The Predecessor content is a treasure hunt expansion, similar in format to collecting the Jackal Tapes. It comprises a set of extra missions gradually revealing the identity of a mysterious "predecessor"; his actions in connection with the infamous Jackal; and providing some of the back-story to your character's journey.

Once activated, you will receive the first of a series of phone calls from an anonymous source guiding you to your new objectives. If you have just begun a new story, you should receive the first call upon completing the tutorial phase, shortly after meeting Father Maliya at the church in Pala. If you are mid-game, you should be contacted sooner or later upon visiting the town of Pala in the northern district of Leboa-Sako. (It is not certain whether they can still be activated after you have already progressed into Act II in the southern district, but it may be possible since you can return to the north later.)

Once a mission is active, you do not have to undertake it until you are ready, much like the other faction missions. After completing one, you should continue to progress in the story as normal while you await the next call, which should follow after an unspecified interval. There are seven such missions in total, three for each Act and a finale, tackled in the following sequence:

• "The Moroccan"
  
• "The Georgian"
  
• "The Bolivian"

• "The American"
  
• "Le Francais"
  
• "The Brit"

Each of the nationalities refers to an informant and a tape recording of the interrogation your 'predecessor' was conducting, while in his own pursuit of the elusive Jackal. Every find reveals more of the mystery and after the initial six have been collected, you will have the last piece of the puzzle to locate:

• "The Bullet"

The Special Machete option is the addition of new skins for the machete melee weapon. There is no variation in hit points or usage characteristics over the default type; it is a purely cosmetic change and the choice only reflects your personal preference. Apart from the default style, two additional versions become available, making three altogether:

• "Modern" (Default)
  
• "Primitive"
  
• "Homemade"

To activate the menu option that makes the choice available, see the following section 3 (or 4 if you have the retail disc version) for steps to unlock and activate the content. For directions on selecting them using the new menu option, see section 5.

To unlock the Predecessor missions and special machete skins on the Steam "Fortune's Edition" version, you have to use your CD-Key to register the game, and then activate the content as follows:

You must have a Ubisoft account to register the game, which has subsequently evolved into what is now known as the UPlay service. If you don't already have a previous one, first create a new UPlay one by visiting the UbiSoft site:

• http://uplay.ubi.com/

(You will need the username and password for this account in a later step. Do not use the in-game account creation option to create an account as it is obsolete due to UPlay.)

You need to confirm and locate your CD-key, which can be done in two ways:

• Access your Steam Library, and <Right-Click> the Far Cry 2 entry. Then select View CD-Key. In the new dialogue box that appears, choose Copy Key To Clipboard, or write it down exactly as shown (including dashes).
  
  
• When launching the game for the first time, the above dialogue box appears by default. You can also access it later in-game from the Steam Overlay by pressing the hot-key assigned to it.

(Once you have your key ready, you can continue to the next step.)

Launch Far Cry 2 from Steam, and after the intro sequence, Press any key as instructed. When you are at the title screen main menu, navigate as follows:

• Main Menu ► Additional Content ► Promotional Content

If this is your first time loading the game (or after re-installing), you will be directed to a form on the left headed Create Online Profile. (Ignore the notice on the right also confusingly referred to as an online profile, which is actually for account creation, as mentioned in Step 1.) In the three spaces provided, enter your UPlay account username and password recorded earlier, and your Steam CD-Key, which should be in this format:

• FC2-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Confirm you have entered the details correctly and when you are ready, click Create below the form. A new Account Logging in... message box will appear for a few seconds:

If you have already registered this game and activated the content previously (such as from a previous installation) this should be all that is required, and you can skip to section 5. However, if this is your first time registering the game to your UPlay account, you must complete the next and final step.

Return to the Promotional Content menu option as described in Step 3. Enter your CD-Key into the new dialogue box that appears this time, and then click Accept.

A Validating your key... message box should appear for a few seconds, followed by another message box with a Successfully unlocked the missions confirmation message. Click OK to continue.


(This process has also created an online multi-player profile, which you'll find under the Multiplayer menu option. However, the single-player is accessed through the Story Mode option, and is where you will experience the mission unlocks described in this guide.)

If you happen to have the non-Steam retail disc version, you can unlock the content in two different ways, as outlined below:

Enter some case-sensitive codes into the Promotional Content dialogue box from the title screen main menu. Only certain ones will work with the version you have, the rest will have no effect. Successfully entering the correct one(s) results in the message box You have successfully unlocked the missions for each valid entry. There are various codes that were distributed and fall into the following groups:

• 6aPHuswe

• SpujeN7x

• phe83spa
  
• 2Eprunef
  
• 2Tuw5esw
  
• 96CesuHu
  
• Cr34ufrE
  
• JeM8SpaW
  
• sa7eSUPR
  
• tar3QuzU
  
• THaCupR4
  
• tr99pUkA
  
• zUmU6Rup

Alternatively, a registry key with specific values maybe created by copying the following text into a file created with Notepad, saved with a ".reg" extension, and then executed to merge it into your system settings:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Ubisoft\Far Cry 2]
"PartnerKey1"=dword:00000001
"PartnerKey2"=dword:00000001
"MachetesKey"=dword:00000001

You will know when registration and unlocking has successfully been achieved by the following changes to the game menus:

Under the Main Menu ► Options ► Game menu, a new Machete Type option will have appeared. From here you can select the two new skins mentioned in section 2, or revert back to the default, at any time during your playthrough.

A new menu option called Predecessor Tapes appears right below Jackal Tapes, which will list the tapes collected as you progress.
An envelope icon signifying a Special Mission appears as the last item on the Map Legend screen. The Quit option at the very bottom of the menu is no longer clickable with the mouse, you have to use the arrow keys to scroll to it and press <Enter> (probably a bug caused by the extra line created in the list by the new Predecessor Tapes option).

On the original Steam Forums thread from which this guide is derived, FC2 Steam Version: Unlocking Intel Predecessor Content, some users have come across various situations where the unlocking procedure fails to work reliably.

The description of the symptoms encountered and solutions discovered are compiled below in case others may have similar problems. These cases specifically cover the Steam version of the game, but solutions may be applicable to the retail disc versions as well.

Originally posted by anelaidlives:

I get an error that the FC2 servers are offline.

This is caused by attempting to register as a new user with UbiSoft via the obsolete in-game account creation option, referred to by this notice:

Important:
You must create a Ubi.com profile
in order to be able to play online.

This can be easily confused with the other option of a similar name which registers your CD-Key to an existing UPlay account, and creates an online profile within the game that links to it. The solution is already incorporated into this guide at section 3, step 1, where it is prescribed to create a user account on the UPlay official site (unless you already have one), before proceeding to create your online profile.


This error indicates a range of possibilities culminating in a failure to connect and authenticate with a UPlay account. As a result, it may include network connection problems or incorrect user information entered into the online profile.

The major symptom users have reported that their Special Machete option will activate, but the Predecessor mission indicators in the menus are absent:

Originally posted by Fwiffo:

This is annoying. I've entered my code and unlocked the machetes just fine, but not the predecessor missions. If I try to enter my CD-Key a second time it just pops up with "must be logged in". I don't mind not having the missions really, but why I have one thing and not the other is just weird.

Originally posted by Buatha:

...The machete unlocks, but nothing else appears in the menus to indicate the Predecessor Tapes.....the success of the online ID and Content Unlocked(Machete) with the failure of the Additional Content key entry.

In addition, this error has sometimes accompanied the previous one:

Originally posted by SeiferLeonheart:

...Machete unlocks, but nothing else. ...I get an "this key is invalid" error. Multiplayer is running perfectly and I have already played a few matches, but no success on additional content so far...

Originally posted by catbarf:

...Registered for MP fine, says key is invalid for additional content, have machete but nothing else.

Originally posted by bonz:

I have the same problem that I can unlock the machete, but no sign of Predecessor Tapes.

...I went to the Additional Content menu to try to unlock the promo stuff, but I get the "This key is invalid" error.

...Another thing that came to my mind: During the Ubisoft Weekend Deal Pack when I bought the game, apparently, Steam ran out of license keys and I had to wait ~1 hour until I got one.
Maybe those new keys don't work with the promo any more? (Strange though, that the machete still unlocks.)

Some of these instances were found to have occurred due to invalid CD-keys which were later resolved:

Originally posted by qaaqster:

It looks like Ubisoft solved the problem. CD Keys are working now to unlock promotional content...

Anyone having problems with the CD Key the past days, try it now, most probably it's solved for you too (it's for me).

Originally posted by DeadlyFred:

Same. No go last night but tried it this afternoon (doing nothing else different) and it worked without a fuss.

Originally posted by SeiferLeonheart:

Yeah, it is working for me as well...

Another variant was unrelated and had a different solution:

Originally posted by Daemon300:

I tried many of the solutions in this thread but so far nothing worked. ...I keep getting the 'You must be logged in first' error when I try to enter anything in the promotional content box. ...I have the option to change the machete type in the options, but no mention of the Predecessor tapes or anything.

Originally posted by Daemon300:

...Hi everyone, I fixed the problem by completely deleting the Ubisoft Game Launcher, and then reinstalling it. I also deleted a hosts file in system32, but I don't know if that fixed/helped to fix it. I now have both the Predecessor missions and the machetes.

Originally posted by Dargrim:

I got similar problem. What helped me was usig shorter password for ubi account...

Originally posted by Sysgen:

...my UPlay account password was 16 characters, the maximum allowed on the UPlay web site but ...the game will not accept a 16 byte password. Changed the password on the UPlay account to 10 bytes then entered that into the game and got the machete menu option...

Originally posted by B33 ENN:

1. Start FC2 from Steam as normal.
2. From the main menu, go into the Multiplayer menu option
3. Under the Profiles tab, does it list your UPlay account name?
4. If so, under Type, does it say Online?

OPTION 1: If there is an entry, select Edit and choose to delete it. Then proceed to create a new one as directed in Option 2 below.

OPTION 2: If there is nothing listed, then click on Create, choose Online, and enter your UPlay details plus the game key, and see if it successfully adds an account for you.

After this, check if you have the Special Machete option in the Game option menu as described in the instructions. If so, then go into Story Mode and check if you have the Predecessor Tapes option. If not, go to Additional Content menu and enter your CD-Key in the dialogue box

Originally posted by blanchflower:

It finally worked! ...I deleted my online profile, recreated it again and went to the additional content menu. Then it finally said that I have successfully unlocked the missions! I checked and saw that I can customize my machete options plus there is a predecessor tapes menu below the Jackal tapes!

Originally posted by blanchflower:

OK, a new problem has appeared. Whenever I save and exit from the game, and then load my game, the predecessor missions disappear. To counter that problem, I have to delete my online profile and recreate a new one all over again. Then when I load my game again, the extra missions appear.

The customized machete option appears but as for the predecessor missions, I have to do the above steps again and again. I would like to add that I have yet to do any predecessor missions. So if I receive a phone call to do it, will these missions remained locked into my account forever?

Originally posted by blanchflower:

OK, I received a phone call to do the predecessor mission. Once done, I save my game and exited. When I reload the game, the option of the predecessor tapes were missing. Then I deleted my online profile, created a new one and reloaded the game. This time, the predecessor tape was there. This is very strange.

Originally posted by B33 ENN:

For you, it seems the game is not recognising you have the online profile configured on restart, or it is not automatically loading it. ...I can only suggest that you uninstall the game completely off your PC using Steam's "Delete Local Content" option. Reboot your PC and reinstall it fresh. Then go through the steps to create a profile from scratch. You can preserve your saved game progress by backing up your "...My Games\Far Cry 2\Saved Games" folder and restoring it afterwards.