Protec Grappler G3

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Protec Grappler G3
Close-up of the Just Cause grappler gun. Note the cable roll. The later JC2, JC3, and JC4 versions are different and always connected to the arm.
Weapon in Just Cause game series
Type	Harpoon gun
Usage	JC1 - Single handed gun JC2, JC3 and JC4 - Permanently connected to the arm
Maximum ammunition in the weapon	JC1 and JC2 - 1 JC3 - 6 (starts out at 2 but can be upgraded to 6). JC4 - 10
List of owners	Rico The Agency agents

The Protec Grappler G3 a.k.a. Grappler a.k.a. Grappling hook a.k.a. Grapple hook is a harpoon - gun, in the Just Cause game series.

Just Cause

In Just Cause, the Protec Grappler G3 is a tool obtained from Kane during the mission The San Esperito Connection. It's a device always carried by Rico and is not lost during death. The full name of this device, "Protec Grappler G3" appears both in the game manual and in game.

Kane: "You know, they keep sending me new equipment for you. Don't know why. You'll just break it. Check it out anyway."

The "G3" at the end of the name may indicate that there were two versions of it before.

Technology

In JC1, it is said to be a high-powered magnet harpoon. This explains why this early version of the device can only stick to vehicles. The device is shaped like a large single-shot pistol that has a small cable roll on it. The device does not automatically pull Rico to the target. This has to be done manually. Manually reeling the cable in and out can be put to good use while parasailing.

Uses - Obtaining a helicopter

It can be used to obtain a helicopter, by being shot at a low flying (best if facing from you) helicopter and pulling oneself to it, to hijack it. Trying to catch a moving helicopter is very difficult and usually a waste of time.

Be careful not to touch the rotor blades. You'd get hit (damage) and fall uncontrollably for a few seconds with no chance to open the parachute, like jumping from a low building. Damage and death depend on the altitude. Falling for sufficient time and/or from sufficient altitude makes Rico begin Skydiving, which allows you to open the parachute. Rico could also die instantly after being hit with a blade. But don't worry: The grapple cable can't be caught by the blades.

Uses - Obtaining boats and land vehicles

This is easier to do than aircraft hijacking. Simply aim at the vehicle of your choice and fire the grappler. Reel yourself in and the vehicle is yours for the taking.

Uses - Parasailing

When used in conjunction with the parachute, it can be used for parasailing behind any vehicle. This works best at the larger 4-lane roads, where the cars drive faster. It is also possible to use the grapple to quickly reel to one vehicle, cancel it, and grapple to another vehicle further away.

Uses - Weapon

It can be used as a weapon, but does less damage than guns. You could hit enemies instead of having to shoot them.

Just Cause 2

The Just Cause 2 Grappler is constantly connected to Rico's left arm. Seen here while skydiving.

The Grappler as it appears in Just Cause 2. The helicopter is a UH-10 Chippewa.

In Just Cause 2, the device is different and just called Grappler. It gives Rico the ability to pull himself to any solid surface (note that water is not a solid) within 80 meters and attach objects to each other. Using the Grappler automatically pulls Rico towards what it hooks onto (including vehicles) at a high speed. The grappler cannot be used at the very start of the game (Welcome to Panau), but is only unlocked from the point where the player is instructed the basic use of the grappler.

Technology

In JC2, the device is no longer shaped like a gun. The device has two metallic blades shaped like a bull's horns, but these are not parts of the harpoon. The harpoon is magnetic but can also grab onto anything solid. The device is constantly connected to Rico's left forearm. The new Grappler automatically pulls Rico to the target (or the target to Rico). Manual cable reeling is no longer possible.

Uses - Navigation

Rico can use the grappling hook to pull himself towards solid surfaces, including cars, boats, planes, people and walls. The object must be within 80 meters. Fast objects like wind turbines and planes about to take off can be grappled. This enables him to scale buildings and jump onto civilian and enemy vehicles and hijack vehicles.

The player can grapple to the ground while in free-fall and Rico will take no damage from the fall. Realistically, the extra speed of the hook would likely cause severe damage upon impact with the ground after Rico has hit it, however he will be perfectly fine and this allows for a much quicker stop than is allowed with only the parachute.

By using the grappling hook and hooking to any solid object you can use the parachute to quickly get airborne. This does not serve a practical purpose on its own but can be used to parachute climb around the map using nothing but the parachute and the grappling hook. By consistently grappling to the ground or solid object, Rico will be propelled towards that object and slightly upwards. Using the parachute's ability to sail up or downwards allows for Rico to always be in reach of the ground and will extend the climb. Parachute Climbing also allows Rico to fly indefinitely as long as there is ground and the player is skilled enough. It is possible to get to the highest point in the game by parachute climbing alone.

For more on this stunt, see the Parachute climbing article.

• This is used for the Achievement "Parachute Climber" and requires simply climbing a certain amount of space upwards.
• The stats for the highest climb will only be recorded if you climb to a higher point than what you started at.  This means that the game does not measure how high you've gone for every individual peak and it only matters on the ending position in relation to the starting position, which has to be lower.
• Cars will instantly break Rico from his parachute as the game deems Rico as attempting to hijack the car, however doing the same thing to a boat will cause Rico to parasail behind it or in front of it if there is enough momentum. Planes have a potential to have this effect however it needs to be confirmed.
• Parachute climbing is faster than many civilian vehicles if done properly.
• The DLC "Dual Parachute Thrusters" can help to extend climbs if used properly.

Uses - Combat

• The grappling hook can also attach itself to people, which opens a number of new options. First, just grappling one enemy will cause Rico to pull him towards himself, launching them into the air and moving them a few feet closer. You can also shoot them in mid-air while doing this, resulting in a "juggle kill".
• Pulling enemies from towers and elevated surfaces results in a "Fall Kill".
• The next function of the grappling hook in combat is attaching multiple targets. When 2 separate enemies are grappled together, they are flung at each other, incapacitating them for a few seconds or killing them.
  • Grappling an enemy to a solid surface like a wall, will pull the enemy and hang the enemy if the grappled section of the wall is high enough. When the enemy is killed while hanging, this results in a "Hang Kill". If the player is to melee the opponent, it results in a 'Piñata Kill'.
  • Finally, grappling an enemy to a vehicle (driven by you or others) will cause the enemy to be dragged. This will most likely kill them. Attaching an enemy to an explosive barrel or gas canister can give hilarious results when the barrel or canister is shot.
• The hook can also be used as another melee weapon, not just for attaching items/people together: once you are near an enemy you can hit them with your hook, like you would if you were holding a rope. This action instantly kills the unlucky civilian or government troop who receives the hit but this method is useless against colonels because of the thick armour that they wear.

Uses - Recreational

A Titus ZJ double-grappled to an Aeroliner 474. Note the increase in Stunt driver points.

When bored, you can easily entertain yourself by grappling an innocent person, and then grappling a high object, this will launch them up into the air and cause them to hang.

You can also grapple a person; attach them to a Gas Tank and then shoot the tank. This will give the passenger a terrifying ride until it explodes. Similar results can occur when attaching two tanks to each other and shooting both.

Also, one can grapple onto a tall vertical object (Baby Panay Statues work well), and double grapple that onto a car. Then, one can drive around the statue and make it into an extreme maypole of sorts, even flying around in the air.

It's also possible to connect items and vehicles to each other- even aircraft (see right).

Uses - Clinging

Clinging refers to holding onto an object and hanging from the grappler. This is useful for getting a better view of the surrounding area. Certain areas in the game have elevators, which can be clinged to and allow for a much quicker climb upwards than normally available. For example at the Three Kings Hotel.

Helicopters have a special point for this.

For holding on to a part of a vehicle, see Stunt Position.

Uses - Other

• The grappling hook can join 2 objects. The solid objects can be attached together within the same distance that Rico can grapple to them.
• When on a vehicle and being chased by the Panauan government, a useful tactic is to grapple a government car, then grapple the other end of the rope to the ground on the side of the road. At high speeds, the rope will snap, but it will fling the car off the road. This is most effective when crossing a bridge, as the government vehicle will often be flung over the side of the bridge. If you are on the highway, grappling a government vehicle to an overhead sign or bridge will cause them to flip several times in the air (although most often, they fall back on their wheels and keep chasing you). Roping two government cars together and then weaving through traffic can also be useful. It is also a good idea to tie one end of the rope to an enemy vehicle, then attach the other end to the ground. This temporarily slows the vehicle, allowing precious seconds to escape.
• It's also possible to tether two vehicles together, without Rico needing to be in either one, without the tether ever breaking. For example, you could tether a military jet about to take off to another jet parked on the ground directly behind it and facing the same direction; when the jet takes off, it will tow the unoccupied jet behind it, often resulting in hilarious mid-air twirls before the duo crashes to the ground (if you wish, you could stunt jump on one of the jets and enjoy the show with a front row seat!). In order to accomplish this type of "unbreakable tether", you need to attach one end of the cable to a loose part on the unoccupied vehicle. A loose part would be an open door, a jet's canopy, a flopping hood ...something like that. To attach it to a jet canopy, you must first get in the jet, then stunt jump out of it. You can then tether the canopy to something else and the canopy will pop open. Note that although the tether won't break when used in this way, it is possible to rip a door off its hinges if it is jerked with too great and sudden a force. Another fun thing to do is to tie two vehicles together on a motorway as they are going in different directions. Usually, this results in both cars going into a circular motion.
• You can use this to pull people off motorcycles, which also works with double hooking.

Just Cause 3

Promotional artwork of Just Cause 3. Notice that there is more than one grapple tether.

Just Cause 3 starts with the JC2 grappler(which for some reason cannot shoot tethers), but that gets replaced with a new version in the mission Time For An Upgrade.

Quotes from JC3 promotional info:

"The initial grapple hook started as an improvised home-made mod, which evolved into a sleek 3-D printed device utilizing a flexible display. The visual design of the grapple hook echoes the scorpion's pincers, which retract when Rico uses a hand held weapon. The rotary spool in the back provides a loose visual justification for all the cable being used throughout the game."

Design principal Francesco Antolini: "In JC3, not only can you shoot while grappling, you can grapple on to an enemy, reel in for a dive kick and shoot while you’re doing so, before moving the camera and launching another grapple off."1

"In flight you’re a button-press away from transitioning to the ’chute or suit. Or, if you think you’re pretty clever, you could just use the grapple to zip around wherever you want to go, firing off another grapple mid-reel. The team affectionately calls it ‘Spider-Manning’. As well as Rico’s grapple being made of magical material that never runs out, it can also be cancelled at any time – just readjust the cursor and re-launch. Towers have been strategically placed to accommodate you, and finding a path around becomes a new type of parkour – albeit one where Rico’s feet and hands don’t touch the surfaces he’s launching off."

Technology

The JC3 version was invented and built by Dimah. According to her the one from Just Cause 2 is "outdated" and "there is now a lesser chance of violent limb detachment", but one time she had to quickly rush over to Rico to avert an explosion in the grappler. It's now possible to retract the cable between two objects that are grappled together. According to Dimah, Mario suggested to call it (either the grappler, or just that feature) "Hatchan 03". The grappler will at first have only 2 cables, but it's possible to unlock a total of 6, meaning that a total of 6 pairs of items can be pulled together.

The new grappler has a small curved screen on the inner side of Rico's arm.

The JC3 grappler cables break if you leave the area and go far enough. On the PS4 this happens at 800 meters. See also Game limits.

Combat

• If the reeling button is tapped while aiming at an enemy within reeling range, Rico will be directly pulled in and kicking them, temporary stunning them. This can be upgraded to shoot them while reeling in.
• If a enemy helicopter is within reeling range Rico can attach a tether to them, then attach another one to something strong (building or ground), and have the tether tighten so that either the pilot falls out or the helicopter crashes. This works most of the time and is one of the easiest and most efficient ways of defeating helicopters.
• If Rico is in tether range of a red oil barrel and an enemy NPC, he can tether them together and if there is line of sight and long enough distance the oil barrel will smack into the NPC with enough force to instantly explode.

Demolition

Tethers can be attached between chaos objects and the ground and then retracted, pulling the object down and destroying it. Alternatively, a chaos object can be grappled to a sufficiently powerful vehicle and used to pull down the object. It can also be used to pull explosive barrels into an object and detonate them on impact.

Travel

As in previous games Rico can travel short distances with his grappler. Within a few missions the player is given a wing suit which while flying is showed by Rico having the wingsuit webbing between his arms. The player can switch between the parachute and wingsuit at anytime while in the air by pressing the jump button. Rico can glide around the map by grappling nearby objects to give him thrust, then canceling the grappling when he gets near the spot he grappled before it stops him. Once upgraded he can even press a button to have the grapple pull him to make him fly even faster. If the player is skilled enough Rico can fly through the island as long as there is something to grab onto, he can even fly in long tunnels.

Reportedly, with the right gear mods, it can move Rico up to 160 m/s (576 km/h).

Other uses

• The new grappler can launch a large (but limited) number of cables.
• Double-grappling objects together will return and it can be used to pull different objects towards each-other at a high enough speed that enemy soldiers can be launched high into the air, if grappled to a high object.
• The grappler has a built-in screen which is used as an interface for the Rebel drop.

Just Cause 4

Using airlifters and boosters to fly a container in the "tornado gameplay reveal" trailer.

The grappler mods are so complex that the player now has a special HUD for it.

The grappler is now more customizable than before. This means that players will be able to personalize the grappler to their own liking with various mods, similarly to the Gear Mod upgrades for the GE-64 in Just Cause 3.

Firstly, the grappler is no longer only a grappler anymore. It can also be used to deploy various devices. In JC3, it's possible to customize the GE-64 explosives that themselves have to be separately thrown, or placed onto objects, but in JC4 that kind of devices seem to be incorporated into the grappler and are fired out of the grappler.

Upgrades are unlocked by completing sidemissions for "backers" (the persons who give these missions). They are Javi, Sargento and Garland.

Grappler upgrades are divided into three categories: "Airlifter", "Retractor" and "Booster". Each has a number of customizable options.

The Danger Rising DLC reveals that the grappler costs 3 million dollars. That price however could only refer to the JC2 version of the grappler, because all the extra functionality as of JC3 were added by either Dimah, or Rico himself.

The DLC also reveals that The Agency considers Rico to have stolen the grappler, because he kept it when he quit. In retaliation for the theft, the Agency activates a homing device built into the grappler, so that their operatives can monitor Rico's whereabouts. Rico hates being tracked, so he sets out to deactivate the homing device, which can only be done by deleting the relevant software at an Agency computer.

Airlifters

Main article: Airlifter mods.

These are balloons that can be inflated to lift things.

The balloons can be set to fly into the direction where the player is aiming, so it's possible to move objects that way and it's even possible to lift a lighter tank while the player is driving it and have it fly to where the player is aiming the turret. This turns the tank into something similar to an attack helicopter.

Retractor

Main Article: Retractor Mods

As was introduced in JC3, it's possible to make the cables retract, to pull objects closer together.

It seems from the "tornado gameplay reveal" trailer, that one possible upgrade for this is to make things be pulled together much faster. This can also be customized to cause a small electrical explosion once the cable shortens to minimum, which makes them instantly fly in opposite directions.

Booster

Main Article: Booster Mods

These are again objects fired out by the grappler. They are small rocket engines that can propel objects. It's possible to control the amount of thrust and to turn them on and off.

Connecting to a computer

Connecting to a computer.

In one of the earliest missions, Rico triggers the grappler to extend out a small pike, which he then connects to a computer.

Agency version in Danger Rising

The Agency agents in the Danger Rising expansion pack are also equipped with grapplers. These look like Ricos, but as far as can be seen in the first trailer, they only have JC2-level functionality.

Trivia

• In JC2 the grapple will snap off if you move the view too far from the grappler.
• In JC1 and JC2 it can be used as a melee weapon, but the attacks are different.
• In JC1 the cable is never broken. It's always retracted. In JC2 and JC3 the cable can break and be severed from the device, but there's infinite "ammunition" so you never run out of cable.
• In JC3 each time the cable grabs and holds something the hook part of it turns blue and if has a hard time breaking an object the hook lights will flash blue and the cable will whine. If it isn't strong enough to break an object, or the object is unbreakable in gameplay the cable will snap in the middle and simply disappear.
• In JC3, the grappler appears as a small loading icon on the bottom right of the screen whenever the game is loading (e.g. during fast travel or a loading cutscene).
• The first known retractor mod in Just Cause 4 was the power yank and it was originally found in NerdCubed's video we tornado again.
• The computer connector pike looks a little similar to the pike that robots use for the same purpose in the Star Wars franchise. This might be an easter egg.

Simplified list of uses

• Melee attack. All games.
• Parasailing. JC1 only.
• Attaching vehicles/people/objects to eachother. JC2, JC3, JC4.
• Short range transportation. JC2, JC3, JC4.
• Hijacking vehicles. All games.
• Hang from surfaces. JC2, JC3, JC4.
• Pulling objects toward yourself. JC2, JC3, JC4.
• Pulling objects towards eachother. JC3, JC4.
• Parachute climbing. JC2, JC3, JC4.
• Airlifter (balloons). JC4 only.
• Booster (small rocket engines). JC4 only.

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