Guide Written by: Brandon "War Totem" Cackowski-Schnell
For those of you who got burned twice on the somewhat pithy Saint's Row 2 DLC, well, Volition has heard you loud and clear. Simply put, Demons of the Badlands is one great piece of DLC. The story missions are well done, the Marauder actions are all slightly more difficult than the Guerrilla actions from the main game and the various collection quests will have you looking high and low all over the Mariner Valley. Even the pro times are well done requiring some quick thinking but never getting frustratingly difficult. Getting all 250 points will take you about 6 hours which isn't a bad deal for ten bucks.
There are a few changes to speak of, some good, some not so good. In the latter category we have the inability to track your achievement progress. Now, for collecting energy cells and destroying war totems you'll get a tally on your screen whenever you collect or destroy but it sure would be nice to see how close you are to your goal of destroying 100 EDF vehicles. On the flip side, in the interest of streamlining things, there's no more salvage. All new weapons and weapon upgrades are given upon completing Marauder actions and story missions. Check the "Weapons and Weapon Upgrades" section of this guide for how to get new toys. Finally, the jetpack doesn't make a return. Not a big deal as you won't need it, but who doesn't like tooling around withn a jetpack?
Now that we've gotten all of the gushing out of the way, let's get down to kicking the EDF out of the Mariner Valley.
Weapons and Weapon Upgrades
Here's a list of what weapons you'll get when you complete Marauder Actions and story missions. Once a weapon is unlocked you don't have to do anything special to get it other than heading to the supply cabinet at one of your bases and equipping the weapon. At the beginning of the game several weapons are already unlocked including the assault rifle, the new spiked remote charges, the new spike gun, the Marauder shotgun, the cutter and the ever-present sledgehammer.
Marauder Actions
Missile Pod - one Marauder Action completed
Proximity Mines - two Marauder Actions completed
Smart Proximity Mines - two Marauder Actions completed
Arc Welder - three Marauder Actions completed
Smart Arc Welder - three Marauder Actions completed
Grinder - four Marauder Actions completed
Fast Grinder - four Marauder Actions completed
Missile Pod Ammo count upgrade- five Marauder Actions completed
Proximity Mine Ammo count upgrade - six Marauder Actions completed
Arc Welder Ammo count upgrade - seven Marauder Actions completed
Grinder Ammo count upgrade - eight Marauder Actions completed
Arc Welder 3rd Arc - nine Marauder Actions completed
Explosive Grinder Discs - ten Marauder Actions completed
Multi-Rockets - eleven Marauder Actions completed
Heat Seeking Rockets - eleven Marauder Actions completed
Story Missions
Remote charge count (place 8 remote charges) - first story mission completed
Rocket Launcher - first story mission completed
Personnel Detector - first story mission completed
Remote charge count (plant 12 remote charges) - second story mission completed
Rocket Ammo count upgrade - second story mission completed
Quantum Multiplier - second story mission completed
Super Gauss - third story mission completed
Walkthrough and Achievements
The mission progression in Demons of the Badlands is identical to the main game. All of the Marauder actions will be available upon starting the game, as will one story mission. Complete one story mission and then the next one will be unlocked. Once the second story mission is unlocked and EDF control has been reduced to zero you can take on the third and final story mission. Once the final story mission is complete you can go and do any of the Marauder actions you didn't complete on your way to kicking out the EDF. Finally, any transporter or demolition activities can be redone as many times as you want, at any time until you get the pro-time. The only real wrinkle to your achievment progression is that the entire Eastern third of the map is inaccessible until the final story mission. This means that you won't be able to take out all of the EDF target or get all of your energy cells until you complete all of the story missions. Luckily, even with this, your time spent mopping up will be minimal.
Story Mission Achievements
Bound By Blood - 30 points
Completed Rescue
The goal here is to go and rescue Vasha who has an unfortunate appointment with an EDF executioner in the morning. You'll have a bunch of Marauder buddies to come with so get in the buggy at the safehouse and travel to the waypoint on your map. Once there you'll be tasked with destroying the first vehicle gate. Conveniently enough, you're in a vehicle, so put two and two together. Just don't plow too far past the gate as you'll only have a short time to get back to busting the thing down should the game decide you went too far away. Once the gate is done for, head to the second gate.
Before you can take the gate down you'll have to deal with the shield so head up the small hill by the shield and take out the building marked on your map. There are some priority targets here too so feel free to wreck shop as needed. Once you feel like getting back to the task at hand, start taking out the next gate. When the gate is down head on through until you get to the building with Vasha. Turns out she was bait, a fact she must have forgotten to mention to you. You'll hit a checkpoint which is a good thing as you're about to have a ton of EDF to deal with.
There are a bunch of manned emplacements you can bounce between to take out the EDF vehicles that will start joining the party. Just keep killing EDF and blowing up their vehicles and eventually some Marauder reinforcements will arrive. Once they do, mop up any remaining EDF and the mission will end. You'll get the "Bound by Blood" achievement and 30 points.
