the security buchon Carl Bookhart, an ex-US soldier working for El Muro. The sight lines here are the longest in the game, which cuts both ways: you can engage from a kilometre out and so can the snipers already on the ridges.
Level/Difficulty: Four to five stars, levels 20 and above Key Rewards: HTI anti-materiel rifle, MSR sniper rifle, TAR-21 assault rifle, and the province's security intel toward El Muro
What to Do in Montuyoc
- Finalize your build. You should be running Sync Shot Marksman or Drone Operator with optimized gear.
- P416 should be your primary. If you don't have it yet, prioritize getting it.
- Unidad alert levels escalate across four stages and then send helicopters and armoured convoys. Leaving the province boundary drops the alert far faster than hiding, and the checkpoints on the border road are the worst possible place to try to wait it out.
- Six skill trees and province collectibles optimization starts here. Small improvements compound into massive advantages.
- Farm this area for the resources needed to push into Media Luna.
Phase 4 Checklist
- Build fully optimized
- P416 upgraded to max
- Montuyoc fully cleared
- Ready for Media Luna
Phase 5: Endgame (Media Luna)
A five star province and one of the hardest areas in Bolivia, under the buchon El Comandante. It rewards a low level stealth raid better than a high level assault, because the weapon cases sitting here are worth more than the mission that guards them.
Level/Difficulty: Five stars, levels 25 and above, or a careful stealth run at any level Key Rewards: AK-47, ACR, Vector .45 ACP, 6P41 light machine gun, and multiple accessory cases
What to Do in Media Luna
- Media Luna tests everything. Come prepared with your best build and gear.
- Rebel strength is tracked per province and does not carry across. Doing three resource missions in a province before you touch its story mission takes about ten minutes and gives you mortar support for the rest of that province's content.
- The endgame loop: run Media Luna, optimize gear, push harder content.
- Experiment with Rebel Support Specialist for a fresh take once you've mastered the standard builds.
- This is where Six skill trees and province collectibles mastery separates good players from great ones. See our tips guide for advanced strategies.
Phase 5 Checklist
- Endgame content on farm
- Best-in-slot gear acquired
- Media Luna fully cleared
- Ready for challenge content
Common Progression Mistakes
- Shooting before droning. The single most common reason a stealth run collapses is a guard nobody tagged, standing behind a building, who reaches a radio. Ten seconds of drone time prevents a twenty minute firefight.
- Following the province star ratings as if they were level requirements. They are difficulty ratings for the mission, not gates on entry, and treating them as gates means going the whole campaign without the HTI or the Vector.
- Ignoring rebel resource missions because they look like filler. They are the only route to mortar support and rebel ambushes, and on a four or five star province those supports do more work than any weapon in your loadout.
- Engaging Unidad convoys on the road for no reason. Unidad alert escalates fast, does not reward you for the kills, and calls in helicopters that will follow you into the next province's mission.
- Playing the campaign in strict branch order. The Santa Blanca structure lets you work Security, Production, Smuggling and Influence in parallel, and the intel you pick up in one province frequently unlocks a mission in a branch you were not working on.
Key Tips for Smooth Progression
- Provinces are not level scaled. Their one to five star ratings are fixed, so a five star province at level 5 is exactly as dangerous as it will be at level 30. That fixed difficulty is what makes early collectible raids viable, since the guards do not get tougher just because you did.
- Weapon cases unlock the gun permanently across your whole save. Fly a helicopter to Montuyoc in the first few hours, land on a ridge, walk to the HTI case and leave, and you own the heaviest rifle in the game before the campaign's second mission.
- The AI squad will only fire a sync shot at a target you have marked, and they will not reposition to get line of sight. Check the little icons next to their names before you pull the trigger; a greyed out icon means that Ghost cannot see the target and the shot will be one guard short.
- Unidad alert levels escalate across four stages and then send helicopters and armoured convoys. Leaving the province boundary drops the alert far faster than hiding, and the checkpoints on the border road are the worst possible place to try to wait it out.
- Rebel strength is tracked per province and does not carry across. Doing three resource missions in a province before you touch its story mission takes about ten minutes and gives you mortar support for the rest of that province's content.
For more advanced strategies, see our tips & tricks guide.
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