Strongholds, Factions and the Black Market
Strongholds are fortified, enemy-held POIs you assault for tiered loot. Here are the two confirmed ones, the faction ladder you will fight, and how contraband feeds the black market.
Strongholds are a distinct class of point of interest: fortified, garrisoned locations you assault rather than wander into. They sit at the top of the PvE food chain and tie into the game's optional PvP and contraband economy.
The two confirmed strongholds
Named in the official Alpha 3 patch notes, so these are confirmed rather than guesswork:
- Presidio del Pacifico (codename Presidio): a heavily fortified Legion Sangre military outpost, Medium size and inland. Sprawling rampart walkways over dense interiors: barracks, workshops, an armory and a cantina. Modelled on the real adobe presidios of the era.
- Point Delgato: a smuggler lighthouse and depot on the coast.
Their map placement is rolled per server seed and reshuffles on the monthly resets, so there is no fixed location to memorise. The structures themselves are fixed, the spot they appear is not.
The faction ladder
Who garrisons a stronghold scales with its tier, and each faction fields a set of troop archetypes:
| Tier | Faction | Troop archetypes |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Desperado | Carbine, Pistol, SA Pistol, Shotgun |
| 3 | Syndicate | Carbine, Pistol, Shotgun |
| 4 | Legion Sangre | Carbine, Pistol, Shotgun, Sniper |
The jump to Tier 4 Legion Sangre matters: they add a Sniper archetype, so the bullet-drop, long-range combat model is working against you. Bring cover discipline and a rifle of your own.
The reward
Clearing a stronghold pays out through a Treasure Chest with four tiers of loot, alongside the bunker and POI chests inside (gun racks dropping worn weapons and ammo, and so on). The higher the stronghold tier, the better the chest pool.
Contraband and the black market
Strongholds and the lawless zones around them feed the PvP layer. If you fight in a PvP zone you risk dropping the loot you gathered there when killed, but those zones also yield Contraband, a special PvP currency. Contraband is spent with a wandering black-market vendor for high-tier weapons and modifications you cannot buy through normal shops.
This sits apart from the two normal currencies: Bucks (your personal money) and Coins (shared across your company or ranch). Contraband is the risk-and-reward track on top.
Datamined from the Alpha 3 build, with stronghold names confirmed by the official patch notes. Other details may change before release.