Bavarium

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Bolo finds this pleasing, but she would like more.

Bavarium is a mineral in Just Cause 3.

Container of Bavarium on the eDEN Airship — Container of bavarium rocks on the eDEN Airship.

Description

According to Game Director Roland Lesterlin, Bavarium has "very explosive" and "weirdly magnetic" properties. He has also stated that "It's the next level of uranium, if you will". It is also known to be very light (similar to coal), since an Urga Szturm 63A is able to tow a pile of it larger than the car itself, as seen during Scrapyard Scramble. Also as revealed in those missions the "low grade" bavarium rocks are green and "high grade" ones are blue.

The mineral is completely unique to the islands of Medici. It is mined at several of its quarries, principally within provinces such as Rocca Blau.

As revealed during the mission Conflicting Interests, bavarium has to be refined. The mission Three's Company features a bavarium refinery and some (if not all) mines and at least one base/outpost have destructable refining machinery.

According to the map description for Guardia Grande Pastura I, only 80% of bavarium comes from the mines of Insula Striate. The rest is said to come from small outposts like Guardia Grande Pastura I. How the small military outposts are able to produce that much mining product is unknown.

History of Bavarium development

Spoiler warning: Significant plot details follow.

According to the map description for Cava Geminos Nord, Bavarium has been mined for over 100 years: "This Bavarium mine opened at the turn of the 20th century, when Salvatore Albano sold his hillside ranch to the Parvetalpo l'Obra Minerari. Di Ravello greatly expanded the mine, and its neighbor Cava Geminos Sud, near the turn of the 21st century."

According to info from DLC missions and Eden Callaghan tapes, president Dante showed some bavarium to the eDEN Corporation when he rented Insula Lacrima to them. He knew that it was special, but not just how valuable it could be. eDEN corp scientists soon discovered that it could be very powerful.

The Agency had learned about it from the eDEN corp and then asked Di Ravello if they could have some. According to Di Ravello tapes, it was at this point that Di Ravello was tipped off about its value. He then set up his own research laboratories to study it and he was careful to allow only small amounts of it out of Medici. Dimah and Zeno were both working at his lab. Dimah had not been directly hired by Di Ravello. She was actually "on loan" from the Agency.

It was Dimah who invented most of the bavarium weaponry. According to herself in a few missions, she was actually against any military use of it. According to Di Ravello (in his tapes) he had tortured her to make her do it.

At the same time, the eDEN corp was also developing bavarium technologies and they co-operated with Di Ravellos labs. Eden Callaghan mentions in her tapes that Dimah is to be credited for most bavarium technology.

According to Dimah, most of the scientific data concerning bavarium was stored at the command tower of Falco Maxime: Centcom. She and The Rebellion rigged the tower to explode, with her inside it, in an attempt to keep the technology a secret from the world, in the name of world peace. However her death was likely in vain, because the eDEN Corporation facilities all contained large amounts of bavarium-based technology. The Black Hand, who rented a part of Insula Lacrima from eDEN corp, had also learned about the potential of this technology and looted a lot of it from the area after the corporation disappeared.

Bavarium-based weapons

See also: FOW.

According to the collectable Di Ravello audio diary tapes, Di Ravello had no idea that Bavarium could be important until The Agency had expressed interest in it and thereby tipped him off about it.

Zeno Antithikara and Dimah Ali Umar al-Masri were working for "Di Ravello's Bavarium Corps" until they defected.

Bavarium has been used for military applications by the Medici Military. The Imperator Bavarium Tank and the Urga Mstitel are two vehicles which are infused with Bavarium. The mineral is used to generate a "Bavarium shield" around these vehicles. The Mechs from the Mech Land Assault DLC can also have a bavarium shield.

The M488 is an example of a man-portable weapon enhanced with Bavarium. It uses a Bavarium-tipped warhead which has a much greater explosive yield than a conventional warhead. Two other special weapons infused with Bavarium include the Dionysus PLDS-H laser designator and The Thunderbird, a ground-based EMP.

Bavarium has also been used to create weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Cima Leon: Silo is known to host Bavarium-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), as seen during the mission Missile Cowboy. Two of the three regional central command bases are also protected by Bavarium-based weapons: Corda Dracon: Centcom is defended by several Bavarium-infused EMP cannons and Falco Maxime: Centcom is defended by Bavarium-tipped nuclear warheads.

Most of these weapons fall under a broad weapon classification known as "FOW".

The eDEN Corporation, the enemy faction in the Sky Fortress DLC, uses Bavarium-based weapons like the Bavarium Splitter assault rifle.

Bavarium energy

Bavarium can be used as a source of energy.

The Corda Dracon: Centcom base has an underground area with a bavarium reactor. Nothing is known about the energy output, but it's known to have powered the bases defense EMP cannons. It's possible to enter the reactor itself, but that kills Rico.

The eDEN Airship is partly powered by "Bavarium batteries", which are large fragile radiator-shaped objects. It's not really known what they do, but they are not needed by the ships weapons, or hovering engines. The same batteries are also present at eDEN Extraction Site Alpha. This is likely the ship's auxiliary power source, meaning it powers things not needed for it to fly such as lighting, cooking and appliances.

Risks to health and environmental and other hazards

Icon for the achievement "The Power of Bavarium". This is presumably the symbol of bavarium related hazards, similar to the real world chemical weapon symbol.

Bavarium technology seems to be some type of parody of nuclear fission technology.

Requirement for vast mining and refinement industries.
Ability to increase the power of weapons.
Bavarium itself sounds to be, by name and by how it's spoken of, a fictional chemical element.

However, pretty much nothing is known about any possibly harmful waste materials from the refinement, bavarium batteries, or the bavarium reactor. The fact that bavarium has a hazard symbol proves that it is certainly hazardous.

It is unlikely, but possible, that bavarium is a relatively "clean energy", but it's more likely that the waste is being disposed of somewhere off-screen.

Waste gas from refined bavarium

As shown in the mission Conflicting Interests, "refined Bavarium" does produce waste gas that the Medici Military disposes of by venting it into the atmosphere. It's possible to detect the Bavarium content of the gas with a smaller than fist size scanner.

Standing at the exhaust vent with out protective gear (and presumably inhaling the gas) did not seem to have any effect on Rico. Dimah Ali Umar al-Masri, the world's leading Bavarium scientist, didn't even mention any possible harmful effects to Rico when sending him there. This does not necessarily prove that it's harmless, just that either the harm was negligible and/or that the effects are still unknown even to the top scientists.

Bavarium radiation

Bavarium-based weapons don't seem to have any lasting effects and the destruction of Bavarium batteries doesn't cause any detectable harm either.

The only known source of Bavarium radiation is the open-top core of the Bavarium reactor at Corda Dracon: Centcom, which kills Rico nearly instantly.

Trivia

There are many works of fiction that feature powerful fictional materials that can be used for energy and weapons. List at wikipedia.
In the "This is Just Cause 3" Trailer, Bavarium Pipes can be seen. Those were originally intended for the Scrapyard Scramble challanges. Therefore they are Cut game content from Just Cause 3.
Bavarium may be named after Bavaria, a former independent kingdom, now a state within the Federal Republic of Germany. This can be further supported due to the color resemblance between Bavaria's flag and Bavarium.