Welcome to the start of our IGN First for the month of May, all about Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint! Over the next few weeks we’ll be bringing you exclusive inside peeks at this survival-focused follow-up to Ghost Recon Wildlands. Up first, we’ve got details about a part of Breakpoint that hasn’t been revealed yet: the hideout.

Called Erewhon, this village in a hidden cave on the main island of the Auroa archipelago is the shelter of a group called the Homesteaders. This multipurpose hideout acts as your central hub for story progression, a place to evaluate your objectives around Auroa, and even an online social hub where you can coordinate and meet up with other players for co-op and PvP.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint: Exclusive Hideout/Social Hub Concept Art 3 IMAGES

Above: A gallery of early concept art for the hideout.

Ghost Recon executive producer Nouredine Abboud tells me that players will find Erewhon very early on in Breakpoint’s story, and that it’s the first time your character Nomad is able to meet with allies after surviving a helicopter crash and escaping the Wolves, rogue spec-ops soldiers who hunt you throughout the game.

“ The hideout is also where you’ll access Breakpoint’s other modes, including PvP and Raids.

Compared to the harsh world outside, your hideout is a place of safety. It’s where you’ll primarily see Breakpoint’s story unfold as you interact with its characters, as well as where you’ll be able to buy new items, gear, and weapons. You’ll also be able to unlock secondary missions there, and Abboud describes it as “the link between the information known by the players and displayed into the Objective Board, and the game itself.”

More than that, the hideout is also where you’ll access Breakpoint’s other modes, including PvP, which will be available at launch, and its challenging Raids that are set to arrive later on. “[The hideout] is the basis also for the way you are going to be interacting with the game in the future,” Abboud said. “We are the people who delivered Wildlands, with 19 updates in around two years – basically one update a month. So we have major plans for the future, we want to keep coming very often with updates, content, story, Raids, et cetera.”

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Above: a brief glimpse at the hideout in Breakpoint’s cinematic reveal trailer.

But beyond its gameplay functions, Erewhon will act as a social hub for players to gather and meet online. Up to 16 players can be in an instance of the hideout at a time, whether they are members of your party, friends playing separately, or just other random people. There you’re able to chat, look at each other’s profiles and statistics, form parties, and pick missions to venture out on.

“ Erewhon will also act as a social hub for up to 16 players to gather and meet online.

“It's very important for us that we are able to have a game that is as social as possible,” Abboud tells me, explaining that “having a social hub inside the game is very important” to achieving that goal. Abboud even said that you can add friends to a “favorites list” that will let you see their avatars around your hideout’s Control table, its center of operations, when you are playing without them.

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It’s safe to say you’ll see a good amount of the hideout, and you’ll also be seeing a whole lot more Breakpoint as part of our IGN First this month. Check back later this week for another inside look at the game, and be sure to check out our hands-on Ghost Recon Breakpoint preview in the meantime.

Tom Marks is IGN's Deputy Reviews Editor and resident pie maker. You can follow him on Twitter