Vehicle damage

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Vehicle damage is a gameplay feature of every game in the Just Cause game series.

Common description[]

The games feature lots of destruction, especially against structures or vehicles. This article describes and elaborates the visible damage that vehicles can have before being completely destroyed.

Normally, upon being damaged enough, a vehicle may become dented and lose some components. The vehicle performance becomes worse (slower and wobbly). Upon further damage, a vehicle begins to smoke and then upon being further damaged, it catches fire. When that happens, there is barely enough time for Rico to exit the vehicle before the vehicle explodes. A vehicle explosion has the power of a standard explosion. This is deadly to Rico, if he's still in the vehicle when it happens.

Crash damage and small arms fire can gradually take a vehicle though its levels of damage, but more powerful weapons can instantly destroy a vehicle.

Planes and helicopters aren't as durable to deal with damage, those would simply explode when impacting terrain nose first, even in slower speeds. But if impacting anything, even other planes with its wings or rudder, it would simply spin out and catch fire before exploding hence breaking apart.

Some stationary vehicles are always destroyed. See vehicle wrecks for more about those.

Just Cause[]

In Just Cause and the demo version, vehicles won't explode even if being lured into gas tanks, red barrels or striking the wall at high speed even if Rico had jumped off the vehicle prior to collision. Even if any car next to it explodes, the car might even stay intact and not deform. It could only explode if it gets a single shot by a rocket launcher, flipped over/overturned or suffer excessive damage from bullets, which of those could cause a fire to release from the engine. This is similar to contemporary GTA games as well as Gangstar Vegas, as vehicles could blow up upon getting flipped upside down. Before the car itself explodes, the car would always turn black first. When it explodes, the tires would still remain intact, the car will still remain charred, and the explosion next to another car would not cause it to explode and catch fire either. After the car explodes, it would simply despawn after a few seconds.

When the car is being shot, many bullet holes as well as dents would show up. Several gunshots to the car, for instance, would cause one of the car parts to detach. Shooting the tires would cause it to turn flat hence affecting the handling of the car while being driven, and shooting the window would instantly cause it to shatter, putting Rico at risk of death if being shot by enemies.

When the car collides into other cars or walls, it may deform (though sometimes it won't, even in high impacts), which could give the game a realistic atmosphere at the time. If it gets shot repeatedly or collided into other cars at high speed, it would emit a gray colored smoke. However, a single throw of a grenade wouldn't even cause a car to catch fire/explode. Rico may be thrown to the ground dead if the car driven by himself explodes.

When planes and helicopters explode in the game, it would simply disintegrate into impact and disappear into thin air. The player should be more careful with handling these kinds of vehicles as it would simply explode and kill Rico even at the lowest speeds. However, a helicopter that impacted water would not necessarily explode unless it impacts the seabed.

Gallery (JC1)[]

Just Cause 2[]

Some vehicles, like most notably the Mancini Cavallo 1001 can not be driven over any taller pieces of grass with out denting the front bumper. Other vehicles, like most notably the military armored vehicles don't seem to take almost any visible damage until they catch fire.

Similar to GTA IV, a completely destroyed vehicle would be entirely black and covered with many small dents.

Gallery (JC2)[]

Just Cause 3[]

Just Cause 3's physics is very good nevertheless, with realistic deformation upon impact with walls/other cars. This is because most parts of the many cars found in the game, even the backside, would shatter if it strikes objects like walls. Although having better impact physics than Just Cause 4. However, many vehicles would lack dents whenever it impacts taller grasses unlike in Just Cause 2. Just like the future counterpart, there would always be an imminent warning sign if the car is totally damaged and catches fire. Sometimes, it would turn rusty brown before exploding (JC3 cars would turn entirely rusty brown with small dents instead of black color in JC1 or JC2), although it usually happens after the explosion.

Gallery (JC3)[]

Just Cause 4[]

In a addition to all the visible damage and worsening performance, the HUD will also indicate the damage level. When a vehicle is critically damaged, there will be a yellow damage indicator on the bottom right of the HUD. When a vehicle catches fire, this turns red to indicate an imminent explosion.

Many land vehicles in the game, unlike JC3 however, wouldn't have its body getting deformed easily or getting its parts stripped off even if the impact is within high speeds. Probably the cars would simply have dents or scratches on the bumper/body. Albeit the impact being at high speeds, its performance wouldn't simply worsen.

When the car instantly explodes if being shot by powerful weapons like tanks or destroyed by gas explosions, it would normally not change its color to dark/black. Only if it bursts into flames and stays like that for more than 10 seconds it would simply turn darker.

When a vehicle is completely destroyed, it explodes, leaving a small debris field and a wreck that burns for a short while.