Buccaneer

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Buccaneer
As seen when standing at Don Ernesto Harbor.
Vehicle in Just Cause
Type	Destroyer, Stationary vehicle
Weapons	Several, see the section below.
Rarity	Unique
List of owners	San Esperito Military / Salvador Mendoza
Top speed (km/h)	Unknown, it's a Stationary vehicle

The Buccaneer is a military ship in Just Cause (1).

Description

The ship is only ever seen in the mission Sink the Buccaneer, however this article tries to avoid unnecessary spoilers.

As a destroyer, it's among the smallest types of military ships, but it's the largest armed vehicle in the game, because the others are more like boats. The size is second only to the Tanker and possibly also Mendozas submarine.

The mission has no time limit, so once the player has entered the gate of the Don Ernesto Harbor (thereby triggered the missions save point), there will be infinite time to explore the mission environment. If the player gets killed, the first option will be to "continue", which reloads the save point. It's possible to use several different vehicles to approach the ship:

• Hijack a Jackson Z-19 Skreemer that is circling the port.
• Use the unique Underwater Scooter that is hanging from a port crane.
• Use a Mullen H45 Dragonfly from any of the nearby Cartel Villas. It's advised to take over the nearest villa before starting the mission.

Performance

This is one of the Stationary vehicles which never actually moves. In fact it's programmed as a building in the game files.

Weapons

• 3 x SAM launchers.
• 3 x Containers with 4 torpedoes each. Tom Sheldon misidentifies these as 3 "long range missiles". The mission info in the PDA also calls them "nuclear tactical missiles".
  • This controversy has been acknowledged by Avalanche Studios. Promotional materials for Just Cause 3 include a comic strip that summarizes JC1 and JC2. In the comic Rico opens a vault and immediately realizes that those look a lot like torpedoes: "These the same 'supposed' nukes that could just as easily have been torpedoes?" He decides to blow up the ship anyway, because: "Nukes? Torpedoes? What does it matter? What mattered was that we got the job done--".
• 1 x Mounted Gun (the front, just forward of the bridge). This weapon is rather poorly positioned in a way that greatly limits its usefulness.
• 2 x Unique rocket-propelled grenade launchers. One is on either side of the forward bridge structure. The only ways to get to them are either to Parachute onto the ship, or to land a helicopter on the ship. However both of these options are very difficult. Confusingly these weapons are still called Mounted Guns on the HUD, despite having a completely different function and model.

All 3 Mounted Guns on the ship share the same Glitch that causes Rico's arms to bend backwards while using them. This is caused by his character model standing too close to the weapon.

Vehicles

The rear of the ship has a helicopter landing pad with a parked Huerta PA51 Aztek for Salvador Mendoza himself.

Trivia

• "Buccaneer" is another word for the type of pirate who operated in the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. See wikipedia about this. A fitting name to a military ship from a Caribbean "rogue state".
• The destroyer bears a strong resemblance to the Arleigh Burke class destroyer.

Gallery

As seen when standing at Don Ernesto Harbor.

Some of the same torpedoes at the port.

An open vault with torpedoes in it.

The ship at the end of the mission, just before exploding. This cut-scene version looks different.

Picture taken from a Whiptail Gyrocopter.

Grenade launching Mounted Gun on the left side of the ship. Note that the player has crash-landed a Mullen H45 Dragonfly onto the ship.

The same grenade launching mounted gun.

Note that the weapon is a bit glitched, causing Ricos arms to bend backwards while using it. Also note the weapons range. It's impossible to shoot all the way to the port.

Mendoza running to his helicopter before Rico attacks his destroyer