Take your time to smell the roses.
The best key to getting the most out of Far Cry 4 is spacing out the story missions as much as you can, and being fully equipped for the them when you start. The story isn’t exceptionally short, but it isn’t exceptionally long either, and the world of Far Cry 4 shines most during the exploration and random encounters in between the real meat of the story. A few other tips can tie into this one, but I promise that if you really make an effort to take your time with the story and grind your way into penultimate badassery first, everything else after it will be that much more enjoyable. Oh and speaking of grinding…
Kill everything.
The world of Kyrat is picturesque and teems with majestic wildlife – but don’t let the beauty deter you from your purpose: you must kill anything that moves. If you have any strong ties to PETA, this is not the game for you. Your time in Kyrat becomes exponentially easier and more fun with every animal slain, as you can use the pelts to craft everything from holsters for additional weapons to ammo pouches for every weapon in your arsenal, and increase your carrying capacity for both loot and currency. If you kill every animal you come across, you’re much more likely to find that when you’ve just upgraded an ammo pouch or your wallet, you already have enough skins to upgrade it one more level, or you’re already halfway there.
It’s a game and I don’t normally shy away from killing digital anythings, but even I “Aww’d” and had a moment of silence for the first (mostly) gentle rhinoceros I killed. Get over it, and you’ll be well on your way to having more money, ammo, and items than you’ll know what to do with.
The gyrocopter is your new best friend.
This tiny aircraft is the absolute best way to get around Kyrat. Driving is fun, and every mode of transport works well, but if you’re like me, you’re going to spend a lot of time hunting down every last collectible and working your way from point to point on the map – whether you’re hunting a specific animal or just exploring. For times like that, this mini-helicopter is going to be the best way to get around. It can go just about anywhere and makes hopping from place to place in Kyrat quick and easy. Just be careful not to land or take off in a place where the blades grind against a tree or other environmental object. More than a few times, I took off without looking, only to explode a moment later.
Nothing is cooler than the bow
Not only does the timing and accuracy required in using the bow carry a certain satisfaction that no gun can offer, but your ammo is also retrievable, and it’s always a silent kill. Far Cry 4 gives you the choice between taking a stealth approach or going all-out-Rambo most of the time, but there are several missions that force you to take out enemies silently.
The stealth path will almost always reward you with more XP when conquering outposts and in story missions. More important than any other reason, I just can’t emphasize how cool the bow is. I’m a big fan of the bow and arrow approach in any game, and Far Cry has always represented that weapon type better than most.
Elephants > Cars
Very early on, or whenever you choose to, you’ll be able to unlock an ability that allows you to mount and ride any elephant and force them to carry out your destructive bidding. Elephants are definitely slower than most cars, but they still move at a decent pace and will destroy almost anything in your path. They’ll flip or crush cars and turn any enemy or aggressive animal into a blood splatter in a heartbeat. If you’re playing Far Cry 4 and you haven’t been riding the elephants, you need to hop on one right now and start tearing things up.
Get those radio towers.
Any time you can capture a radio tower, you should. Getting radio towers not only removes fog from the surrounding area in the world map, but it also builds toward unlocking more and more new weapons – which are always welcome additions to your arsenal. When you’re vigilant about getting as many radio towers as possible, as early as possible, you’ll end up almost never needing to buy weapons. Eventually you’ll have more money than you know what to do with, but getting some prime free weapons is a huge help early on. Steer clear of anything too far north in the early game though, as that area is the best reserved for the endgame and will be too tough to tackle even halfway in. But you should have almost all of the radio towers in the middle and southern areas completely cleared by the second act.
Learn from your mistakes.
It only took me one unfortunate turn of events to learn that bees are never worth messing with and that honey badgers are terrifying. The first time you see what looks like some kind of skunk and decide to kill it, you quickly learn that it’s actually a near-invincible honey badger of incomparable ferocity. This should be the first and last time you whimsically approach a honey badger. Bees are not only impossible to shoot or stab, but they also have this uncanny ability to seek out the origin of anything that destroys their nests. As much as it can be fun to destroy their nests and sic them on unsuspecting guards, you better be damn sure you’re at a safe distance, and even then it’s probably better to just take out the guard yourself.
Just do you!
The very best part of a game like Far Cry 4 is that you’re basically given a story to progress through and a world to explore, but you can do any of that at whatever pace you’d like and with your own personal flair to it all. Do you want to just clear radio towers and outposts? Do that until you just hit a wall in difficulty, bust out a few story missions and then get back to outposts. Want to play like a one man army? Just follow these tips to build up your arsenal and then bomb, burn and spray with bullets every obstacle that gets between you and your objectives. This game supports a wide range of choices and will rarely, if ever, punish you for playing the game your way. The more you upgrade your character, skills and inventory, the more freedom is afforded to your play style. Keep these tips in mind, especially early on, and Kyrat will be your playground to do as you like.
