Today marks the release of Far Cry 6, a game that I did not finish, and yet I have put a lot more time into it than most people just starting out today. I will rant about Ubisoft’s too-big open worlds another time, and focus on the actual game for today, including some advice I can give to players just starting out.

Here are five things I wish I knew when I started Far Cry 6.

1. Ammo Types Are The Entire Basis Of Combat Now

I do not like this Wolfenstein Youngblood-inspired system, but you will have to deal with it. There are now two types of ammo, soft-target and armor-piercing. This applies to both you and enemies, and you will need to keep track of both for offense and defense.

In short, you are always going to want to have at least one of each ammo type in your collection. My loadout usually looked like: soft-target ammo gun, armor-piercing ammo gun, fire-rounds ammo gun (which one-shots poison spewing enemies) and special weapon, probably something good against vehicles (helicopters spawn pretty much every fight).

This is true for defense too. If you are going in guns blazing, you need to keep track of what most enemies will be using against you in combat in a given zone. There are different armor sets found in chests that are resistant to either soft-target or armor-piercing rounds, and they make a massive difference. The game will tell you which ammo type you are killed by if you die, so make sure to switch to that type of defense for a second try.

2. You Will Have To Resummon Your Pets A Lot

Pets are nothing new in the Far Cry series, and yet in this game, pets are not exactly the greatest at sticking with you. This is not necessarily because they die in combat, but because they just sort of lose track of where you are and disappear frequently as you move from zone to zone.

If you care about actually using your pets in combat, you probably are going to have to go into the “Amigo” menu and respawn your alligator or tiny dachshund or whoever you want with you manually before most fights. You simply move around too fast for them to actually keep up with you most of the time.

3. Focus On Guerilla Fighter Upgrades

There is a new camp system where you can build up different facilities in your rebel base, and it can be hard to know what you should actually be choosing.

For my money investing in the (admittedly expensive) Guerilla forces upgrades are worth it, as it will equip all friendly NPCs on the map with much better fighting abilities and weapons and they will frequently be a boon to you in combat as a result. For my money (well, gasoline and metal) I found this to be the most worthwhile investment.

4. Farm Chests At All Costs

Every time you seen an exclamation mark on the map, talk to that person. Many will give you chest locations, which are easily the most important things in the game. Many chests are simply hidden in the landscape and give you important materials, but others are deep in enemy bases. The good news? Even these chests can be farmed without necessarily needing to clear the whole base. If you get a chest and die, you still retain what you got from that chest and will not have to get it again. The catch is that some of these will be locked behind keycards that enemies have, but they’re worth it. There is no better source of upgrades in the game than all these chests.

Side note: The materials you spend on upgrades for weapons permanently upgrade all types of that weapon. So for instance, a scope you spend resources on for your sniper rifle will then be unlocked for all sniper rifles as an option, so don’t be stingy.

5. The Fastest Way To Get Around

Two quick things here. Another camp upgrade besides the Guerilla fighters is one that spawns fast travel points around the map, which is useful.

But perhaps more importantly, one of the first armor sets you get when the game starts is a parkour set that dramatically upgrades your stamina and move speed. Wearing this set is far and away the best and fastest way to get around the map if you ask me. Cars are limited by roads. Helicopters and planes don’t let you stop to get chests or resources if you pass by them, and can be shot down by AA guns. But the parkour set combines speed with flexibility. Just make sure you switch it out before you get into an actual gunfight, or you will get shredded.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series, and The Earthborn Trilogy, which is also on audiobook.