Just Cause 2

I started this game on experienced difficulty, beat the game and grabbed all the achievements along with it ending up at about 60 hours of game time and 80% complete. I lost interest in the game but the 40g achievement score for completing this game on hardcore mode made me run for a quick hardcore mode session.

if some of you are still in doubt whether to do this here are some stats

Game time to complete the story:
around 8 hours

Chaos needed in order to unlock 6th-7th mission ( They are tied, so when you finish mission 6, the 7th mission will automatically load ):
435k

Percentage complete after 7th mission:
25%

How I did it:
I started with grabbing some resource items in the small villages. Made sure the little chopper, the Rowllington or whatever, was upgraded to level 6, I did the same with the assault rifle. These are the only 2 you basically need. Then I did the stronghold missions, switching to faction missions in order to unlock more strongholds and agency missions. This goes pretty quick and I was done with the 4th agency mission at 3-4 hours of game time. Then all I did was take the little chopper and fly to all the big bases and oil rigs and shoot every chaos object I saw. Until I was at 435k so I could finish the game.

dropK1CK ninJA gave us some nice chaos numbers for completing certain places.

Oilrigs: 1,500 Chaos
Big Oilrigs: 3,000 Chaos
Skull Island ( in the shape of a horseshoe on the map, around the middle ): 18,000 Chaos
Strongholds: 7,500 Chaos


P.S. I did it in 8 hours but you can probably do it between 6-7 hours. While doing this run I still found myself messing around and wasting time...

This only requires that you beat the 7 Agency missions, not the races or faction missions. Important notes:

The 7th mission launches straight after the 6th named 'Into the Den', there is no free-roaming gap inbetween. As far as I can tell the choice you make at the beginning of mission 6 has absolutely no impact on the rest of the game (please make a note in the comments if you have found this is not the case).

This achievement will unlock you the 2 lower tier related achievements (Top Agent) and (Heroic Agent) so there is no need to go back and play through on easier difficulties if this is your first completion. If this is the case you should also unlock (Into the Den) and (A Just Cause) achievements.

I first got all achievements on the easiest difficulty, then headed for this and the experienced difficulty.

I just needed to boost my way up to the sixth agency mission. It took me 26 %, and when I finished the seventh mission, I barely used 11 hours and was at 28 %,

For you to get to the next agency mission, you only have to create chaos. Every panaun (white star) object you destroy, gives chaos. Strongholds gives a good amount of chaos, and so does the faction missions.
Baby Panay statues and the propaganda speakers gives 1000 Chaos points.

Don't finish any races! They only give money and completion.

Hopes this helps, and don't be afraid. I was surprised of how easy this difficulty was. Just upgrade the weapons you use the most (submachine and assault for me) and collect the armor upgrades at the highway bridges.

It should be noted that if you only want to play through the game once, you should complete all "Stronghold Takeover" missions before starting "Agency Mission" 6.

The "Stronghold Takeover" missions will not spawn in mercenary mode as far as I know.

Hope this helps limits some people's possible frustration.....

It takes roughly 10 hours to beat the game from start directly to finish - just focus on doing Agency missions and do whatever you can to cause chaos (preferably faction missions/stronghold takeovers) in order to unlock the agency missions. Unless you really need quick cash, don't bother with race challenges - they do nothing towards earning Chaos. You have to go on your own causing chaos to unlock Agency missions 3, 4, 5 and 6. It can be rather time-consuming to do, especially given you can be looking at a good 10 faction missions or more to get to the next agency mission.

In addition, it's also recommended if you are willing to shell out just a few M$ points to buy some of the DLC weapons, preferrably the Quad Rocket Launcher and Cluster Bomb Launcher. They are available right after the second agency mission and are automatically Level 6.

A fast way to build up chaos to get the next agency mission is to simply jack an army chopper and don't stop destroying army base structures until you are killed - Keep moving or enemy chopper WILL take you down. Oil rigs give good chaos too. Watch out for SAMs.

This is relatively an easy achievement. Increasing the difficulty seems to improve the enemies' accuracy and amount of damage they deal. There is also a relative increase in enemy spawning, especially of vehicles - most notably helicopters.

After having completed all the achievements on a lower difficult level, going back to play through to get this one actually seemed easier than it did the first time through.

In general, choose one two handed weapon and one one-handed weapon to completely level up. I used the assault rifle and SMG. If you have extra weapon parts, put them towards your grenades. Vehicle upgrades are a moot point. Shield upgrades, on the other hand, cannot be passed up on.

I also found that doing the missions as soon as they became available helped in that those pesky "enter the sequence of buttons displayed to blow up xxx" things, especially in mission 6 and 7, are easier when there are fewer buttons to press to complete the sequence. It seems that there is less time available in hardcore for any given sequence, and the enemies are more accurate so it's harder to get it done under fire.

Do not be fooled by the near 3.0 TA ratio on this achievement. This difficulty is not that hard. As long as your upgrades go toward the weapons you actually use, you will be fine. I recommend actually doing the 75% achievement on this play through just to save yourself an extra 10+ hours.

At times you will wonder how the hell random enemies are draining your health so fast, but most of the times I died happened when I felt brave.

Just using cover on occasion and grappling around constantly in tight situations is usually enough to survive (avoid those laser sights!).

When choppers come after you on foot, grapple onto them and just hijack them.

When you see the laser sights of snipers, get out of sight, find them, then pull them off of their towers.

When in a chopper vs chopper fight, strafe and shoot ahead of their path.

Whether you do the perfectionist achievement on this playthrough or just need to run through the story again, you will soon forget that you are on hardcore.