Drug LordDrug Lord 3 guide
Fighting and weapons
Most fights in Drug Lord 3 are a business decision. Here is how they resolve, what each weapon class is really for, and when paying or running beats shooting.
Also in this guide: beginner's guide · shipping, vehicles, property and crew · the 26 cities
Where fights come from
- Gangs: each city has a home gang, and any day you advance can bring an encounter. Every gang has one trait that bends the rules of the fight. See the cities page for the full list.
- The law: big deals, customs and road checkpoints can turn into a bust. The tougher the unit, the harder it is to get away, from a local task force up to SWAT and federal agents.
- Loan sharks: miss a payment and the collectors come in person.
- Your rival: the rival lord sends squads after you and, near the end of a run, may come for you personally at the Reckoning, where there's no running, no bribes and no deals.
Fight, bribe or run
Fight: each round you pick a weapon, and its class decides how the shot lands. Tap an enemy to focus fire on them. Fight it out plays your best weapon round after round until you press stop.
Bribe: works on gangs and the law. The dialog shows roughly what they want and your odds as you type an amount. The asking price scales with your net worth, and a good reputation makes gangs cheaper. Some gangs, and some units, are much harder to buy.
Run: your chance to get away depends on your vehicle's evasion and speed, and on how heavy your bag is. You can run from gangs and sharks, but escaping the law depends on which unit has cornered you.
Health, death and healing
Your maximum health grows with your rank, from 100 at Wannabe to 1,500 at El Jefe. If it reaches zero the run is over, unless you spend Dope Dollars on a revive. Each morning you recover a tenth of your maximum health. With a Penthouse or better you recover a fifth, and if you own the Hospital property you recover fully. At any time, the Hospital on the home screen will heal you instantly for a share of your cash and bank.
How enemies scale
Enemy health and firepower climb with your rank and reputation, and a bag more than half full makes them hit harder. From Dealer up, a gang's capo can join the fight: three times the health and a real gun. Put the capo down and you'll get a bundle of cash plus some days of peace in that city. SWAT and federal teams bring a marksman who fires every round until you focus them down.
Shooting your way out of a bust adds heat. Bigger units add more, and silent weapons add half as much. Winning gang fights builds reputation instead.
The five weapon classes
Every gun belongs to a class, and the class decides how a trigger pull lands, not just how hard. The gun shop shows the honest number: expected damage per pull.
| Class | Weapons | How it hits | Best against |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | Sidearms, snipers, the bow, the knife | All damage on one target: the enemy you tapped, or the weakest one. Snipers land a critical hit about a third of the time. | Capos, marksmen, finishing off one dangerous enemy |
| Blast | Shotguns | ×1.6 damage against one or two attackers, and an ordinary split beyond that. | Small groups and duels |
| Spray | Rifles and SMGs | The burst is split across every attacker. | Wearing down a crowd evenly |
| Suppress | Belt-fed machine guns | Split damage, and only a quarter of the attackers fire back that round. | Big groups that hit hard |
| Area / Burn | Rockets, grenades, dynamite, the flamethrower | Full damage to every attacker, but only twice per fight. The flamethrower does half damage and sets everyone burning. | Opening a big fight with a bang |
Magazines and ammo
Automatic weapons fire about (rate ÷ 100) rounds per pull, give or take two, from their magazine. When it's empty, the next tap is a reload. A seven-round Desert Eagle reloads every couple of pulls, while a 200-round belt never does. Each weapon uses its own ammo type, and ammo gets more expensive as you rank up. If you run dry mid-fight, you're left with the knife, so stock up before long trips.
Armour
A vest, plates or a full ballistic suit from the gun shop soaks up a share of every volley. Belt-fed fire punches through half of it. Every fight wears armour down, and repairs cost a quarter of its price.
Concealment
Sidearms and SMGs fit under a jacket. Rifles need a bag, and belt-fed guns and rockets need a crate. Airport security checks bags and crates on every flight, and a checkpoint that finds a crate calls in a bigger unit. If you want to travel with heavy weapons, drive, sail or fly private.
Black markets
Every city sells most of the catalogue at list price, plus a couple of signature guns at 25% off. The heaviest pieces are only stocked where they belong. A gun sold in a city that doesn't stock it fetches a street premium of half its list price again, which makes guns a small, risky second trade.
| Weapon | Only sold in |
|---|---|
| Minigun | Mexico City, Moscow, Kabul |
| Denel NTW-20 anti-materiel rifle | Cape Town, Johannesburg |
| MK 19 grenade launcher | Kabul, Moscow, Bogota |
| Browning M2 | Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Tehran |
| RPG-7 | Kabul, Moscow, Tehran, Bogota, Lagos |
| PKP Pecheneg | Moscow, Kabul |
| Flamethrower | Paris, Moscow, Kabul |
The signature guns for every city are listed on the cities page.
Your crew in a fight
Crew members carry their own weapons and fire automatically every round, so arming them well multiplies your damage. Each crew member has their own health. If they're knocked out, they're laid up for three days, with no wages and no fighting, unless the Hospital patches them up right away at double the price. More on hiring in the logistics guide.
When not to fight
- Your bag is full and the gang loots stock. Some gangs take half your load if they win. A bribe costs less than the cargo.
- It's the law and you're already hot. Winning a shootout with SWAT adds a lot of heat. Pay if you can.
- You're low on health with a long trip ahead. Run, heal, and come back when you're stronger.
- It's a capo and you're under-armed. The reward is real, but so is three times the health.