Riptide Operation - Week 9: Nautical Mile [Let's Play Games #20]

The Week 9 of Riptide Operation is called Nautical Mile so what we should be expecting from CS:GO this time is to enjoy some oceanside views while we get plenty of headshots to complete the missions. Does that sound like fun? I'm not too sure about it, lol.

Anyway, it looks like someone heard me when in the past two weeks I kept complaining that I want that type of missions where you need to start everything again, and again, and again... until you complete them just so you feel that you actually put some effort in there to deserve the rewards.

And if you feel like it's not enough, keep in mind that if you complete all 4 missions available in this week, you should score a total of 58 stars earned so far that can be used in the Riptide Store to purchase weapon skins, agents, stickers, patches, and many more, and who doesn't love shopping? Even if it's just virtual. 😃

However, it's been almost a month since we last had missions that came with a total number of 10 stars as rewards, so let's wait no more and see what the Week 9: Nautical Mile brought to us:

1. Wingman - Short Dust: where you have to get 9 headshots in a single match or 20 collected from more matches [★★★]
2. Guardian - Basalt - Stern Warning: being needed to kill 25 bots with any pistol [★★]
3. Danger Zone - Blacksite - Hit The Poop Deck: where you are required to apply graffiti on various locations on the map [★★★]
4. Demolition - Take A Bow: you have to get 2x kills with the Deagle in a single match or upgrade your weapon 18x times in more matches [★★]

While in the past week I said that I sort of missed the deathmatch mission which was my perfect way to warm up in the game before things are getting more serious, it looks like we are confronting the same situation even in the Week 9. For that, I considered that I should start from the bottom to the top completing the tasks.

The Demolition - Take A Bow mission, is a mode that it's actually quite forgotten by players and perhaps that's why Valve keeps reminding them that there are other fun game modes to play in CS:GO other than the Competitive one played by everyone. We can actually liken Demolition to Arms Race which is more popular, but where you are basically doing the same thing except that one has the respawn setting on while in the other one is set to off.

We literally start with a specific gun and there are up to 10 levels where every kill you make will pump you one level further. The mission comes with the request to either get two kills in a single match with the Desert Eagle pistol or to upgrade your weapon 18 times, collected from more matches played.

Since the Demolition matches are quite short and snappy, do expect to upgrade your weapon 18 times in more matches if you don't manage to get 2x kills with the mentioned pistol.

The next mission we completed was Danger Zone - Blacksite - Hit The Poop Deck which is the mode that I keep reminding that I enjoy playing the least because I never liked battle royal modes.

Happily, this time is nothing about getting kills on this map or doing all kinds of tasks, but actually placing more graffitis in different places on the radar which is quite easy if you spawn there from the beginning of the match.

Probably the single disadvantage here is that there are 3 maps for this mode of the game and each map can be played for 10 minutes only, so since you have to do the mission on the Blacksite map, you have to first make sure you are joining the right match or wait until is available. Personally, waiting for the map to be available again was the most annoying part of this task while if you drop on the northwest part of the map you will be quite close to 4 of 9 spots requested to place graffitis.

All the indicated locations you see in the image you will find on the map, except the one where you have to put a graffiti on the market at the hotel, but which is located right in front of the Water Tower.

The full list of locations can also be seen down below:

• Apply graffiti at the top of Water Tower;
• Apply graffiti at the anchor at the Pier;
• Apply graffiti at the Crane;
• Apply graffiti on top of the roof at Radio;
• Apply graffiti in the market at Hotel;
• Apply graffiti on the grills at Picnic;
• Apply graffiti at the top of the Lighthouse;
• Apply graffiti on the Bridge;
• Apply graffiti at Construction Site.

The next mission we take care of was Guardian – Basalt - Stern Warning which is a mode that so far it was never missing from the list of the weekly tasks needed to be completed. This one looks like being a staple of CS:GO and the Riptide Operation brings no difference to it, which is pretty cool since I'm a big fan of this kind of tasks.

However, at the beginning of this post, I mentioned that there was a mission which made us replay it for 9 times (you can also see that on my score) since every time we were getting ready to the end of it, we were dying and that resulted in being needed to start everything all over again.

The action is held on a side from where you are quite visible to the enemies and it's really hard to be the winner in front of rifles, SMGs and other powerful weapons. We tried all kinds of positions and pistols to figure out which one works the best for this task. I head rumours that Desert Eagle is the most suitable pistol for this mission, but it's wrong because it all depends on the pistol you are playing the best with, which in the end, can even be the default one, USP-S.

The last mission completed was basically the first one from the list: Wingman - Short Dust, where we are talking about a 2 vs 2 competitive mode. We had a few more missions in the past based on winning Wingman matches but this time we are talking about a more serious job, namely, to score 20 headshot kills from more matches or 9 headshots in a single match.

Personally, I've never been good at focusing to shoot the head of the enemy, so out of the 4 missions available in the Week 9: Nautical Mile this was the one that made me feel the most nervous. In reality, it's just in your head and you have to pay a little bit more attention to the game, wait for the enemies to come over, and be careful where you shoot your bullets too.

Short Dust is a map that I always loved playing back on Counter-Strike 1.6. However, it's still an uncommon map for CS:GO, but the thing you need to remember is that AK47 is probably the most suitable weapon to get your headshots faster.