This article is about all the bugs and glitches in Just Cause (1). For other glitches, see the Bugs and glitches disambiguation.
Several glitches are shown on this map.
Bugs and glitches are mistakes in the game programming that may, or may not have convenient effects on the game.
Game platform tags ( PC , Playstation 2 , Xbox , 360 , All Platforms ) should be added to all of them.
Vehicular[]
Alexander AX-14 broken spawn point[]
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The broken spawn point.
PC There is a broken spawn point for this plane in the Encarnacion military base. The aircraft appears there very rarely. Even more rarely there's a glitch that makes only its wheels appear and those wheels are not even solid.
It may spawn more frequently if you bring the Alexander from Mendoza International Airport.
If you grapple onto it, you will get stuck.
Propeller death[]
PC Propellers clip their way through obstacles such as trees and buildings, but when attempting to grapple onto helicopters and reel oneself to the helicopter from behind, Rico may instead go through the helicopter and die from propeller damage.
Stuck in "Drive"[]
Helicopters such as the Mullen H45 Dragonfly and at least one model of Delta 5H4 Boxhead will on occasion become stuck and be unable to ascend vertically until the "forward" button has been at least tapped briefly.
Non-solid interior in the President's Plane[]
PC Sometimes when playing the mission Taking Out The Garbage, the interior will not be solid. When that happens, Rico will fall through it. That interior isn't really inside the plane, it's very high in the sky. After falling through and looking up, it looks like a corridor.
There's no known fix for this and it's believed to be caused by an inadequate video card, like that of an old laptop. At least it's a rare glitch.
Vehicle shadows[]
PC
Only the front bumper on the Meister ATV 4 casts a shadow.
Most vehicle shadows are either intentionally terribly programmed, or glitched (terribly programmed, but unintentionally). It's obvious that the entire vehicle should cast a shadow, but for some reason, most vehicles only have a few components that do it.
Some helicopters (like Walker AH-16 Hammerbolt) only cast a shadow with their rotor blades and wheels.
Walker AH-16 Hammerbolt Glitch in Shadow - Just Cause
The Vampire and motorcycle balance point[]
PC A rare glitch can off-set the center of gravity for The Vampire and motorcycles. The glitched center of gravity is above the rear wheel(s).
The military and police are not affected by this, but if you try to drive/ride any such vehicle, the front wheel(s) may lift off the ground and not get back down. This makes it impossible to turn left or right.
It's not known how to fix it, but loading a saved game should reset things to normal.
Armoured vehicle balance point[]
All Platforms
The Ballard M5B1 Scout and Harland DTWV-2 Scout can sometimes flip over when the turret is spun around too fast. This can sometimes even result in the whole vehicle being slingshot up to several hundred meters through the air.
Oddly, this happens rarely in some computers and is a major problem in others.
It is possible that this is entirely caused by having a frame rate higher than 60. Very high framerates may cause turreted vehicles to be undriveable while the main gun is selected as the active weapon, as even a small rotation of the turret may send the vehicle flying at a very high velocity.
Possible solutions:
- Lock the frame rate of the game to 60, if the issue is still present, it can be mitigated in the following ways:
- Lock the turret while driving. This is done by switching the weapons to machine gun only. It's best to point the turret gun directly ahead.
- Don't let the turret rotate too fast. If the gun gets stuck behind something and the turret is turned away, lock the turret. Then rotate the "camera" so that you're aiming to where the gun points and then unlock the turret.
- Try not to have to rotate the turret while driving on uneven ground.
Motorcycle hovers 100 m high[]
PC
Rarely when driving a motorcycle quickly off-road, the motorcycle can suddenly and very quickly fly about 100 meters straight up and stay there. The motorcycle will not move forward, or back, but when you try to turn, the motorcycle will tilt to one side and then fall down. This will most likely result in the vehicle exploding and killing Rico unless you Parachute to safety.
Getting hit by a car sends Rico flying too far[]
PC
If you get hit by a car or other moving object, it can throw you across the map. This happens very rarely. You could be thrown a few feet (as intended), or to the next island over, or across the map right into the water with no land in sight.
Helicopter at Guerrilla 32 safehouse[]
PC
The Guerrilla 32 Campo Central safehouse should have a helicopter, but the spawn point is glitched. Some players have never seen a helicopter there and some report seeing it rarely. It is possible that Jackson Z-19 Skreemer is the only helicopter that can spawn there, as it can be seen spawning there consistently before the highest Guerrilla relations level is reached. This should replace the aforementioned helicopter with the Delta MAH-15 Chimaera, but it does not seem to be able to spawn there at all.
Jackson Z-19 Skreemer spawn points[]
The Jackson Z-19 Skreemer has a very bad wheel arrangement and can easily fall on its side when parked on uneven ground.
- PC 360 Because of its bad wheel arrangement, it always falls tilted to one side when it spawns at the Rioja 04 "Eagle's nest" safehouse.
- PC When it spawns at the Rioja 09 "Camp Altitude" safehouse, the wheels are stuck in the ground, but you can still take off normally.
Vehicle blows up a liberation roadblock[]
Playstation 2
A vehicle can get stuck on a Roadblock during a Liberation and start draining it's health, inevitably blowing the barricade up. This saves you Grenades and ammunition.
Stuck when using the stunt position[]
PC Playstation 2
Extremely rarely, jumping into the Stunt Position of the Rage-Johnston F10 Wraith at the Encarnación military base and then jumping off can result in Rico getting stuck on the plane. At that point, the plane can slowly drift away, with you frozen in the air. The only known fix is to reload a saved game or restart the game.
Crashing planes at the airport[]
Playstation 2
It's possible that any A.I. controlled Plane that spawns above any airport with spanned aircraft, will stop and fall out of the sky. There is no known fix for this.
Nerd3 FW - Just Cause - The Greatest Bug Ever
Walker AH-16 Hammerbolt weapon glitch[]
PC
The weapon auto-aim on the Walker AH-16 Hammerbolt can very rarely instantly jump to a different target, without the previous target being destroyed and without the player turning the camera. The video takes place at Casa Moolina cartel villa.
Walker AH-16 Hammerbolt , weapon glitch
Triton Broadsider spawn point[]
PC
A Triton Broadsider that spawned up on the city streets.
The Triton Broadsider can rarely spawn on land when you encounter it in Esperito City.
This picture is from the PC version, where the ship is a stationary object.
Wallys GP Hood Decal[]
PC
Wallys GP marking glitch.
If you look at the hood of a faction Wallys GP through the windshield, the decal on the hood won't be able to be seen. The hood will appear blank as if the vehicle is unmarked.
Harland DTWV-2 AA gun muzzle flash[]
Harland DTWV-2 AA gun flash position.
All Platforms The Harland DTWV-2 AA gun's muzzle flash effect is centered between the two gun barrels rather than the edge of them, implying that the rounds are being fired from the center of the turret, where no such gun exists.
Rage-Johnston F6 Comet afterburners[]
Playstation 2 In the PS2 version of the game, the Rage-Johnston F6 Comet lacks its afterburners.
Side mission helicopter spawning at the enemy helicopter[]
PC
Very rarely, when starting a side mission to destroy an enemy helicopter, the Guerrilla helicopter you are provided will spawn under the enemy helicopter instead of at the black dot where it should. Video of this.
Heavy drop[]
PC
The Bald Eagle Persuader might never become unlocked at Heavy drop. It could still be available at Agency 02 Camp Grouper.
Note that you must be in the water to call in the Bald Eagle Persuader from Heavy drop.
Enemy helicopters spawn at sea level[]
PC When playing side missions and getting Heat, it's possible for enemy helicopters to start spawning at sea level rather than in the air. This results in them either getting stuck and unable to move, exploding instantly, or successfully rising from the ground and becoming normal. This can occur with any helicopter type.
Game crashes when the horn is used from the stunt position[]
360
It has been reported that for some players if they get into a stunt position and sound the vehicle's horn from there, it causes the game to crash. Vehicles that have a siren instead of a horn or no horn at all do not cause this.
Other[]
Rico farting while jumping[]
All Platforms
If you jump while there's an immovable obstacle in the way, there will be a fart-like noise. This happens most frequently while running around on the rooftops of the San Esperito towns but has also been seen while trying to jump over some of the various random objects that can be seen in villages. Most village objects are movable, though.
Just Cause Rico farting glitch
Invisible Tanker[]
PC 360
The Tanker ship that appears in some Rioja Cartel side missions can sometimes be invisible throughout the mission and sometimes flicker between visible and invisible throughout the mission. The only visible parts of the ship are the Red Barrels and wooden crates that spawn on the ship.
There's no known fix for this, but the mission is still possible.
(Tanker Ship Rioja Cartel sidemissions Jackson Z 19) = glitc in Just Cause 1
360 It has been reported that in addition to the above, the whole ship may be non-solid. If this happens, it's still possible to do the mission, because "landing the helicopter" still counts, even if the helicopter just falls through and the target can be killed from a distance.
First mission briefing marker[]
All Platforms
- Start a new game.
- Pause the mission at its beginning.
- Load an older saved game.
- Look at your PDA Maps.
There will be a briefing marker for the first mission. It won't really start the first mission, but you can get extracted to the place where Rico skydives out of the Agency cargo plane in the first mission.
Guerrilla safehouse on Isla Dominio[]
All Platforms
The glitched safehouse is near the south-east corner of the map.
Look at the map of safehouses in the PDA. There's a Guerrilla safehouse marker a few hundred meters south of the airfield. The marker is above the sea.
It's not known why it's there, but that safehouse is never unlocked.
Missing bridges[]
All Platforms
There's several locations in the San Esperito road system, where there should obviously be a bridge, but isn't. The road just ends at a cliff. There's another road that just ends on the other side. The traffic does not drive down the cliff. They try to turn around.
- There are two roads in a valley in the south-east of the Costa Verde, but there is a lack of a bridge connecting them, with cliffs below.
- ?
- ?
- ?
Non-solid bumpy road[]
All Platforms
There's a road somewhere in the south-west quarter of San Esperito, where a section of road looks very odd. The visible road surface is not solid and does not correspond to the ground. The ground is very uneven there. So much so, that some vehicles are unable to get over the bumps. That road still has traffic on it and at places, the cars completely disappear under the visible road surface, until they make it out later. There's an obviously missing bridge just down the road from there.
It's unknown if this part of the map was forgotten by game developers, or if they purposely created this, as a joke.
The air-race "Hang Ten" goes over this spot and the nearest missing bridge. The road section is flown over shortly before the missing bridge.
There is also a glitched road leading to Provincia de Castillo. While going through the road there is a bridge going to that island, but no road will lead you or any AI traffic out from there. The road level is very high compared to the bridge and all the traffic will just pass the bridge and will collide with the end of the road. The only known method to exit is to either swim or take a helicopter.
Missing CASINO at Nuevo Estocolmo[]
Playstation 2 There's a glitch in the PS2 version of the game that causes the CASINO at Nuevo Estocolmo to never spawn. There is no known fix for this.
Text glitch[]
{{Platform unknown}} It's possible for the mission subtitles to change to for example "mission_m_17_info". If this should happen during the mission Taking Out The Garbage (part 3), then the President's plane will not spawn, making the mission impossible. The solution is to reload the save file.
Infinite jumping[]
All Platforms
This glitch allows you to jump an infinite amount of times. It requires at least one two-handed weapon and optionally a one-handed weapon, but the Holdt R4 Pitbulls will work as well for this.
- Equip a weapon and jump.
- While in mid-air, switch to your two-handed/one-handed weapon (depending on the one you started with) while still holding the jump key.
- You will jump in mid-air again. Switch back to your original weapon again (still holding the jump key).
- Rinse and repeat.
Underwater trees and grass[]
All Platforms This seems to be a Map design error. For reasons unknown, there are trees and grass underwater in Provincia Los Islas. Some of the trees reach out of the water and disappear when approached and others can be observed closely. Video of the ones under water. Video of the trees that disappear when approached. It is unknown whether they exist in the PS2 version of the game, due to the graphical differences.
One side-mission garage is not usable[]
Playstation 2
It has been reported that in one of the side missions you can start at the Secret Police Headquarters, you have to take either a sports car or a patrol vehicle and bring it to a garage. Stealing the car is fine, it's just that it's physically impossible to finish the mission, because the objective waypoint is in an inaccessible part of the garage. It is only on the PS2 version so far.
Moretti CCW Centurion loading[]
It has been reported that the Moretti CCW Centurion can glitch while Parachuting. Rico will pump the shotgun, but a shot can still be fired when doing this.
Controlling 2 vehicles at the same time[]
PC
As reported here, attempting to get into a car without a driver's side door and with an overturned Fukuda Bluebolt right next to the car can incredibly rarely make Rico pick up the Fukuda Bluebolt, but then get into the car. Both the Fukuda's name and the other car's name will flash on the screen as if you got into both, and it will result in the player controlling both the Fukuda Bluebolt and the car at the same time. Video of this.
No faction vehicles during heat[]
PC
It has been reported that Heat can glitch in a way that prevents any enemy vehicles spawning in traffic or during Heat, or even faction vehicles spawning in traffic at all. There is no known fix for this.
The game spawns barricades outside of a liberation[]
PC
As seen here, there is a rare glitch that will make the game spawn government barricades upon getting close enough to an already liberated settlement. If you get close enough to a Guerrilla settlement, the game will spawn government barricades which will self-destruct upon spawning and leave some debris on the road. If you get close enough to a Cartel Villa, after the roadblocks are destroyed, the game will spawn a Montano Subteniente in the villa. He will die in one hit no matter what hits him, friendly Delta 5H4 Boxheads will open fire, but he will not attack the player, the helicopter, or any Police or Rioja NPCs. This glitch, however, is actually convenient, because you'll get 30 free Relationship Points with the Riojas, and if you want it, a free Moretti CCW Praetorian.
The soldier turns on Rico[]
PC
Sometimes, though it's a little rare, a friendly Guerrilla or Rioja soldier can randomly, and without provocation, turn on the player during a Liberation. This does not affect the entire faction and is usually only for one or two friendly troops at a time.
Black cubes on an uninhabited island[]
PC Playstation 2
There's a small uninhabited island off the western coast of Costa Verde. On that island, there are 3 black cubes. The cubes are not solid. These are obviously some kind of a glitch. Possibly a leftover from some Cut game content from Just Cause.
AI traffic is stopped by a low bridge[]
One of the railroad bridges along the southern railroad is so low that AI vehicles can't pass under it. The people just stop, get confused and get out of their cars.
The ground becomes non-solid and the screen starts flickering[]
PC
It has been reported that the ground can become non-solid and the screen will start flickering. When this happens, the Parachute will not let Rico go through the ground by constantly teleporting him a bit higher when that begins to happen. Bridges and some roads are still solid, but driving over the edge of a bridge can let the car fall. Water is also fine, but swimming to a beach can cause the game to start flickering, possibly because the game is trying to repeatedly teleport Rico to the ground.
When this happens, it's still possible to Extract and to load another saved game, but doing that will not stop the glitch. The only known solution is to turn the game off and on again.
No sound[]
PC
It has been reported that the Steam version of the game might not have any audio outside of the game menu and the first cut-scene. Reinstalling the game and restarting the computer and updating drivers are said to make no improvement. There is currently no known fix for this.
Invisible Parachute[]
PC (not tested on other platforms) When opening the parachute from a vehicle’s stunt position and immediately after requesting an extraction/heavy drop the parachute will become invisible. It will still work normally, and you can still shoot weapons and use the grappler. You can’t close the parachute to free fall, but when you land on the ground the parachute will be normal the next time you use it. A video can be found here
Abnormal behavior of law enforcement[]
PC
Unexpected behavior of San Esperito Military soldier at heat level 1.
Rarely police officers, soldiers, and even Black Hand start doing unexpected things. For example, they will start waving their both hands up and down, not shoot at the player, ignore Rico even at level 5 heat, or start shooting at passing civilian vehicles or Rioja Cartel vehicles. While their behavior will not make your heat level drop, they just completely ignore you. Their helicopter will also ignore Rico and will shoot at either passing civilian vehicle or other faction members from your side (Rioja Cartel and Guerrilla).
This might be the result of a bug that causes the player to T-pose randomly.
.jpg "JC1 T pose bug (2).jpg (272 KB)")
.jpg "JC1 T pose bug (3).jpg (270 KB)")
Agency safehouse 5 is incorrectly labeled[]
If the player enters the Agency safehouse 5, the text on screen tells them that they entered safehouse 4. The rest of the location name is correct, only the number is wrong.
Problematic propellers[]
People in the modding community who have looked into this issue have found that apparently this game feature is just poorly programmed, so it's a matter of complete luck if they are or are not spinning and the game code doesn't actually specify which direction they are meant to spin.
- PC Windmill propellers can sometimes be stationary (not spinning). Sometimes, it may be stationary for a number of seconds, before it suddenly moves for a half a second, only to stop again.
- PC Windmill propellers (and possibly also wind turbine propellers) can sometimes be spinning in the wrong direction. The pole (thick edge) of a propeller blade should always be the leading edge.