With Far Cry 5 here and Ubisoft’s most ambitious title in the franchise yet there is a lot to do in the world of Hope County, Montana. A now cult-ridden landscape it’s useful to know how to navigate the world and get the most out of each mechanic, item or NPC. We’ve put in a number of hours into the game and compiled a list of the best tips and tricks we think you should need on your journey.

Complete Challenges to earn perk points

Unlike the previous games, gaining skill points are no longer tied to traditional levelling systems. Improving control over weapons, gaining a parachute or maxing out your health an inventory are all part of the perk system.

Luckily, anything you do in the world of Far Cry will usually go towards a challenge and should get you some points. If you are unsure about what challenges there are and how many you are from completing you can check your progress in the journal. Some of the challenges are like kill X amount with each weapon, hunt a certain type of animal or world events.

Find Prepper Stashes to fill perk points more quickly

When in the early parts of the game you will come across a Prepper stash but Far Cry does not really do justice to how important these are. Not only are they a great resource for weapons, cash and ammo they will always have three perk point magazines.

To complete them each will require a different tactic usually in the form of a logic puzzle or series of events. They are fun to do and offer some of the best side “quests” like a trip into a Haunted House or exploring underground bunkers.

Remember to gain Resistance Points to max out your level in each region

Talk to people you find.

Finding new points of interest on your map is now down to go ole word of mouth. Talking to people will give you information about the area but also can result in extra quests to complete. Some people you come across can have a small blue diamond on their head, which details they know the location of a Prepper Stash nearby. To be prepared to save these types of NPC from the hands of the Peggy’s.

Some of the other information you can get are locations of Cult Outposts, story quests, key character locations and much more. Once the NPC has finished talking the new POI will be marked on your map for you. Don’t be afraid to skip the chatter as they’ll still tell you what you need to know without wasting your life listing to Joe Bloggs.

Find the Fangs for Hire as soon as possible.

How to find and use the Fangs for Hire is important in the early game as the animal companions will help with your fight around Hope County. Not only useful but there is always something of a show to watch when your trusty canine pal sneaks up on an unsuspecting cult member to take them down.

In Far Cry 5, there are three different Fans for Hire which all have specialist roles to help you out in the world. The first one to get is Boomer the dog who is at Rae-Rae’s Pumpkin farm in John’s region. After that Cheeseburger the Bear and Peaches the cougar take a little longer but to learn how to find and get the Fangs for hire, check out of specific guides.

You can throw your melee weapons

Something that was found by accident as the game never tells you that it is possible, is the ability to launch your ore, shovel and baseball bat at your enemy to kill them or at least known them down giving you some extra time to take them out.

How to throw your melee weapon though really is a simple task. Hold down the left trigger that you would usually use to aim down the sights of your gun, point in the direction of your enemy and press the other trigger than usually fires. Sit back and watch your heavy object hurtle towards the intended target.

Level Up your Resistance Squad Fighters

Randomly generated Fighters are littered across Hope’s County and can be used to join the fight against the Cult. Know as Guns for Hire, you can recruit up to three at any time and can be levelled up twice by killing 5 enemies and 12 enemies.

These perks that each get can be highly useful in-game such as being able to revive your Fangs for Hire, bringing you back from the brink of death quickly or helping to find extra loot.

Keep an eye on the number of enemies they have killed on the roster so you can track who needs to come out with you to unlock those two skills.

Complete Side Missions for Special Rewards

Similar to The Witcher, Ubisoft has ditched the repetitive and somewhat boring side quests for ones which have their own dialogue, story and structure. Some of the missions can be quite simple while others require you to attend the Annual Testicle Festival and chop off the local Cattle’s um…private bits.

Your reward though will be a range of special weapons, vehicles and other things you can’t find naturally in the world unless you finish these missions.

Get the Additional Weapon Slot Upgrades ASAP

Like most games, you always want to focus on acquiring the skills which allow you to hold more of an arsenal in your magical Mary Poppins pockets. To get two more weapon slots you need to unlock them via the Perk Tree which is better done sooner rather than later.

If you need some points, find the Prepper Stashes to build up your stack of them and spend them on those skills.