Auto-craft Healing Syringes
Very early on in the game, you’re going to find yourself struggling with enemy soldiers and the vicious wildlife of Kyrat. You only have two health bars, and healing syringes go for 10,000 Rupees a pop. Thankfully, there’s a pretty handy way to get around the health restoration problem in Far Cry 4.
Under the Elephant skill tree, there is a skill called Harvester. This skill allows you to take twice as many leaves from each plant you harvest and it costs only one measly skill point. This means that you’ll be able to get two green leaves from each green plant you find along the way and this will allow Ajay to automatically craft a healing syringe and put it in your inventory. The Harvester skill is a good and cheap method of ensuring that you have a steady supply of healing syringes for the duration of the game.
Some other good skills to get along with Harvester are Capable Strength, which grants you an additional health slot, and Healing Syringe Level 2, which allows healing syringes to restore three slots of health.
Craft Your Weapon Holsters, Wallet, and Loot Bag
Believe it or not, Far Cry 4 only allows you to carry one lousy weapon at the start of the game. This can be pretty detrimental to your survival in the game as you’ll usually require more than one gun to effectively adapt to various situations. In addition to that, there’s a limit to how much money and loot you can carry around at the beginning of the game. What good is finding all that treasure if you can’t take them with you? And to make matters worse, what good is selling all your buried treasure if your wallet isn’t even big enough to carry your Rupees?
This is where Far Cry 4‘s crafting system comes in. You’ll need to hunt down specific animals and use their skins for crafting larger holsters, wallets, and bags. The weapon holsters should be your first priority, in my opinion, as it’s always handy to have a good variety of weapons on you when you’re traveling in dangerous Kyrat. Having four weapons at your disposal early on in the game should also make the first few campaign missions much easier to tackle as well.
Takedowns
After spending a few hours in Far Cry 4, you’ll soon find that stealth is the key to success in most situations. If you look at the Tiger skill tree, you’ll find a good number of takedown skills available for your perusal. Try to learn these once you’ve gotten your health issue under control (see: tip 1).
One of the first, but also one of the coolest and most useful, takedowns you’ll get to learn is the Knife Throw takedown. At the cost of only two skill points, Ajay can stealth kill an enemy soldier and hurl a throwing knife at a nearby enemy, effectively allowing him to stealth kill two enemies at once. The other, more advanced takedowns include Death From Above, Death From Below, and Cover Takedown. All of these allow you to take out enemies while you’re hidden and are useful in all sorts of sticky situations.
By defeating one retaliation party, you’ll be able to unlock the Chain Takedown skill which allows Ajay to knife multiple enemies in a row as long as they’re all relatively close to each other. Very handy stuff for stealth-lovers.
Increase Your Karma Level
The Karma system is a new mechanic introduced in Far Cry 4. Your Karma level reflects the level of loyalty Ajay has towards his allies and increasing your level will net you a good number of rewards. Some of these rewards include lower weapon prices, attachment prices, location map prices, collectible map prices, Ghale homestead item prices, and guns for hire upgrades.
You can increase your Karma level by finding mani wheels in Kyrat and spinning them and obtaining clean animal kills by hunting them with either your knife or bow and arrow. There are also random events that will pop up while you’re moving around in Kyrat. If you see Golden Path members under attack from wild animals or enemy soldiers, help them out and this will increase your Karma level as well.
Buy the Wingsuit
Ah yes. The wingsuit. One of my favorite pieces of equipment from Far Cry 3. Unlike its predecessor, Far Cry 4 makes the wingsuit available to players pretty early on in the game. You can buy it at the low, low price of 25,000 Rupees at any of the trading outposts and start doing crazy leaps off of tall mountains.
The wingsuit can save you in many sticky situations. Cornered by multiple enemies or angry rhinos with nowhere else to run? No worries. Just hop off the side of the cliff and click the L3 button to open up the suit and soar away from your foes. Just remember to hit the X button to launch your parachute so you don’t faceplant and die.
Take Back Your Outposts
Now that you’ve got a good supply of healing syringes, a large holster that can carry four weapons, and a big enough bag to carry your fat loots, you’re all set to liberate enemy outposts.
But wait, there’s a twist. Also new in Far Cry 4 is the enemy’s ability to invade your outposts and take them back from you. Every so often, you’ll receive a frantic radio call from one of your Golden Path allies informing you that your outpost is under attack. When this happens, be sure to get back to that particular outpost as soon as humanly possible. Failing to do so will result in the enemies overrunning your base and you’ll have to win it back from them all over again.
Rack up your kills while defending your outposts to get a nice experience boost, so you can grab even more of those handy skills on your skills tree.
Steer Clear of Fortresses… Until You’re Ready
I’m not even kidding. Don’t go anywhere near these fortresses unless you’re playing co-op with a friend you can trust. These fortresses are basically big monster versions of enemy outposts with traps set up everywhere for the unsuspecting player. There’s one fortress in each region of Kyrat and taking them out will ensure that enemy soldiers will no longer attempt to invade any of your outposts in that particular region.
By progressing further in the campaign, some fortresses will have their defenses drastically weakened and that will signal the perfect time for you to strike. Until then, I suggest that you stay away from these like the plague.
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