This holiday season has seen a fair share of free updates for a number of high profile releases. We’ve gotten the Not a Hero DLC for Resident Evil 7, the Krampus Lair for Killing Floor 2 (which you can read about here, as well as view the full review here), and the list seems to keep going. To join the party, Ubisoft partnered with Fox to bring the iconic Predator to its successful Ghost Recon Wildlands.

This is a new mission that is available for all players, free of charge. To initiate the mission, you’ll need to meet with an NPC who tells you the tale of the jungle “coming alive” and killing a number of criminals in front of them. Sound familiar? You’ll then make your way deep into the jungle, solo or with friends, to seek out the dangerous creature. You will find some obvious nods to the movie, such as the Predator’s crashed ship (uncloaked), a tree with skinned corpses dangling from it, as well as small shrine with a number of human skulls.

I did attempt this solo, as I read on the handy interwebz that this was something that could be accomplished with the AI. I can confirm after spending a great deal of time with the mission solo; this is no easy task and you will need some friends (or random people found on LFG posts) to complete it.

The Predator boasts most of his toys featured in the films; he’ll use the active camo to disappear completely, hone in on you with his laser rifle, and if you make the mistake of getting too close, he’ll impale you with his wrist mounted blade. If any of these attacks hit you or your team, it will likely result in being downed, if not on the brink of death. This applies to not only you and any players in your party, but the normally bullet spongy AI companions as well.

After spending about an hour trying this solo, which was fruitless, I did find a like-minded group of players that wanted to tackle the intergalactic being. Armed with the best guns in the game, we unloaded 50 or more direct hits to him with grenade launchers, laid claymores around a large rock, and waited him out. You truly do get the feeling you are battling the creature from the movie and the feeling that he is hunting you shines through. It is a very tense battle that only intensifies as he is damaged. After what would probably be the midpoint of the battle, his attacks come much quicker and more frequent. If one of your cohorts goes down, it’ll likely be game over for your squad since the Predator isn’t going to let you revive him without a struggle. This is really a team effort and if you do not work together, you will fail horribly.

So, what is your reward for completing this very difficult challenge? You’ll earn the Predator’s mask as a cosmetic item, which comes equipped with his vision mode, as well as Dutch’s cigar. I do want to mention this is a bit buggy and in my group, we had one player that did not unlock the associated rewards for completing the mission. I did not see this as being mentioned as a common issue, but I can speak firsthand that someone did miss out on the item.

While this mission is now a permanent unlock included in the most recent update to the game which was confirmed by Ubisoft just recently, you only have until January 17th, 2018 to unlock its rewards. If you are eager for more Predator items, there is also a paid cosmetic pack that can be purchased to coincide with the event.

 

Ghost Recon Wildlands was developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. It was released on PC, PS4, and XB1 on March 7th, 2017 for $59.99. The game was not provided to us on X1. If you’d like to see more of Ghost Recon Wildlands, check out the official site.