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A Liberation is one of the types of missions, in Just Cause (1).

What it isEdit

It's the act of freeing a settlement from opposing forces. Throughout San Esperito, you'll come across four different types of settlements. Once a settlement has been "liberated", side missions can be performed from it. Usually the person will stand in the place of the final objective of the liberation itself. The Guerrila or Rioja soldier will stand at the entrance to the settlement (except for city liberations). The soldier at the entrance will usually be sheltered by a makeshift shack with a table or chair or the soldier will be hiding behind lots of foliage and a rock.

On footEdit

What you need are guns and grenades.

Rico always carries his Holdt R4 Pitbulls and there's more guns at safehouses.
Grenades can be taken from dead soldiers once you get to the first village. A lot of soldiers carry them.
Liberations will become more difficult later on, when the government starts sending armored vehicles and attach helicopters to protect their settlements, so at that point it would be wise to start carrying something with a lot of power like a rocket-launcher.
If you are new to liberations, equip yourself with lots of ammunition, powerful weapons and if you dare to try, an attack helicopter.

Keep moving throughout the battle and don't try to kill all the enemies yourself. Don't get to far away from the liberation or it will automatically fail the liberation. The Guerrillas/Riojas will take a lot of them on themselves. Liberations can all be done at running pace. In fact you have to run to keep the enemy from being able to concentrate too much fire on you. If it looks like Rico might not make it, look around for First aid kits. Your enemies will often carry them and they can be picked up from dead enemies, just like their weapons. Your Holdt R4 Pitbulls can be useful in close quarters as a last resort.

Use the grenades only against the roadblocks and keep an eye on both your own and the roadblocks health bars at the top of the screen. There's also a separate progress bar for the whole liberation event.

If you don't kill enough of the enemy soldiers and don't take out the roadblocks, the Guerrillas/Riojas will lose and the mission fails.

With a helicopterEdit

Another way is to use an attack helicopter. The best suggestion is the Jackson Z-19 Skreemer, as it is the most armoured helicopter and it is the fastest, so this proves a great advantage for village, town and even city liberations.

You might need to be extra careful when liberating Nuevo Estocolmo, unless you've done the mission Broadcast News first, as the Automatic surface to air missile launchers at the nearby radio station will shoot at you. Just keep moving and spray bullets at ground units when flying low. Use your rockets for vehicles and if need be for assistance, let your soldiers go forward and clear out a portion of the area for you. Alternatively you could make strafe runs if using rockets and the machine guns on the Skreemer, going up and down streets and eliminating threats when you can.

Also don't think that with villages and villa liberations that using choppers will be easy. No SAM sites doesn't necessarily mean you can constantly use helicopters with the small chance of it being downed out of the sky. The military and police can use rocket launchers that can deal significant damage to your chopper and with the Delta 5H4 Boxhead they will be able to knock it down with two hits anywhere. But using the Boxhead means that you can move around with speed and swiftness. The other option would be to use the most bulky and sluggish attack helicopter in game but also the most heavily armed and dangerous when used against you; the Walker AH-16 Hammerbolt. This helicopter can withstand a considerate amount of damage from bullets but can be destroyed by one well placed rocket shot. Ultimately the best helicopter to use is your personal preference, the one that suits you most.

Guerrilla liberationsEdit

The taking of a government-controlled settlement with the guerrillas, will contribute to control of a province, provided it is politically unstable. The taking of a village adds roughly a third towards control, a military base roughly two thirds and a side-mission around a sixth. Taking of a town or city will gain instant control of that province, regardless of other settlements. Not all settlements in a province are required for control, however once control is gained, all settlements will become guerrilla controlled (for example, if one is to take Nuevo Estocolmo, a city, all other settlements and bases in La Perdida will fall under guerrilla control.

VillagesEdit

These are the most common liberations. They are started by talking to the guerrilla, standing at the entrance to the village. This will start a sequence in which, while fighting off either police or Black Hand members, you must destroy barricades and take the enemy flag. There are seven parts to these missions:

The preliminary shoot-out;
Barrier destruction;
Another shootout;
Another barrier destruction;
Another shootout;
The final barrier destruction;
Capturing of the enemy flag.

City/TownEdit

These are probably the most straightforward liberation missions found in Just Cause. After talking to the guerrilla at the town entrance, you simply have to destroy enemy troops and vehicles until "control has been gained", at which point the flag must again be captured. The military usually deploy more force by means of armoured vehicles and heavier weapons and mostly helicopters that spawn soldiers to defend and on a rare occasion they deploy attack helicopters. You should be used to village liberations if you want any idea on how to takeover the town/city.

Military basesEdit

These are much the same as village liberations in terms of structure, however there are fewer of these about one per province, throughout the country. They are, however, better defended. Normally having armoured vehicles, protecting them. As well as numerous soldiers and Automatic surface to air missile launchers, preventing easy air assault.

Cartel VillasEdit

The Rioja Cartel seek to overthrow their enemies the Montano Cartel. To this extent, they aim to take over all villas throughout San Esperito. These missions are broadly similar to village liberation, with the exception that instead of capturing a flag, a Montano Subteniente must be killed instead.

VideoEdit

A quick demonstration of how a liberation is done.