PDA

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The PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is a piece of equipment in the Just Cause game series.

Map legend (JC1, PC).

Common description

It's a device used by some secret agents, like Rico, which functions as the in-game options menu. It can be used to call in an extraction or heavy drop in times of need, shows statistics and provides a detailed map with location markers, race markers, mission trigger points and other items of interest.

As of JC3, the device is integrated to the Grappler.

Features (JC)

In the PC version it freezes the game and the PDA is a small pop-up window. In the PS2 version the PDA has its own menu, accessed with the SELECT button.

• Map of San Esperito.
  • Safehouse locations.
  • Military base locations.
  • Race locations.
  • Mission locations (during a mission).
  • Blue dots (collect missions)
• Guerrilla relations.
• Rioja Cartel relations.
• Heavy drop.
• Extraction.
• Statistics.
  • The missions and side-missions you've done.
  • Number of bullets fired.
  • Roof to roof stunt jumps (vehicle roofs, not buildings).
  • Air to roof stunts (refers to stunt jumping to a vehicle whilst the parachute is open).
  • BASE jump statistics.
  • Number of different people killed (Civilians; San Esperito Police Department; San Esperito Military and Black Hand soldiers).
• Current mission information.

Features (JC2)

• Map of Panau.
  • Showing the borders of the faction territories.
  • Conditions and locations of all "discovered" settlements.
  • Race locations and basic data.
  • Mission locations.
• Setting way-points to the map (a GPS type of feature).
• Incoming news through the Panau Broadcasting Company.
• Information about the main characters of the game.
• A list of all vehicles, with updated markings for the ones you've driven.
• Extraction.
• Chaos points.
• Money.
• Approximate amount of progress needed to unlock the next missions and Black Market items.
• The number of collectible items that you have, left over from the last time you upgraded any weapons and vehicles.
• Statistics.

Other info (JC2)

• The PDA is known to use digital memory cards, which might be equipped with a beacon, because they can be located from a distance.
• It can be taken apart and bugged in under a minute, while the device is at the same time downloading info. This is evident at the end of the mission Casino Bust when Karl Blaine asks Rico for his PDA to add info about the faction leaders. Blaine enters his mansion, downloads the info onto the PDA's memory card and gives it back to Rico within a minute.
• It can wirelessly download info from laptops as seen during multiple faction missions, like Mile High Club, Siphoning Gas, Clear Skies and possibly more.
• It can pick up enemy radio chatter, warning you when they call for reinforcements or when SAMs have locked onto you.
• The Ular Boys civilian business associate Portuguese Pete is known to have owned a PDA.
• The government pilot in the mission Airport Troubles is known to have owned a PDA.
• It can be set to automatically shut down when the owner dies, as was the case with Portuguese Pete.
• Sri Irawan believes that "gastric juice" and "bile", as found in a rectum when a person dies, might ruin the PDA.
• All Panauan faction leaders are aware, but not amazed by the PDAs abilities, which means that the Personal Digital Assistant is a pretty common device in the fictional Just Cause universe. Possibly similarly to "smartphones" in reality.
• The JC2 variant of the PDA has a 3D map. This can be seen when looking at the mountains and moving east to west, or north to south.
• Unrealistically, the PDA still functions after the EMP on Hantu Island destroys a boat or plane that Rico was using. In reality, the PDA would be completely useless and worth nothing.

Just Cause 3

In JC3 the PDA is called "commlink". The Agency is said to have given these to all rebels.

Different pre-announcement leaked screenshots show the PDA completely differently. In some it was displayed on screen over Rico, as a pop-up window that breaks the fourth wall and in some it was an in-game hologram, projected by the Grappler. The new grappler has a curved and presumably flexible screen on it. The screen shows an outdated PDA design that was seen on some of the leaked screenshots. A full-size plastic replica of the grappler, that was a part of the "collectors edition" of the game, has that same image as used in-game. See Cut game content from Just Cause 3 for more about this.

The final design of the interactable PDA is similar to that of JC2 in the sense that it works like a pause menu with none of the game being visible from the edges.

Just Cause 4

In JC4, the device is again integrated to the grappler, as Rico still has the same grappler (tho Rico has customized the grappler functionality).

The default background is the map, with several big tabs at the top and a list of available missions on the left. The background in all menu areas is black.

Features (JC4)

• Map of Solís (location markers appear once Rico has been to places to discover them).
  • Capturing regions (pending available "squads").
  • Fast Travel (to discovered marked locations).
  • Available vehicle and wingsuit stunts. These can be made visible as travel destinations by clicking on them on the map.
• List of available missions.
• Supply drop (for weapons, vehicles and other items).
• Statistics for some in-game stunts and challenges in JC4 that can be compared to some other accounts, like Steam friends.

Gallery

JC1 map legend.

JC1 PDA map, showing Guerrilla relations and Guerrilla safehouses.

JC1 political map with a list of all Provinces.

JC1 - The PDA extractions map can extract Rico to any safehouse, or to the trigger of the next storyline mission (if there are any available).

JC2 PDA map.

JC3 One of the pre-announcement leaked screenshots from November 2014.

JC3 One of the pre-announcement leaked screenshots from november 2014.