Due to the sparse information available in the official manual and the glitchy nature of the game, I thought that it might be useful to write a post on some useful tips for Mercenaries 2. Besides, it gives me an excuse to post some more screenshots!

One of the most frustrating things in the PC version of the game is that during the hijacking QTEs, an icon appears on screen telling you to press a specific key, but there’s no clue either in the game itself or anywhere in the manual explaining which key corresponds to which icon, so here’s a brief explanation:

• The directional arrow icons correspond with the movement keys, WASD, which should be familiar to all FPS players.
• The icon that looks like an open hand corresponds with the “Use” key, which by default is mapped to “E”.
• The icon that looks like a closed fist corresponds with the “Melee Attack” key, which by default is mapped to “F”.
• The icon that looks like an ammunition clip corresponds with the “Reload” key, which by default is mapped to “R”.
• The icon that looks like a boot corresponds with the “Jump” key, which by default is mapped to “Spacebar”.

Note that some QTEs require you to quickly tap a key repeatedly, in which case the icon will flash onscreen, so pay attention to what you’re being instructed to do. Some other bits of information that you may find useful:

• If you’re going to try for 100% completion, take care of all the optional missions before you complete the Battle for Caracas mission. You can continue playing after the main story ends, but events that take place after that mission will permanently make a portion of the map inaccessible, making it impossible to perform missions in that area.
• When you do complete the game and get booted back into the Main Menu, select the Continue game option to get back into the game world and check out the nice surprise that will be waiting for you in the main hall of your PMC.
• Don’t be stingy with your money because you can earn way more than you can spend. Don’t hesitate to splurge it on airstrikes and tanks because the game can be extremely frustrating if you don’t use all the tools at your disposal. Try to keep a nice selection of all types of vehicles in your stockpile at all times. You never know when you’ll need a tank or a helicopter.
• If you need to travel on water, signal for a boat to be air-dropped to you before you’re in the water, because you can’t call for an air-drop when you’re swimming around. This means that when your boat gets blown up under you, you can’t call for a new one. You’ll need to swim until you hit the shore or find something you can hijack.
• When you drive a vehicle that belongs to a specific faction, you’re disguised as a member of that faction, at least until you start attacking them or if you stay close to them for too long. This is great when you need to infiltrate the base of a faction that’s hostile to you, but terrible if a friendly faction suddenly thinks you’re the enemy. To drop the disguise immediately, honk your vehicle’s horn by pressing the “F” key.
• The game advises you to use vehicles whenever possible, and it’s good advice. Unlike Grand Theft Auto, you don’t die when your vehicle gets destroyed, you just get thrown out of it and take a tiny bit of damage. So just get back up and into the fight again. It’s like having a bonus health bar. If you’re in a helicopter and it gets blown up, you don’t get instantly killed either, though the fall damage will drop you to just a sliver of health.

• The save-game system is weird, to say the least. If you have auto-saving enabled, the game still allows you manually save your game, but then never allows you to actually load from that manual save. It will always reload from the last auto-save. I recommend that you play with the auto-save option disabled and save manually at all times.
• When doing the shooting challenges at your PMC, be careful when using high explosives. The fuel tanks that appear in the grounds of your PMC represent the actual fuel reserves in your stockpile. If you accidentally destroy those tanks, you’ll lose not only the fuel but also the storage capacity that those tanks provided until you buy new storage upgrades from a faction again.
• Some missions force you to transport a specific cargo using a civillian truck to a specific location within a time limit. This can be difficult because you need to both avoid having the cargo getting spilled out of the truck or the truck itself getting destroyed by enemies who magically show up to blockade you. To kind of cheat your way through, call for a helicopter to be delivered near when the designated truck is before actually entering the truck because doing that starts the mission timer. Once the timer starts, get out of the truck and into the helicopter and carefully use the winch that all helicopters are equipped with to haul the truck with the cargo inside it to wherever the mission destination is. This way you’ll bypass all the blockades on the ground that were meant to stop you. This last tip was taken from a comment left on Tom Chick’s blog.