This is a guide to crafting most of the improvements to your equipment holders as quickly as possible at the start of the game. There are 30 different sets of skins you need to take all your equipment to level 3 (level 4 requires completion of Fashion Week quests), and of these you can complete at least 17 of these sets in Act One at the very beginning of the game. The remainder require Yak skin, not available in the Banapur Valley, and so you must take over the first outpost to open the rest of the southern half of the map.

This walkthrough is only one of many ways to do this; there are probably others that are about as efficient. You don't need to follow the order of steps here exactly; you should feel free to change things around as opportunities arise.

Please feel free to comment if you have ideas about how this guide could be improved. And please remember to rate the guide if you find it useful.

The first few missions that take you to the first tower and then Banapur (where the open world starts) are linear and offer only a couple of opportunities for crafting. Once you've completed those (see below) and arrive at Banapur you will have anywhere between 100 and 350 XP, depending on how many takedowns and other XP opportunities you took when making your way to the tower. While I encourage you to enjoy maximizing your XP and money-making opportunities during that mission, it's not really going to make a huge difference; if you simply sneak round all of the guards and end up with minimum XP, collecting one Mask of Yalung will make it all up, or pretty near.

At any rate, given that you get 500 XP from the Mohan Ghale journal entry in the Banapur safe house, you'll have your first skill point even before your first open-world mission.

While it will be tempting to get an extra health slot by taking Capable Strength as your first skill, the most important thing you can have to make hunting easier is Hunting syringes. Though you can use the camera to mark animals once you've spotted them, spotting them in the first place takes a lot less work if you use a hunting syringe and also saves you the hassle of using the camera, since they stay spotted even after the hunting syringe is done.

So if you're trying to craft as much as possible as quickly as possible, start with the Harvester skill, which you must take to unlock the Hunting Syringe skill. This offers some benefit to health anyway in that you will need to collect only one green plant, instead of two, to be able to craft a new Healing syringe, so you'll have a much larger supply of them.

The Hunting Syringe Level 2 skill is not available until fairly late in the game, and doesn't make hunting all that much easier, anyway.

References

The Game Revolution Far Cry 4 Skill Guide[www.gamerevolution.com] gives the point costs and reqirements of each skill, though it doesn't indicate the order in which they need to be acquired within the skill lines.

When it comes to hunting, weapons divide into two basic classes: edged and others. The edged weapons, which include the Kukri (your melee attack machete), throwing knives and bows, give you a significant advantage in that if the animal has not been damaged by any weapons outside of these (be they your own or those of other soldiers), you'll get two skins rather than one. You may also get some extra Karma Points for a "clean kill," depending on the animal. Thus, you should generally try to hunt with edged weapons whenever possible, as it makes hunting faster, especially when particular animals are rare or take some time to respawn.


The Kukri is the machete-like weapon you use with your melee attack (bound to the 'F' key by default). It seems about as powerful as the Recurve Bow (and thus slightly more powerful than the Hunter Bow), but of course works at only very short range and even then, due to weird game physics, it doesn't always hit. However, it's reasonably fast and probably better than most other weapons when an animal is up right next to you. That and it preserving your double-skin bonus makes it extremely useful against most attacking animals if you've whittled them down with a few shots from another weapon first.

If you try to use the Kukri when you're running after an animal, you'll find that you slow to a walking pace in order to strike, which often means you miss.


Throwing knives (damage 8) are silent, accurate and do a surprising amount of damage (as much as a Recurve Bow). They're also faster to aim than any bow. However, they do have a shorter range and lower ammo capacity. (You can, though, usually pick up your thrown knives from your dead targets or from the ground where they fell when you missed.)

These are a rather under-estimated weapon, but against the more powerful animals should be used only after you've got a bow shot or two into the animal.


The Hunter Bow (damage 7) can be picked up at the start of your first Amita mission. The sight is unfortunately rather difficult to use, but the bow is accurate enough that aiming from the hip (i.e., without the right mouse button held down) is quite effective even at longer ranges, so long as you wait for long enough after drawing for the aiming reticle to close completely. Unless you choose to buy the Recurve Bow early on, this is probably the main weapon you'll be using for hunting.

One thing to note about the bow is that it will not let you throw a knife immediately after firing; you have to wait for the animation of you pulling out and nocking a new arrow. However, this is not true of your melee attack, which does interrupt that animation.


The Recurve Bow (damage 8) is slightly more powerful than the Hunter Bow, but costs Kr60,000 if you choose to buy it. (You can get it for free, as described in this guide, but not until after you've completed Act One.)

The main improvement is the availability of better sights. Note that even thought the marksman sight has range gradations, you don't use them; at any rage just put your target in the centre of the sight.

If you're getting frustrated with the Hunter Bow the Recurve Bow may be worthwhile purchase, but it's not really necessary except when hunting Rhinos with the bow, due to the number of arrows it takes to kill them.


This is a great weapon to use when hunting, but not available until well in to Act Two, long after you've finished all the hunting you need to do if you're following this guide.


Cars and trucks are an excellent way of hunting most animals if you want to avoid taking any damage yourself. (Rhinos as the exception; they'll kill you almost as quickly in a car as on foot.) If you're having difficulty with Honey Badgers early on, a truck may be your best weapon as the badgers are found in an area around which it's easy to drive. You can also use the truck's speed to catch up with and take out a few Sambar as well.

ATVs (the little four-wheelers) will also work against the small- to mid-size animals.


Both machine guns and Signature weapons are extremely powerful and might well be considered cheating by those who like a challenge. That said, they can be particularly useful for some of the animals that are more difficult to kill, such as Bears and Rhinos.

The Stormer SMG becomes available within the the first couple of missions, and is just a somewhat improved version of the MP34 already available to you. The larger magazine does make it useful as an emergency "spray and pray" weapon against close-range targets.

Both the non-signature PKM machine gun and even more the Signature Driller variant make it extremely easy to kill any animal at almost any range, so long as you start with enough ammo in your magazine.

The Elephant Gun (available via DLC), which uses sniper rifle ammunition, lives up to its name, killing a rhino with a single headshot. It doesn't have a sight, however, which makes it rather difficult to aim accurately at long ranges, and it has only a two-round magazine which means that if you're hunting Rhinos with it, you'll want either to start at long range or to ensure that you make at least one headshot.


Explosve weapons, such as grenades, C4 and mines, are available from the start, but not useful for hunting as they'll destroy the skin of even Rhinos.

This table tells you at a glance what you need to upgrade each item to level 3. The underlined items indicate animals found in the the Banapur valley (Act One). However, even the non-underlined carnivores can also be attracted with bait at or near the first outpost.


There are various sources for this information outside of the game itself, but one of the best (and one I frequently use) is another Steam guide, Akunamatataa's Complete compact CRAFTING table. That guide also gives details on the Fashion Week quests needed for the Level 4 upgrades.

This is an overview of the optimal course described in detail in the rest of the guide. If you're familiar with the game, you may need to read only this. (Though, if you're that familiar with the game, I'd certainly appreciate you reading the rest of the guide and giving me feedback on it!)

Here, you're considered to start with "level 0" equipment, and "level 1" would be the first improvement you craft.

First "real" mission and before the open world.

• Collect 1x Sambar, 2-3x Bharal. Craft level 1 Wallet with 2 Bharal skins.
  
• (Optional) Collect 1-2x Bear, 1x Snow Leopard (to keep or sell).
  
• Collect 3x Bharal (or more, to sell).

Start of the open world.

• Visit shop, sell stuff, pick up throwing knives if you wish.
  
• Consider selling Bear/Snow Leopard skins to free space in loot bag.
  
• Grab Mohan Ghale's Journal from Safe House. Take Harvester skill.

• Start the Amita mission (mission 1A6). Take Hunter Bow.
  
• Go near, but not into, quest starting area. Turn right before it.
  
  • Hunt a boar. Craft level 1 Ammo Bag with 2x boar skins. Craft level 2 Ammo Bag with (saved) 3x Bharal skins.
    
  • Hunt another boar. Craft level 1 Syringe Holder.
    
  • Collect red leaves.
• Do mission.
  
  • Hunt 4 wolves for at least 6x skins. Craft level 1 Weapons Holster. (3x skins saved for later.)
    
  • Collect 1x pig skin, and hunt other pig for 1x or 2x skins. Craft level 1 Quiver.

• Hunting en route (optionally using hunter's syringe if you have it):
  • Take zip line down into valley.
    
  • Hunt 1-2 sambar and and craft level 1 Loot Bag.
    
  • Optionally, hunt a honey badger or two, saving skins for later.
    
  • Head to accident site (mission waypoint). Grapple up cliff and go down into valley on other side.
    
  • Hunt 3x macque and craft level 2 wallet.
    
  • Hunt 7x tapir. Craft level 2 Weapons Holster and level 3 Syringe Holder.
• Do bell tower mission.

• Hunt pig skins near Khilana Bazaar Outpost (X:300 Y:425) and craft level 2 Loot Bag.
  
• Upgrade weapons (typically adding a shotgun or an SMG to your loadout).

• Hunt demon fish in lake to craft level 3 loot bag.
  
• Hunt honey badgers near X:230 Y:440 and craft level 3 Weapons Holster.
  
• Hunt rhinos to craft level 3 Wallet and level 1 Explosives Pouch.
  
• Optionally, do bait-hunting of big cats and bears at Khilana Bazaar Outpost (X:300 Y:425).

• Big cats and bears as and when you like, if not already done.
  
• Yaks, and optionally bears, at Ghasa Dhalana Summit (X:500 Y:475).
  
• Fashion Week quests.

NOTE: This section offers (very) minor spoilers if you haven't played this mission at least once. It's not a terribly long mission so, if you've not played it before, you may want to play through it yourself, first, and then play it a second time after reading this guide.

Act One, mission 4 (Reach the Bell Tower) is your first opportunity to do any hunting, as well as to move about at will throughout the mission area (though it is a corridor mission).

The first six guards you can handle as you wish, whether it be to try to sneak by them all, do takedowns on them all (for 180 XP), or whatever. Once you've passed these guards you'll come to your first animal, a bharal, where you are given an explanation of how to skin animals and use bait. Skin this animal for your first skin, 1x Bharal skin.

Shortly past this is a dead sambar, giving you 1x Sambar skin, another dead bharal just up ahead, and a last dead bharal you can find up on a ridge/cliff to your left just before the next three guards (2x Bharal skin).

You can now use two of those bharal skins to craft your level 1 Wallet upgrade, which you should do immediately to save space in your loot bag.

To handle the next three soldiers you're encouraged to throw bait and let them and a bear fight it out. Whichever method you choose to handle this situation, you should not feel obliged to collect bear skins. You'll have plenty of good opportunities later to get the bear skins you need, and even if you do take skins here, you may want to consider selling them and hunting more later in order not to have them using up valuable early slots in your loot bag.

In the next area there's a cage with some body armour in it and, even more importantly, some throwing knives in a dead pig. You'll benefit from these throwing knives later in this mission.

Then we come to the next and last group of guards in this mission, five of them. Again, you can handle these as you wish. The snow leopard skin you can potentially pick up here is valuable but, as with the bear skin(s), you don't need it immediately and you may prefer to sell it later to free up loot bag space.

Beyond this we come to your first chance to do some real hunting. There are four bharals ahead of you, and you need only three skins for later, one of which you may already have from the previous bharals you skinned. Thus, you can take them down with your gun, if you like. (Ammo isn't a worry, since plenty more will be available very soon.)

However, this is an excellent opportunity not only to learn and practice hunting skills, but also get two skins from each kill. It's possible to kill all of these bharals with throwing knives or even your kukri if you use some stealth and, at appropriate moments, herd them properly. I encourage you to do this here, where it's easy to do; the understanding of herbivore's behaviour will make later hunting easier for you (as well as the extra skins making crafting easier).

Typically you'd want to start by walking (not running) forward until you've spotted one or more animals and then use your camera to tag them. After that, you can wait (typically crouched and hidden behind bushes or other cover) for them to approach you and throw a knife, you can use rocks to herd them, or you can just chase them into a corner and finish them off with your kukri as they come back towards you. Try a variety of approaches.

After this, you'll deal with the events at the tower itself to complete the mission. Do remember to collect ammo at the tower.

During the mission you should be able to collect up to 350 XP or so depending on how you deal with the guards, exclusive of what you get for completing the mission.

Your arrival at the village of Banapur marks the start of the open world portion of the game. Although for the first few missions you'll be working in a very small part of the open world, in this area you'll encounter about half the animals you need to do all your crafting to level 3, and you can attract all the others excepting the Yak if you use bait in the right area.

You'll have received 100 XP for finishing the Reach the Bell Tower mission, and you may have earned up to 350 XP during the mission, but even so, you still won't have the 500 XP you need for your first skill point. You should also have fairly full loads of ammunition from the ammunition caches in the tower and a few tens of thousands of Kyrati rupees (Kr).

Your first move is to go to a trading post, either the shop in the village or in the safe house. Sell all your non-crafting loot, and as well all but three of your bharal skins. (The "sell all non-crafting loot" option will keep all the bharal skins you have, even if you have more than the three you will need later.) Also consider selling any bear and snow leopard skins you have. It will be some time before you can use them and in the meantime they'll take up valuable space in your (currently quite limited in size) loot back that will slow down the rate at which you can make money.

At this point, if you have enough money, you can also consider buying the Recurve Bow, which you can't pick up for free until quite a bit later, after you've started the second act. The Recurve Bow not actually necessary, since almost all the hunting you need to do can be done just as well with the Hunter Bow you'll soon get, but it will make the game a bit easier. The only exception to this is if you want to use a bow to hunt rhinos, since they take fifteen or more shots from the Recurve Bow to kill, which is already at the limits of your ammo capacity in Act One of the game.

Even if you're short on ammunition at this point there's no need to buy more, since you'll be finding another ammo cache soon.

After you've done your shopping, make sure you stop at the safe house in the village and pick up Mohan Ghale's journal, which will give you 500 XP. Regardless of how you did in the previous mission, this will give you enough XP to get your first skill point, which you should spent on the Harvester skill. (See the Skills section above for more details on this.)

Now you're ready to start your first open world mission.

The first mission to start with is Amita's mission, "The Wolves' Den."

* start anita mission
* take hunting bow (gives you 10 arrows)
* You can come back later for other nearby arrows (gives you ### more)
* head south to ATV, mounting it will not bring up guide line on minimap, but autodrive will still work

* just before you reach the yellow area on minimap, stop, dismount, take dirt path to right. be careful not to enter yellow area during this process.
* There will be some wild boars ahead, camera them; you should be able to kill one and skin it even if you receive "leaving mission zone" warnings.
* use 2 boar skins to upgrade ammo bag, and then the three bharal skins you kept to upgrade it again (not only lets you collect more ammo, but also frees up loot bag space)`
* kill 2nd boar, upgrade syringes
* optional, go further along path, collect red leaves, and Mask of Yalung and 250 XP in cave at end of path

half-way to vantage point there's a wolf; he's alone so use bow, throwing knife and Kukri to kill him and get two skins.

* are there three more wolves, two outside, one inside cave

* in mission, note extra arrows at farm
* camera wolves and pig.
* kill 2 wolves outside from hill above
* extra arrows in dead pig by side of lake
* enter cave, kill wolf, pick up loot (fire arrow, molitov)
* shoot barrel with arrow to save fire arrow (does not use up regular arrow slot). Or could use molitov, they're cheap anyway

* if at this point you didn't get all 4x boar skins before, you may find some by crossing the lake and going past the mani wheel on your way back

= 1 pigskin from pig the wolves killed?
= 2 from live pig wandering around, lets you craft quiver (with one left over)
= 8 wolf skins, crafts
= 200 XP

Once finished with The Wolves' Den and having hunted enough boars in that area as you could (hopefully enough to have picked up 4x Boar skins and be done with that), head back to Banapur. Make your usual visit to the shop to sell your excess goods and, if you like, pick up a side-arm for your newly opened weapons holster slot. (But it's not worth paying even Kr3000 for the Mark IV pistol if it's not free yet: you'll pick one up soon enough.)

You'll want to keep your bow, though, because though we're now going to start Sabal's first mission, "Propaganda Machine," which unlocks the local bell tower (and shows you much better hunting information on the map), there's some hunting you can do on the way.

If you walk towards the cliff edge to the west of the village, you'll notice a hang glider conveniently located to take you towards your next checkpoint. As tempting as this is, you'll want instead to take the nearby zip-line down into the valley, as this will leave you better positioned to do some hunting on the way.

You may or may not by now have the Hunters Syringe. If you do, feel free to make use of it; if not, you'll have to use the camera and your skills. Do remember, however, to mark your prey if you can before you start shooting at them in case you don't kill them with the first shot.

To the right or, failing that, to your left of your landing place, with a bit of exploring you should find some Sambar. (If you're lucky, or unlucky, depending on your skills and weapons, you may also find a Honey Badger. It's worth taking one right away if you have the skills and/or equipment to do it.)

If you took the Sambar skin earlier in the Prelude, you need only one more, so an ATV or another motor vehicle is a reasonable option here (not to mention a good way to take out Honey Badgers). Having 2x Sambar skins, you can now craft your much-needed level 1 Loot Bag upgrade.

Now you can head towards your objective on the map, which you will discover is the "accident site." Pick up your grapple here (as well as a green plant and a medkit, which should increase your healing stock by a bit), and grapple up the wall.

From here there's an obvious way to grapple across to head towards the tower, but it's best to take advantage of the hunting opportunities below you. Again, if you have the Hunters Syringe, you can use it here, but it's pretty near as good simply to use your camera to scan the valley below. After marking some animals, at your left you'll find a slope that lets you slide down the hill without damage (holding the "walk backwards" button as you slide).

Once down, if it's evening you can quickly and easily (even without a Hunting Syringe) bow-hunt the 3x Macaque skins you need to craft your level 2 Wallet upgrade, and the 7x Tapir skins you need to craft your level 2 Weapons Holster and level 3 Syringe Holder upgrades. At midday it will take you a little more time and you'll have to travel a little further.

However, if you do end up going fairly far east, you may be lucky (or, again, unlucky) enough to run in to some Dholes. If you think you can kill one (or two), do so and use the 2x Dhole skins to craft a level 2 Bait Bag. Any other Dhole skins you have you shouldn't feel bad about selling, since you won't be able to use them until much later on, and you'll often find you've accidentally hunted three more Dholes just in the process of moving about this area of the world.

At any rate, you're now set to do the bell tower. If you ended up still to the east of it, you can go a bit further back and come back via the original route; if you're more westerly, you will find a grapple that lets you go up to the same place you'd end up anyway (though skipping a dead solider with a Mark IV pistol).

Having finished the the bell tower mission, you'll now have at least one new skill point, which you should spend on the Hunting Syringe skill. After that, you can go for whatever you feel works best for you. Capable Strength, for an extra health bar, may be useful when hunting some of the more dangerous animals, but if you're careful it won't be necessary, especially if you're willing to use the (sometimes overpowerful) Signature weapons.

Having finished the tower, if you got tired and gave up on getting enough Tapir and Macaque skins in the last section, you can drop down again to the valley in which you'd previously hunted, find some red leaves near there and blue leaves in nearby pond which you can now see on your map, and finish up your Wallet, Weapons Holster and Syringe upgrades.

This done, the next step is to upgrade your Loot Bag, since that's both easy hunting and will help a lot with carrying around the leaves and skins you'll be collecting on your hunting journeys. (Not to mention the loot you'll collect along the way.) There's a group of buildings around X:300 Y:425. This is actually an outpost, though at this stage of the game it's not been re-occupied by the Royal Army. However, as well as offering some loot, a propaganda poster and a trading post (as well as a place to respawn should you die), you'll find that in the area (the buildings or the fields in any direction nearby, including the plateau to the east and above) are some pigs. Assuming you saved a pig skin or two from your first mission for Amita, one clean kill will give you your Level 2 Loot Bag upgrade.


This finishes off the easy portion of the hunting quests. From this point on, you'll be having to hunt carnivores and other creatures that bite back, so you're going to have to be a bit more careful. At any time you should feel free to pause the hunting and take on some of the other activities that are already available even in this small corner of the map in order to increase your skills and get better weapons.

In particular, a shotgun can be extremely useful when dealing with animals at close range. Since you entered the open world you've had the option to buy M133 Shotgun at the shop for Kr26,000, but you'll also be able to find one for free on the odd Royal Army soldier in this area (after you've made him dead, of course) if you cruise around enough.

That said, a sub-machine gun can make a pretty good substitute, and by this point you'll have the Skorpion available for free. (The Stormer Signature SMG is also available at this point, along with other Signature weapons; see the "Weapons" section above for details.) Given that the Skorpion qualifies as a sidearm, you can even take both it and a shotgun, if you have particularly bad aim.

The following hunting bits can be done in pretty much any order, along with the missions too if you like, and if you're concerned about overall speed in the campaign it's often best to work based on opportunity rather than a fixed plan. That said, I typically prefer to start with the Demon Fish to get the Level 3 Loot Bag upgrade, since that lets me carry not only more loot, but also more red and blue leaves to make hunting syringes.

While you're hunting, keep in mind that, though you won't be able to use them quite yet, you will need 3x Dhole skins and 4x Honey Badger skins later on. You can take them here, if you like, or wait until later; it really depends on how much stuff you're willing to carry around.


Demon Fish can be found in the lake in the south of the Banapur valley. Hunting them is so much easier with a hunting syringe that I probably wouldn't bother to do it without one. There are two main things to remember. First, make use of non-zoomed aiming (surprisingly accurate with the bow) so that you can see your cross hairs turn red when over the fish, even if you can't see him directly. (And aiming a bit ahead helps, too.) Second, remember that as you skin the fish, other nearby Demon Fish (including new ones you'd not caught with the hunting syringe) are likely to come and take a nibble from you. However, even with only your original two health bars, you should be able to handle at least one attack.


There's usually a Honey Badger to be found around the X:230 Y:440 area, and a hunting syringe will bring him up quickly (look for the only carnivore around). Often you can kill him by running him over with a truck if you really want to avoid personal danger, though this doesn't count as a clean kill and so gets you only one skin.

Better is to use your bow. With a bit of careful stalking your first shot will make him freeze at a distance, giving you time to get a second well-aimed shot in before he rushes you. Ideally at least one of these two shots should have been a headshot; if not, you'll probably need a headshot now to get a kill before he reaches you. Probably at this point switching to your knife is a better bet, since it has much faster aim. (But remember to change your default thrown weapon before you start this hunt, lest you realize after it's too late that you're throwing a grenade instead. Not that the grenade can't be effective, but you're lucky if it only removes your double skin bonus, rather than destroying the skin entirely.) If he's still coming in after that, it's time to pull out the blade and go for a melee attack.

Three of these (leaving you room for a bow-hunting error with one) will let you upgrade to the Level 3 Weapons Holster, which is the maximum upgrade. Remember to fill the slot with another weapon next time you're at a trading post.


While it might be considered cheating by some, an extremely easy way to hunt carnivores is to climb up on the roof of one of the covered areas in the Khilana Bazaar outpost, drop some bait, and take your time killing the wild animal that arrives.

However, though this works very well when alone, there are often people about that will distract the animal from the bait. Even if you don't care that you're getting innocent people eaten by wild animals, this still makes it harder to get headshots. Worse yet from a hunting point of view, any Golden Path members hanging about will shoot the animal with their rifles, causing you to lose the double-skin bonus you'd get if the animal was shot using only your edged weapons.

That said, where there's nobody around (which is more often after the outpost mission than before), this makes a very good baiting-hunting ground for several different species.

The animals that will show up for your bait here are, in approximate order of frequency:

• Bengal Tiger
  
• Snow Leopard
  
• Bear
  
• Clouded Leopard
  
• Dholes
  
• Wolf

Unless you go with overpowered weapons, rhinos are some of the most challenging hunting around. If you hit one when it's close to you it will turn and charge you and in this situation not even a vehicle will protect you from harm. Rhinos will easily flip over even pickup trucks, damaging any occupants in the process, and whether or not you're in a vehicle you'll be stunned for a few moments, making it very difficult to recover before his next attack. When shot from a distance, however, rhinos will turn and run

You have several different options for killing rhinos; from most difficult to easiest these are to use a bow, a shotgun and/or SMG, or a high-powered rifle.

Bow / Throwing Knives

Using a bow does get you two skins for every rhino you kill, but given the amount of work it takes this method will generally take longer than using a gun. However, it does make a nice challenge. You will need a large quiver, meaning you'll need to do some other hunting first, and even with the level 2 quiver (20 arrows) you'll still have to use a compound bow. The trick here is to mark the rhino (with a hunting syringe or by aiming a gun at it for a couple of seconds), fall back far enough the rhino will run rather than attack you when you shoot it, hit it (preferably with a headshot), and then chase it until it's stopped running and hit it again. Rinse and repeat, typically about eighteen times if you're using the compound bow. If the rhino does turn and attack you you can try to use the circling-an-obstacle method described below, but you'll need to be very, very skilled to be able to get a long series of full-draw shots on it without getting killed first. (You'll definitely want to use your throwing knives first in this situation, but unless you've already done a fair amount of damage to the rhino, you won't have enough throwing knives to finish it off.)

Shotgun and/or SMG

The M113 shotgun is capable of killing a rhino with a single magazine, if done at close range, especially if you manage to get in a headshot or two. SMGs also deliver enough burst firepower to use the same technique; though you can't kill a rhino with a single magazine, the reload is fast enough that you can do it while dodging.

The trick here is to find a rock or a tree large enough that the rhino has to go around it to get to you, but small enough that you can circle it much faster than he can, keeping the obstacle between you and him. As he comes around the obstacle you unload either a shotgun shot or two or a good chunk of an SMG magazine into him (preferably in the face or head) and then back off around the obstacle before he can hurt you. Circling this way you can take out a rhino without having to reload your shotgun, if you're careful. If you do find you've emptied your shotgun magazine, it's usually better to switch to an SMG than to try to reload the shotgun, as the slow shotgun reload combined with inability to run while reloading is likely to give the rhino time to attack you.

If you're not lucky enough to find a rhino near such an obstacle, you'll have to lure him there, and it takes some care to do this properly. You'll want to shoot the rhino from a close enough distance that he'll come after you rather than running away, but you also need to make sure you're close enough to your cover that he doesn't gore you before you can get there.

Rifle / Machine Gun

While the earlier assault rifles aren't really powerful enough to take on a rhino, there are several rifles in the game that can quickly kill one. The Elephant Gun, if you have that DLC, will take out a rhino even with two body shots, though you need to be close enough that you can guarantee hits, since you have only two rounds in the magazine.

If you don't have DLC, the PKM machine gun is probably the easiest way to kill a rhino early in the game. Just get behind it (so it can't charge you immediately) and hold down the button, spraying until it's dead. This isn't very sporting at all, but is effective if you just want to get on with the game.

At this point, you've crafted everything you're going to be able to without going further in the campaign and finishing Act One. Once you've done this, and opened up the full southern half of the map, you have three basic things to work on:

1. Hunt down big cat skins, if you didn't bait them at Khilana Bazaar outpost.
   
2. Hunt down yak and (optionally) bear skins.
   
3. Do Fashion Quests for the final upgrades.

If you've gone the route of using bait in the first outpost (Khilana Bazaar) before taking it, you may have all the big cat and bear skins you need already, in which case the yak is the final creature you need to hunt down.

Before you head out in to the rest of the world, however, you may want to grab three dhole skins and perhaps four honey badger skins from the local area before you head out for further hunting. They're not hard to find out in the rest of the world, but in the Banapur valley you already know the exact areas to find these animals, so this may save some time later.


The big cats (clouded leopards, snow leopards and Bengal tigers) are regularly encountered in the south-west of the map, and you can get the skins you need from them during regular gameplay. Taking them as you encounter them during normal gameplay, along with the the snow leopard skin you may have kpt from the prologue, is a viable alternative to attracting them with bait.


Yaks are the only creature you need for crafting that you can't find (or bait) in Banapur valley. The easiest place to find them is at Ghasa Dhalana Summit, at X:500 Y:475, where herds of them are so easy to find that you don't even need a hunting syringe. You can get there by mounting the buzzer (mini-helicopter) just outside the west exit from the Khilana Bazaar outpost and flying west.

When hunting at Ghasa Dhalana Summit you need to be careful of two things. First, yaks will charge you if you damage them from too close a range and, while this is easily avoided, they can kill you fairly quickly if you let them. Second, bears regularly appear in this area to prey on the yaks and will happily turn on you if you disturb them. In both cases, it's handy to have an M133 shotgun handy for close-range defense.


For the final upgrade for each item you need to complete a special quest that gives you the chance to kill a unique animal. Rather than just re-list them here, I encourage you simply to have a look at another guide, Akunamatataa's Complete compact CRAFTING table, for the details.

This is a summary of the missions over the course of the game, for reference when you're looking at when something is unlocked. I try to keep my numbering similar to the Far Cry Wiki (see below), which is why, for example, you see The Wolves' Den numbered 6, even though we do it before number 5, Propaganda Machine.

Note also that I divide Act One in to two parts, the prelude, which is not open world, and Banapur Valley, which is where the open world part of the game starts and where you can first buy weapons of your choice.

For "Balance of Power" missions you do only one of the two; you choose one or the other, depending on which scumbag you feel is least worst.

Linear; you may move only forward in one direction.

• 1. Border Crossing (starting cutscene). 0 XP.
  
• 2. Dinner with Pagan (mainly cutscene; minor loot collection). 0 XP.
  
• 3. Escape the Compound (run and ride as vehicle passenger). 0 XP.
  
• 4. Reach the Bell Tower (first time you can make decisions) 100 XP.

Entry to the open world. Banapur town and the valley around it in the south-west of the map.

• 6. The Wolves' Den (first Amita mission). 200 XP.
  
• 5. Propaganda Machine (first Sabal Mission). 200 XP.
  
• 7. Return to Sender (Leads to Banpur attack. You get his from Longinus, but it doesn't count as a Longinus mission for progress.). 200 XP.
  
• 8. Hostage Negotiation (continuation of 7; first hostage rescue mission)
  
• 9. Incursion (continuation of 8; taking of first outpost, Khilana Bazaar)

The entire southern half of the map is opened.

• 1. Balance of Power:
  • Hunt or Be Hunted (Amita)
    
  • Rebel Yell (Sabal)
• 2. A Cultural Exchange
  
• 3. Sermon on the Mount
  
• 4. Balance of Power:
  • Reclamation (Amita)
    
  • Burn it Down (Sabal)
• 5. Bhadra (cutscene only)
  
• 6. The Mouth of Madness
  
• 7. The Sleeping Saints
  
• 8. City of Pain
  
• 9. Balance of Power
  • Advanced Chemistry (Amita)
    
  • Basic Chemistry (Sabal)
• 10. Shoot the Messenger
  
• 11. The Protector's Arrival (Yogi & Reggie mission)
  
• 12. Free Willis
  
• 13. Kill or Be Killed
  
• 14. Death from Above

Opening the North.

• 1. Don't Look Down
  
• 2. A Key to the North
  
• 3. Truth &Justice
  
• 4. Payback
  
• 5. Balance of Power
  • Culture Wars / Valley of Death (Amita)
    
  • Cease and Desist / Take Cover (Sabal)
• 6. To Reap What You Sow
  
• 7. Ashes to Ashes
  
• 8. Dinner at the Palace

• Package Delivery. 450 XP.

The following sites give information about missions, and I have checked this list against theirs.

• The Far Cry Wikia's Far Cry 4 Story Missions[farcry.wikia.com]. (Thanks to the various contributors to that!)
  
• The IGN Far Cry 4 wiki Campaign Missions page.

This work is Copyright 2016 by "Category Theory."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License[creativecommons.org].

You are free to:

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under the following terms:

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  
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Contains CC-BY-SA[creativecommons.org] material from the FC4 Useful Weapons Guide.

If even this seems too burdensome, please contact me (Category Theory) and we'll see if we can make some sort of alternative arrangements.

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