A checkpoint-by-checkpoint Against the Odds route that frees both captive groups, grabs all four collectibles and sets up the mission’s trickiest challenges.
Against the Odds is the first proper mission in 007 First Light, and it throws a stranded, unarmed James Bond into an Arrowhead mercenary base on a frozen Icelandic island. It doubles as a stealth tutorial and a full infiltration, so the difficulty spikes fast once you reach the crowded central camp.
This Against the Odds walkthrough in 007 First Light follows the natural mission order, checkpoint by checkpoint, from the beach approach to the mast sabotage and the escape over the cliffs. It also pins down every one of the mission’s four collectibles and the key items you pick up along the way, so you can grab them in a single run instead of replaying the chapter to mop up.
On top of that, we flag the smartest route for the mission’s challenges, including the ones that unlock the Iceland Outfit for TacSim, and note exactly which of them you cannot combine in one playthrough.
Against the Odds walkthrough: Night Flyer, the beach approach
The mission opens on the beach after the intro cutscene, with Bond unarmed and mercenaries patrolling above. This section is a movement-and-stealth tutorial, so follow the on-screen prompts to take cover and avoid being caught.
Slip through the gap in the cliffs as soon as the nearest patrol passes. These stretches look open-ended, but you only ever need to hug cover to make progress. Stick to the makeshift stone wall that leads you up a series of cliffs, well above the guards, and they won’t spot you.
Watch for narrow ledges with a lighter stone color than the rock around them; those mark where you can climb or sidle across. Cross the ledge above the patrol, reach the grass, and follow it into a cave. Keep climbing upward until you squeeze through a small gap in the rocks that reveals the camp ahead. There are no collectibles in this checkpoint.
The Descent: your disguise, the clues and the antidote
As you climb the next cliffs you’ll slide downhill; stay in the tall grass to avoid detection. After a short exchange between two guards the patrols move on, letting you walk openly to building A2 for shelter and warmer clothes, which double as your disguise.
Once you’re alone in the room, look for clues to the mercenaries’ identity. Check the corner behind you and to the right for a case full of ashes, then step through the open doorway to find a restroom and a dead engineer. On the way out you’ll notice a gun by the door, but it’s biometrically locked to its owner, so you stay unarmed. Examine everything, then exit into the camp through the door on your left.
Enter building A4 directly ahead for more clues, a bag with a potential identifier, and a rocket launcher. Through the open doorway to the right of the launcher you’ll trigger a short cutscene of a runaway BT-65 truck reversing into a crate with a laptop on top. Before you use that laptop, grab your first collectible:
- 7 of Acorns (Card, checkpoint 04 Deployment Camp): after the BT-65 cutscene, walk to the storage shelves on the right, before touching the terminal. The card sits on the middle shelf.
Use the laptop to move the truck when the guards ask, then follow the blue marker right, through a lit dip in the terrain, and into the lit tent door. The workers here are too busy to notice you. Push through into the round tunnel and two sets of automatic doors, turn right, follow the wall to what looks like a dead end, and pass through the opening in the white tarp on your left.
Check the flashing wreckage ahead, then open crates on the right as you hunt for the computer. Slip behind the white curtain to trigger a cutscene where you learn the group’s plans and that Bond has been exposed to a lethal toxin. You have time to find the cure, but you can die from it, so pause the game if you need to.
When the two guards leave, go through the red door they came out of. It leads to a tunnel with a decontamination shower and a room full of shelves at the end. Head through the archway on the right, turn left, and interact with the large green crate labeled First Aid to grab the antidote. Complete the quicktime event to inject yourself, and after the cutscene you’ll end up outside. Climb the small cliff on the left to keep an eye on a prisoner; up top the guards reveal that more captives are held in buildings B4 and G9, and Bond decides to free them.
Central Camp: free the captives at G9 and B4
This is the mission’s biggest and most dangerous checkpoint, listed as Central Camp in the chapter select. Checkpoints here are generous: if you’re spotted or want to retry a challenge, pause and pick Restart Checkpoint, or jump back in later with Select Chapter.
You can free the two groups in either order, but going to G9 first is faster thanks to a zipline shortcut, and you’ll loop back to B4 afterward regardless. Drop from the cliff edge into the tall grass ahead. Once the patrol on the right passes it won’t return, so it’s safe to enter building F8 (right of G6). Grab two collectibles right here:
- Cruciform Key (Legacy Item, checkpoint 06 Central Camp): inside F8, on a shelf against the back wall. It’s a nod to the 1995 film GoldenEye.
- Iceland Postcard (Postcard, checkpoint 06 Central Camp): after taking the Cruciform Key, exit F8 and turn left to spot B2 with its door open. Sneak across and take down the single guard at the desk to collect the postcard beside the lamp. Note that this takedown is not Pacifist-safe — see the challenge notes below.
Back inside F8, climb the ladder to the roof, then a second ladder to the top. Jump while holding left to slide down the wire to a cliff overlooking G9; this crosses the camp instantly and completes the Scenic Route challenge. Jump onto the G9 roof and drop through the access hatch to take down the soldier inside. Turn right immediately for your third collectible:
- Satellite Part (Memento, checkpoint 06 Central Camp): on the L-shaped desk against the wall behind the whiteboard, right where you drop in through the G9 roof hatch.
That guard is one of the two the mission lets you knock out for Pacifist, so he’s safe to take down. Loot the key from his body, open the locked door to free the first captives, then leave and exit to the left.
Immediately outside, look left for a laptop labeled BT65 Control Station sitting on crates. Activate it — this is the first of the two vehicles you need for the Full of Surprises challenge. Then drop into the ditch on your right; down here no guard can see you cross the camp. Follow it to a narrow gap, squeeze through, and you’ll come out on a cliff. Head right, climb the rocky ledges past a couple of guards and an ATV, then pull up into the tall grass. Approach the ATV, Sabotage the Brakes for a commotion (the second Full of Surprises vehicle), and cut left to the far side of the crates.
From here you’ll see B4. Take the tall grass back into the ditch, head right, and squeeze through the narrow gap again. This time, instead of climbing the cliffs on the right, turn around and look up: climb the cliff into the window to find the second group of captives and your second unavoidable guard. Sneak up, knock him out, and free them. They hand you a detonator and lower a ladder to the roof.
Loosen the mast wire and escape the camp
Climb the ladder to the rooftop of B4 and approach the large device holding the mast support. Sabotage the support cable to bring down the antenna you ziplined from earlier, throwing the camp into chaos.
Jump down and head for the C2 building. Climb in and out through the window, clear a quicktime event, and follow the hostages as they run. When the armored vehicle appears and opens fire, veer right into the shallow crevice. An ATV shows up next, forcing another pair of quicktime events. After the second one, follow the prisoners as Bond leads them out, leaping from the cliff to the ledge. Keep running forward until a cutscene with the detonator triggers, then finish a final quicktime event to end the checkpoint.
If you made it this far without being spotted, you’ll also clear the Pacifist and Ghost challenges. What happens next plays out across a classic Bond title sequence and a short office scene that sets up Bond’s next assignment and leads directly into the following chapter — we’ll leave those beats for the cutscenes.
All Against the Odds collectibles
There are exactly four collectibles in Against the Odds, all in the first two checkpoints. None can be missed permanently — grab them later from Select Chapter if needed:
- 7 of Acorns — Card — checkpoint 04 Deployment Camp, middle storage shelf by the BT-65 laptop.
- Cruciform Key — Legacy Item — checkpoint 06 Central Camp, back-wall shelf inside F8.
- Iceland Postcard — Postcard — checkpoint 06 Central Camp, on the desk inside B2 (guard takedown required).
- Satellite Part — Memento — checkpoint 06 Central Camp, L-shaped desk inside G9.
Key items you’ll also handle here are the antidote from the green First Aid crate, the guard’s key for the G9 captives, and the detonator from the B4 group. This mission has no safe or door codes to enter.
Against the Odds challenges and the Iceland Outfit
There are nine challenges in Against the Odds, and clearing all of them unlocks the Iceland Outfit for TacSim. The catch: some of them directly conflict, so the Completionist challenge cannot be done in a single run. Use Select Chapter to replay the Central Camp checkpoint and pick them off in batches:
- Pacifist: take down only two soldiers — the guards inside G9 and B4. Any other takedown (including the B2 postcard guard) breaks it, so restart the checkpoint.
- Ghost: cross the central camp without being spotted. It pairs naturally with Pacifist and No Help Needed on the route above.
- No Help Needed: reach the far side without any distractions, so skip the BT65 laptop and the ATV brakes. Stay crouched and hug cover.
- Full of Surprises: the opposite of the above — use both the BT65 Control Station laptop and the ATV brakes to distract the mercenaries. Needs its own run separate from No Help Needed.
- Scenic Route: ride the zipline from the top of F8’s antenna over to G9.
- Assault: fight four soldiers without alerting the camp. Brawl (rather than silently drop) specific guards in B2, B4, the G9 crevice and behind G9.
- 00 To Become: take down seven soldiers without being spotted — the guards in B2 and B4, three across from G9, the one inside G9, and the two behind G9 after the rescue.
- High Ground: three takedowns from above, all near G9 — lure one into the crevice, drop one through the G9 roof hatch, and hit one of the pair at the back of G9 from the roof.
Ghost, Pacifist and No Help Needed can be earned together in one careful run; the others generally need dedicated replays of the Central Camp checkpoint.
That’s Against the Odds cleared. If a collectible slipped past you across the campaign, our all-collectibles 100% guide pins every card, postcard, Legacy Item and Memento; when you’re ready to move on, our walkthrough for the next mission, The Needle’s Eye, picks up right where this one ends; and for the campaign’s first real boss fight up ahead, our guide on how to beat Murto has you covered, all on Solo Jugadores.
