Encounters

In pathway there are approximately 650 encounters that can occur over the course of the 5 adventures, that are split into 11 categories:

A blank map marker will generally be either:

Accident - 12 ways to be delayed through jeep breakdowns, fuel spills & impassible terrain that causes detours.

Flavour - 110 neutral events such as a discarded pile of books or a herd of goats. These will consume 1 fuel, but not result in combat or provide supplies or loot. These bring the region to life by providing mundane everyday events.

Story - 100 events that cover both the main story and associated story chapter flavour events. e.g. Morten's CIA liaison and the tribal elders who warn against chasing the stories of old. Occasionally these will provide opportunities to rest, trade or recruit. However they will show up as a generic marker on the map.

Destination - these are classed as story events in the game files. They are mandatory events that occur at the end of each sector in every play through, such as rescuing Morten in chapter 1. Only those that are bridging events have the potential to be skipped through making certain decisions, otherwise they will always result in combat.

Battle - 270 possible combat scenarios. This covers advantages, ambushes and tumults.

Character rescue - 16 ways to trigger a battle where you rescue a hostage who can then join your party. If the rescued team member doesn't join your party this icon will remain on screen to remind you where a potential recruit can be acquired.

Character recruitment - 16 ways to pay $500 to recruit a new party member. No combat involved.

A point of interest is an event where one or more decisions must be made in order to resolve the event. These will generally require your party perks to unlock the most beneficial outcome. They might require combat, they might be drawn out means of acquiring loot. What they won't be is basic flavour events or accidents. Generally it is these events that will unlock mission achievements.

Goodie - 9 events that have the potential to provide a beneficial effect, such as the Star gate event.

Loot - 60 events that have the potential to reward goodies without combat should you choose correctly. Can also inflict negative status effects that last until the current adventure ends. Includes the likes of the cobra protected cache and the tarantula infested corpse.

Merchant - 19 events where you can trade for resources. Sometimes this will be restricted to a single commodity (fuel/ammo/supplies) other times you can purchase freely from the five items on offer. Merchants do not re-stock should you return after having visited another node.

Resting - 20 events where you can rest. Most will provide a complete HP restoration, but a few will only provide sub 20HP. e.g. coffee with tribesmen.

Each and every encounter is tied to specific map sectors, thus the story will remain cohesive whilst being randomly generated.

The only encounters that can't occur unless you quit when you run out of fuel/ammo or your entire team suffers fatal damage are the fail cut scenes. This is a set of scripted scenes that are linked to the chapter you are in and whether or not you had fuel in your jeep at the time of your defeat.