Introduction

In Ghost Recon there are four statistics that determine how skilled your soldiers are in combat. The four being; weapon, stealth, endurance, and leadership. Most soldiers at the beginning of the campaign start out with only one or two point in each category, out of a maximum of eight. Combat experience helps, because after completed missions "combat points" are awarded to the soldiers who took part in the mission. You can then use these points to boost the statistics of your soldiers, making them more skilled. However don't go spending your points on the stats until you know what they mean! Read below for information on what each statistic means to your soldiers.

Weapon

The first and most basic skill in Ghost Recon is the weapons stat. Basically, every time a combat point is added to this, it will reduce the time needed for your reticule to close. This enables you to fire more quickly without a huge loss in accuracy. The skill does not increase your overall accuracy by making your reticule close tighter however, unlike popular belief.

Stealth

The stealth statistic works two ways in Ghost Recon. The first way determines how far away the enemy can see you. That is to say, the more stealth points your soldier has, the closer you have to be for the enemy to spot you. A great trick to have when dashing between bushes and not having to worry about the bad guy across the field from spotting you.

The other way that stealth works is by decreasing the noise your soldier makes. The noise your character makes still sounds the same to you, but the enemy will have a much harder time hearing you. Soldiers with high stealth stats can sneak up behind enemies easy, but remember, there not deaf!

Endurance

Endurance is another statistic that works in two ways. The first way determines how many wounds that your soldiers can take. For every endurance point they have, it allows them to receive one more additional wound before death kicks in. However most weapons in Ghost Recon are so powerful that they kill in one or two shots, keep that in mind when passing out the points.

The second way endurance works is by reaction speed vs. the amount of weight the soldier is carrying. Obviously a soldier carrying around a light M4 can react quicker in combat then a soldier lugging around a M249 and 1,000 rounds of ammo. A few extra endurance points should be added to the men who carry the heavy gear, to help them put up with the weight.

Leadership

A very important statistic, because having a good leader effects all of the soldiers in your platoon. For every three combat points a character has in this area, it automatically adds a additional combat point to the rest of his stats, and the stats of every other soldier in the platoon! Don't forget, while you can add up to eight points in this area, there is no need to go over six, since you don't get a bonus for the other two points, so don't bother wasting them!

Some other things need to be noted as well. First, there is no need to have more then one character with high leadership, because only the character with the highest leadership skill has his bonus put to use. The other thing to note, is that the character you're controlling doesn't have to be the one with all the leadership points. Even if the high leadership character is under AI control, the bonus still works. Cool huh?

So What Else?

The combat points add up, a lot. Take a raw recruit from the start of the campaign, get him in and out of every mission, and by the later stages of the campaign, he can easily be as good, if not better, than most of the specialists. You will really notice how much your men will improve over time, so be sure to keep them alive and well!

Sartillies.