USS Watchdog

USS Watchdog
	; As seen in a pre-launch gameplay video.
Vehicle in Just Cause 4
Type	Submarine
Weapons	None of its own, but there are weapons around it.
Rarity	Several
List of owners	The Agency
Top speed (km/h)	This is a stationary vehicle.

This article has been evaluated to be at quality level 5.
This article may seem complete to the untrained eye, but the gaps in information are still large enough for this elite team of Panauan Ninjas to hide inside of.

The USS Watchdog is a stationary vehicle and base in Just Cause 4. It's added in the Danger Rising DLC.

Name[]

The name of the submarine is "USS Watchdog", which corresponds to the naming system of U.S. navy ships, where "USS" stands for "United States Ship".
The ship is marked on an in-game map by its number "SFO-W7D6", which is also painted on the sides of the tower. This seems to be like the ships licence plate. All real nautical craft have one, but for real U.S. Navy ships it's normally a simple up to 4-digit number.
Inside the ship (as revealed when Rico is disabling it) is a screen that says "Sol Submarine 664-S Systems", or "Sol Submarine Systems 664-S", depending on how it's meant to be read. This is probably the submarine's manufacturer and type number. Another possibility is that "Sol" is a shortened form of "Solís" because the submarine is stationed in Solís. The 664-S is the same for all the submarines.

Description[]

Quote from the map marker: "The Agency's "tip of the spear." The Watchdog has recorded more successful deployments than any other Agency sub."

It's a large submarine, even larger than the U1. Purpose-wise, it seems to be a submersible version of an amphibious assault ship.

It has multiple large panels that fold open on its sides, to allow helicopters to take off and land. In addition to that, the top of its tower can slide open to reveal a large communications mast that can be raised from the tower. The Watchdogs hull slightly resembles the Soviet Akula-class sumbarine, even having a structure similar to the Akula's towed sonar array on the rear.

Like the other submarines in its class, it's about 760 meters long and 230 meters wide at the rear wingtips.

The Agency has unpacked a lot of equipment from the parked submarine. The surrounding area has multiple floating platforms with fuel tanks, automated turrets, docks and a system of "electro-mag cables".

There are two large 8-bladed ducted propellers. These are each the size of (if not bigger than) a sphere tank.

There are lots of munitions stored on the submarine. Among these are many small missiles and at least three giant missiles. See in the gallery below.

This and the USS Whitefeather are the only submarines to lack Agency ranking agents.

Completion[]

There are 17 pieces of equipment in and around the submarine that must be destroyed to progress the game.

After disabling this submarine, Rico learns some of Agency's plans and locates the rest of the submarines.

Because of the cut-scene and constant tips from Tom Sheldon, this may be seen as a mission.

Several fuel tanks. These are easily destroyed by any weapons. Some of these are on floating platforms outside the submarine and some are inside.
2 antennas. These are on a platform at the rear of the submarine.
1 Sphere radar, on the same platform as the antennas.
There are at least 3 big automated turrets around the submarine. 1 or 2 of these must be destroyed. They can either be destroyed by shooting at the bright orange spots at the front and back of the turrets, or by heavy vehicle mounted weapons. The orange spot at the back of the turret can only be damaged, if the turret is grappled first, so it couldn't rotate.
2 reactors. Both are at first behind big round orange doors. One is on the easily accessible middle floor and the other is deeper inside the ship.
- The top one can be opened up by riding the hoverboard over 5 marked spots on the floor in correct sequence with in a limited amount of time. The first one is marked as a target. Tom Sheldon explains that this short-circuits them, which opens the reactor as a safety feature. The reactor then opos out of its wall. It's a big rotating thing with several red tanks in it. Only the red tanks are destrictable, so shoot at only these. It's also possible to grapple them to cause damage.
- The other one is deeper inside the ship. There are two airlock doors on the sides of the submarine, but the only way to open the doors is to drive a C3 Canvasback Hovercraft into the doorway. Once inside, the first room is a hovercraft parking lot with about 20 of them in storage. Leave your hovercraft here. The hovercraft is weak to gunfire and there are many enemies around. Then find the tunnel that leads deeper into the submarine. There's a "electro-mag cable" in the hallways for use with the hoverboard. The player has to use this to be able to destroy at least 4 sets of bright orange components with in a limited amount of time. This opens the second reactor as a "fail safe". The reactor itself is identical to the other one.
Several containers must be dumped into the sea. The containers are invincible to normal damage, but are easy to grapple into the sea. 5 of them are on a floating platform under a crane and 3 are stacked at the side of the submarine. At one point even the captain announces that "He's after the crates. Protect those assets!"
1 revolving dish on top of the submarine, right in front of the tower.
Computer room. This room can be accessed from the two long and narrow roof hatches. It's a room with lots of computers. Initially there are 4 screens that are all red. The player has to press the buttons in front of them to turn them all green. This reveals the main "conning screen", which must be destroyed.
Large transmitter. Once the rest of the equipment is destroyed, the player has to ride the hoverboard around the edge of the tower while the mast is raised. The mast has multiple target points on it, but despite its size can be destroyed by small arms fire.
The final thing to do is to get back into the computer room and find the small marked computer that Rico can "hack". This triggers a cut-scene.

Cut-scene[]

Spoiler warning: Significant plot details follow.

Rico discovers that the person who leads the Agency here is an agent Emerson Miller. Tom remembers this man and warns Rico that Miller is a much better agent than Tom was and a significant threat. Tom assumes that Miller must have a special briefcase with a command computer in it and believes that the tracker data by which the Agency is tracking Rico's grappler could be deleted from there.

Rico also discovers that the Agency has sent 5 more submarines to surround Solís.

They do not know where Miller is, so Rico plans on destroying all the submarines until he finds Miller.

After completion[]

The submarine is now completely disabled and pretty much a floating wreck, but it still remains guarded by Agency soldiers.

Weapons and vehicles[]

There are at least 3 big automated turrets around the submarine. 2 at the rear and one on the side, near the crane.
Many C3 Canvasback Hovercrafts.
- Some are at the outside dock.
- Some are patrolling the area.
- Many are stored inside the submarine.
There are containers of unknown munitions on the submarine. They seem to be wingless missiles, or bombs.
At least one giant missile. It's stored horizontally and there doesn't seem to be any way to launch it. When damaged, it reacts the same way as a fuel tank, so it can sort of like fly for a short distance. See Agency submarine missiles for more about them.

Trivia[]

Like all the other Agency submarines, the submarine designation is similar to its name. The letters correspond to the letters, while 7 is similar to h, and 6 is similar to g. However in real life this would look very unusual.
Along with the USS Westward, the Watchdog can't have its ballistic missiles launched if Rico shoots them since doors to the missile bay are closed.

USS Watchdog

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