Act I - Part III: Action

The exploration and getting to know the land phase of play has been completed at this point, but something even more important has occurred that you may not be aware of... Yet.

You see while exploration is good, the real purpose behind the previous part of the game was to acclimate the player - you - to the unique game play mechanics that make up Far Cry 4, and we believe that this has been nicely accomplished! Heck you swing from that Grapple like a monkey from a vine!

So with all of that wonderful acclimation under your belt, it is time for this story to progress, and that means it is time to meet the neighborhood Jesus Freak and Arms Dealer!

A Visit with Longinus

After we completed the first Tower Sabal tells us we need to meet with Longinus, and his location is then marked on the map with an “L” Icon. That is actually in the direction we eventually want to go in anyway, since it is where the Asian Rhinoceros is found among other things. Well, that and another of the Masks, and so on.

So once we manage the various icons in the area, and loot the chests, find the crashed plane, get the Mask, and perhaps do a little Crafting, we need to head to the “L” on the map where we finally get to meet this Gun Freak who believes that selling and using guns is Jesus' work!

Longinus happens to be one of the links between the games, as he is from the country in which Far Cry 2 takes place. But that is not really important. What is important is that after we meet him, Longinus gives us missions and quests.

After a very lengthy lecture that includes a sampling of his rather unique take on Christianity he will then explain that he will reward you for any damage you do to the govenment in terms of taking out the Towers.

In the midst of this Sabal sounds the alarm! The Village is under attack!

The Attack on the Village

You have just six minutes to get back to the Village and start taking out the attackers. There will be trucks with soldiers on the roads on the way - you want to avoid having to fight them since it will eat into your timer.

When you reach the village you need to take out the initial attacking force, and then their reinforcements. Once they are defeated you must rescue the little girl - who is in a burning building. You need to climb up around back, go in through the window, drop down to the ground floor from inside and rescue her!

Once you manage that, Amita takes the girl away, Sabal goes to deal with another crisis, and you end up being charged with rescue of the hostages that were taken at the Outpost!

Before you head off to deal with this mess you should hit the Safe House, restock ammunition, and make sure you have the right weapons - the ones you want to take. Sell any unneeded loot, and save the game.

Only then should you proceed to the marker on the map!

Rescue or Khilana Bazaar Outpost?

The location for the hostage rescue is the small compound in the mountains, and the Outpost is in the Bazaar - and as you have not yet been there you cannot Fast Travel to it yet. In case you are not aware, in addition to being Fast Travel destinations, Outposts also offer Trading Post privileges, and can offer missions and quests.

Since we seem to be closer to Sabal in terms of outlook, our first task is to make our way to the compound and free the hostages. Once we do that Amita yells at us, and then we decide to take out the Outpost next!

Because yeah, that is how we roll!

On to the Outpost

The Outposts are rating in difficulty based on the number of Alarms present - the one we are going to now is rated Easy as it only has one (1) Alarm. It would be an idea to disable that Alarm as soon as you can...

FYI if you died previously (I did) this is the location of the second Safe House - as it functioned in that capacity until this mission altered its presence on the map. As you can see by the map this is the Outpost that sits on the road out of the valley we are now in. So taking and controlling it is strategically crucial, as otherwise the valley is pretty much sealed off.

The easiest way to deal with this is to simply sneak around the side, take out the guard on the side of the building, then sneak around and disable the alarm on the far said that is revealed to the guards. Once you actually disable the alarm it really doesn't matter if you are discovered,

Just run into the bushes and kill any guards that follow. As soon as the rest of them start shooting the Elephant outside of the gates goes nuts and starts to kill the soldiers - just wait for it to do its thing and the Outpost will unlock - along with the Achievement Tread Lightly (20G) Liberate any Outpost without triggering an alarm in any mode (Campaign Only).

Once you do that you get a CS with Amita, and then you unlock the Achievement Welcome to Kyrat (20G) Join the Golden Path (Campaign Only).

That wraps up Act I - and well done mates! You have now secured the Outpost and with it the route in and out of the valley.

Post Mission Resolution

Before we begin to dig into the content for Act II, which is the Act in which we liberate Kyrat (Act III is largely taken up with deposing Pagan Min), we need to head to the Safe House in the Outpost, to wrap things up and take stock of our situation.

First, we need to hit the Trading Cabinet and get rid of unwanted loot, restock our ammunition, and check to see that we have the weapon load-out we want now that we are not needing to be configured to take out an Outpost!

When we activated the Trading Post Cabinet we unlocked the Shotgun we took from one of the soldiers:

-- M133 Combat Shotgun

For us our default weapon Load-Out is:

1. A.J.M. 9 Auto-Pistol (Silencer + Extended Mag)

2. Hunter Bow

3. STG-90 Assault Rifle (Red Dot Sight + Extended Magazine)

Basically the above load-out provides the following benefits:

-- The A.J.M. 9 provides a discrete but powerful sound-suppressed weapon;

-- The STG-90 (the game version of the SIG-550) that provides accurate killing force;

-- The Hunting Bow provides the ability to take down resource Animals without damaging their pelts / skins / hides, which is totally worth the extra effort.

Status: Personal Kit & Upgrades

An assessment of our current Kit Standing - and yours should be a pretty close match if you have been following this guide - is as follows:

01. Weapon Holsters: Upgraded to Level 2 (1 Upgrade Left)

The next (and in this case the final) Weapon Holster Upgrade requires three (3) Honey Badger Skins (of which we only need 2 as we have one already). Obtaining this upgrade will thus permit us to carry our primary weapon and three additional weapons of our choosing!

02. Wallet: Upgraded to Level 3 (1 Upgrade Left)

While the case can be made that once you reach Level 3 of the upgrade path for this resource management kit item the fact that you can now carry $3M is pretty adequate - but hey, upgrading this to allow you to carry $5M is even more adequate - just saying. The next (and final) upgrade for this piece of kit requires us to obtain the Mad Devil's Skin, which is a Rare Skin that can only be obtained via the special quest associated with this upgrade.

03. Loot Bag: Upgraded to Level 3 (1 Upgrade Left)

At this point and at this upgrade level our Loot Bag can contain 120 items. The next (and final) upgrade will allow it to contain up to 150 Items - and how about that? The final upgrade requires us to complete a special quest that is associated with this upgrade in order to obtain the Ghost Bear's Skin.

04. Syringe Kit: Upgraded to Level 3 (1 Upgrade Left)

The Syringe Kit is perhaps among the more important of the resource containers in our personal kit - and at this point we have reached the final upgrade, which requires us to complete a special quest that is associated with this upgrade, in order to obtain the very rare Sky Tiger Skin. At the present upgrade level we are able to carry up to six (6) Syringes for each type. Following the final special upgrade that number jumps to eight (8) syringes of all types.

05. Bait Bag: Upgraded to Level 1 (3 Upgrades Left)

This container has only received its first upgrade and requires three additional upgrades to complete it. At the present time it can contain three (3) pieces of Bait Meat, and its next upgrade requires three (3) Yak Skins - in fact that is why we did not upgrade this more - we could not find the Yaks!

06. Ammo Bag: Upgraded to Level 2 (2 Upgrades Left)

This container holds the ammunition for our sidearms, SMGs, LMGs, Shotguns, and Rifles. Its next upgrade requites four (4) Clouded Leopard Skins - which we were not able to find in the valley but which we trust will be available outside of it in pleasant numbers.

07. Throwables Bag: Upgraded to Level 0 (4 Upgrades Left)

This one we could not upgrade at all - due to the lack of Yaks. With any luck that situation will change dramatically once we get outside of the valley!

08. Explosives Bag: Upgraded to Level 1 (3 Upgrades Left)

While we managed the first upgrade, the other three eluded us. The next upgrade requires three (3) Snow Leopard Skins (we were only ever able to find ONE in our Valley).

09. Heavy Ammo Bag: Upgraded to Level 0 (4 Upgrade Left)

This was another container whose resource - Bengal Tiger Skins - simply were not available in our valley.

10. Quiver: Upgraded to Level 1 (3 Upgrades Left)

While the Pig required for the first upgrade was easy enough to find, the Clouded Leopard not so much, which is a pity because the value and the importance of carrying a large supply of arrows simply cannot be over-stressed!

That said, at least we have a solid idea for what our aims should be to continue the upgrades process from here on.

Status: Character Stats

This is clearly a very personal set of choices, but FYI the choices that we made were as follows:

The Tiger Stats

The Tiger Stats are largely the Offensive Side of Character Development...

1. Moving Target - Aim and fire any sidearm while moving a body.

The Elephant Stats

The Elephant is the Defensive-Side...

1. Capable Strength - Gain an additional health slot, for 3 in total.

2. Forceful Strength - Gain an additional health slot, for 4 in total.

3. Healing Syringe LV2 - Healing Syringes will restore 4 slots of health.

4. Inner Strength - Partially drained health bars will regenerate much faster.

5. Harvester - You are skilled enough to take twice as many leaves from each plant you harvest.

6. Hunting Syringe - This syringe highlights enemies and Animals. Lasts 30 seconds.

Of the choice above there are two - Harvester and Hunting Syringe - that are worth emphasis and, we do hope, are ones you chose for yourself...

For Harvester basically what it translates to is this: whenever you harvest ANY Green Plant you automatically craft a Healing Syringe. That is so worth it.

Hunting Syringe - This not only helps you find Animals for resource hunting it reveals concealed enemies, which totally makes it worth spending those stat points on!

Character Status Conclusion

This nicely wraps up our End of Act Debriefing, underlining the status of our character and highlighting the choices that we made, and our reasons for making them.

You will find as you review our decisions that they were each made logically, and for good reason. You may find that this can help guide you in making your own decisions in terms of upgrading your character and their kit, as well as load-out, stats, and abilities.

The irony here is that Act I has now completed with a tiny fraction of the world in our game revealed. So much is packed into Act II that it really should be multiple Acts of its own, but that is not how the wizards behind Far Cry 4 chose to organize the story...

Still, considering the effort that went into Crafting this story, and its telling, we believe that it behooves us to make the most of each element as we can - and we do! We hope that you will too...

Note that at the time that we completed Act I, we had 4H 46M of game play time invested, for a total of 7.11% Game Completion. Whew!