How do you sneak in daytime? I wanted to try a build with my character throwing knives, so I he got the special abilities stealthy/throwing. But it's practically impossible to get into throwing distance without being seen (or heard?). So how do you pull that off? Does it have to be at night?

Realisticly, yes it has to be at night. You can sneak around a corner perhaps, but when I've tried to do a stealth run-through, I found I had to quick save often, and only fight at night.

EDIT: It also helps if you make sure you have comoflauge applied, and are wearing night vision goggles. This means you'll see them before they see you.

Thanks. Then I'll try to avoid fighting at daytime too. Seems like the way to go in JA2.

I'm thinking about creating a character with night vision + auto weapon combo, like Raven, because she is very effective at night. with a silencer and burst - what better then than to have two mercs with the same skills.

Blood + Raven seems like a nice combo in the beginning.
Dimitri is a throwing expert, which I wanted to abuse, but even during the night he was not very good. He missed his targets, couldn't really get into throwing distance, and he doesn't throw as far as Blood does which is a huge disadvantage because he also does not have as much AP points as Blood to run away if the attack fails. Maybe he needs more experience levels, but I doubt it because Ace couldn't throw far either, at level 4. The way I would use him would be to stay in the back and wait for interrupts or use a long ranged weapon.

Where can I find night goggles except from drops?

When I played the sneaking game, I found it quite fun to play with just my IMP. As I said, it does require a few reloads, as if you're found out then you're likely dead, but it makes for a more interesting game. I was even able to take on the crepitus with just him, though it was close.

I'm pretty sure dexterity affects your throwing distance, so if you want to up dimitri's distance then just get him practicing his dexterity (I think it will naturally go up as you sneak around).

I'm afraid you will find it hard to get night vision goggles early on, sometimes they show up at on the web at bobby ray's guns.

A night vision auto combo is good, though I would favour dual weapon, this is because one of the best weapons to be able to put a silencer on is a sub machine gun, but later on you'll find even with AP ammo, just one doesn't really cut it. This is where it's nice to be able to have 2 silenced AP sub machine guns. One nice thing about the throwing knives is that they are almost completely silent, and if you get lucky and a guy doesn't know you're there, you get an instant kill (I think this can happen with silenced weapons too though).

Yeah, dexterity is probably necessary for a thrower. Unfortunately, the instant kills are only at the beginning of the game when you aim for the head. Once there are red or gray opposition, it's probably better to aim for the torso and get a stable 20 damage or so. What's great about throwing knives, beside that they are silent, is that it's easier to hit targets (in throwing distance) than with a gun.

I 've played now with a psycho night op + auto weapon guy, which is not bad at all. Unfortunately, it usually takes more than merc to kill a gray enemy unnoticed even with 2 successful bursts. I guess aiming for the head with red bullets is a better tactic, so ambidex skill may be better for that.

Regarding how far a merc can throw:

It looks like strength is also a factor. Blood increased his strength when throwing a grenade, and I read in a Strategy Guide that strength determines how long you can throw, which makes sense. Wisdom also affects how good a merc is at a certain skill, so maybe that plays a role as well.

Dimitri has 51 dex, 71 str, 56 wis. His strenght is not bad so he should throw far if only strength matters. But the low dex and wis may be why he does not.

Compare this with Blood who has 87 dex, 81 str and 75 wis.

Sidney has to be the best thrower in the game with expert throwing skill and 91 dex, 76 str and 78 wis.

I don't think it's necessary with expert throwing skill for anything other than increased chance of getting an instant kill though, because Blood never misses when he is in throwing range. He has maybe 95% chance to hit in my game it feels like. Other characters with no throwing skills hit their targets most of the times too.

So I restarted, and now play with a night op/ambidex custom merc, Blood and Wolf.

Magic and Thor were hired one day for their equipment. Those silencers are a must. Since they are not completely silent, however, they are used more as backup. The main weapon of choice is throwing knives because silencers are hard to come by, and it's too difficult to get close enough to slit someone's throat in most cases.

It has worked well so far as taking Drassen, Drassen SAM site, Cambria, Cambria SAM site on Ironman, although I did use a frontal assault on Drassen SAM site after being quickly discovered. It's good to have those break lights as back up and just pop the enemies from a safe distance as they enter the light.

My problem right now is dealing with gray enemies during the night. Wolf is level 4, has night op, and night goggles fully repaired and extended ears. Despite looking in the direction where an enemy was going, the enemy managed to see him, hug the ground and burst fire. Once that happens, others come running and throw break lights and tear gas, so basically the only thing to do is retreat at that point.

What I want to know is if there is any way to fight gray enemies during night with little risk of being caught off guard, like I do versus red enemies? I read that night op experts see 3 squares compared to one square with a single night op. That would be a solution, to restart again and use a night op expert.

Found a strategy that worked, finally. Here's strategy that worked for me:

* Turn up volume and stop moving mercs forward when they make a sound.
* Pause game whenever an enemy is heard, and retreat behind something.
* Make sure all mercs are fully rested and don't scout with an unexperienced merc or a merc without night op.
* When a merc spots a veteran enemy, throw a knife and aim for the head so they will not quickly turn around and fire.
* If the enemy died, retreat. Even retreating just one square can make a huge difference.
* If the enemy did not die, retreat. Perhaps another merc can also make a shot with silenced guns/knifes, but don't stick around. At this point, forget about stealth, and just run away for a while. They will probably thrown a break light or two at you. If they haven't, just throw one yourself. Relying on spotting them in the dark when they know you are around is very risky. They usually end up walking in the light at some point, or the mercs have less to worry about the direction where the light is at.
* Wait for a while to see if the coast is clear. I wait maybe 10-20 seconds after things have settled down. If there are still enemies around, some merc will probably hear about it.


Playing like this, my mercs didn't have UV goggles, a merc with night op expert or camoflauge. They were facing only 7 veterans, but they were very tough to beat. The drops proved this. For example one dropped spectral pants and FN-FAL.

Camouflage and you, or my camo index is 100% and he spotted me! Hax!
Camouflage, in Jagged Alliance 2 and the JA 1.13 mod, is a handy tool when trying a stealthy approach, but it's just that, a tool.
The way camouflage works is that it reduces the enemy sight range for spotting the character, making it so that at camo 100% an enemy soldier will have to get pretty close to spot your merc.
However, moving temporarily reduces your camo index (according to some sources by 5% every square), thus increasing the chances an enemy will spot your merc.
Camo also works only on the terrain type it was designed for: woodland camo won't help your merc if he's standing in the middle of a road.
Lastly, once a character is spotted, camo will only work once line of sight has been broken, so if your merc is caught, have him retreat and hide as soon as feasible, since the element of surprise has been lost.

So, bottom line is: camo can be valuable if used properly. Do not overestimate this tool, but also don't underestimate it.

Thanks for the information. I didn't know camouflage was useless on the road.
Another thing that helps in order to not get spotted, of course, is to stand/crouch/lie behind something or lie down in high grass.
It's just too bad that there are so few camouflage kits in the game, at least until you reach the end stage of the game, but at least there is an option to hire Shadow who always have camouflage at 100%.