Far Cry 5 has topped the UK chart with monster sales, earning the series its biggest ever launch in the UK.
Ubisoft shifted considerably more copies during its debut week than fellow recent releases Assassin's Creed Origins and Ghost Recon Wildlands - which themselves sold well.
It's especially impressive for Far Cry 5 as it launched in March - compared to the busier November launch windows of Far Cry 3 and 4.
Heading off the beaten path to track down Hope County’s many Prepper Stashes in Far Cry 5 is a profitable business. Each stash presents a short puzzle and a note hinting at how to get your hands on the goods, with the payoff lining your pockets with piles of cash and a set of perk magazines to unlock additional character bonuses. Three stashes in particular award a special vehicle for your efforts, and their custom looks easily complement any completionist’s garage. Make sure you stop by these three stashes as you search for silver bars or go after the Magnopulser, as they only take a few minutes to complete and are well worth the side trip.
Location: Holland Valley - Sunrise ThreshingReward: 2012 Kimberlite TCZ Custom Paint
The note for this Prepper Stash sits in plain sight at Sunrise Threshing southeast of Fall’s End. It’s a straightforward journey by car or foot, but keep aware of cult traffic on the road if you haven’t liberated the region yet. You’ll likely have to clear out a sniper and a couple gunmen around the farm. Read the note resting beside a stack of metal girders and a sleepy gentleman catching a lazy afternoon sun, nothing to see here.
Climb the red-roofed shed near the smoking pickup truck’s front. Hop across both adjacent silos so you can take the zip line across to the fenced garage. Make sure to drop into the enclosed yard from the roof you land on, otherwise you’ll have to clamber back to the zipline again if you take an early tumble.
Shoot the padlock off the yard’s wooden gate. Grab the weatherbeaten truck sitting just outside and reverse it into the yard so it connects to the small cart. Pull forward to uncover the hatch the cart was resting on. You don’t have to fully remove the cart to expose the hatch, so don’t worry if it doesn’t come cleanly out of the yard.
Descend into a small underground bunker. Climb the far ladder to at last reach the garage interior and your new steel warhorse. Be sure to grab the perk magazines and cash piles closeby before thundering away in the swank custom 2012 Kimberlite TCZ truck you’ve just unlocked. Watch the paint; that ‘Murican decal looks tough to stick on without ripping.
Location: Whitetail Mountains - Lansdowne AirstripReward: “Pack Hunter” Plane
You can find the Lansdowne Airstrip northeast of the F.A.N.G. Center in the Whitetail Mountains.
The note sitting atop the blue tool cart near the hangar’s sealed door describes some embarrassing technical difficulties but also clues you in to a rooftop entrance. There’s no ladder for a quick solution, but luckily, getting airborne in Far Cry 5 is just as easy as taming a bear with fast food.
Pick your mode of aerial insertion. If you have the Airdrop perk unlocked, you can simply fast travel to the airstrip and parachute onto the roof. Or use the Grapple perk to climb the radar tower to the south and wingsuit onto the hangar like the majestic sugar glider you are. If you’re fat with cash, zip over to the helipad in the hills to the southeast (it’s near the Haskell Lookout Tower) and purchase some rotors to arrive on the hangar roof in comfortable style.
Drop down the skylight, and you’ll likely thunk onto the wing of your crimson prize. Be sure to pick up the hunting magazine and Cheeseburger bobblehead from the nearby table and shelves. Check near the plane’s tail for perk magazines, ammo, and crafting materials. Head to the small office area at the hangar’s far end for a desk topped with bundles of cash. Finally, hit the switch in the hangar’s northwest corner to open the skies to your new wings.
Bullets, bombs, rockets, and a sweet paint job. If you’re playing with a buddy or bringing along a two-legged companion, they can ride gunner in the backseat.
Location: Henbane River - McCallough’s GarageReward: 1973 Pygmalion SSR
Find McCallough’s Garage in the southeast section of the Henbane River region, a short northeast drive up the road from the Nolan’s Fly Shop outpost. Be cautious, as some cultists might be hanging around the garage.
Head inside the garage’s office to spot the stash note beside a cash register. Tear your gaze away from the hot wheels taunting you beyond the barred windows and exit the office through the backdoor. Look left and shoot the planks to open up an access into the garage bay. Head inside and hit the garage door opener. The car will roll off its perch and free up enough space for you to squeeze inside.
Return outside and around to the garage’s front, where you can shoulder past the rack and boxes to a crate-filled room. Turn left, hop up on the crates, and turn right to crouch underneath a workbench. Fend off the wolverine assassin, and snag the key card from the toilet. You can backtrack through the crates, but look up for a quicker exit via the skylight. Hop onto the two stacked crates adjacent to the restroom and shoot the skylight’s padlock.
Drop down and return to the garage office, swiping your keycard on the locked double doors. Grab the cash, perk magazines, and other usual stash items before claiming the slick 1973 Pygmalion SSR. It’s an unspoken rule to first don the accompanying “Getaway” sunglasses in the customization menu before even turning the key on this baby.
If you need a break from shooting cultists in the face in Hope County, consider shooting cultists in the face within the pages of custom maps hosted in Far Cry 5’s Arcade mode. In less than a week since launch, aspiring and experienced creators alike have taken to the Arcade’s editing tools and pumped out hundreds of maps stretched across dozens of themes such as a John Wick home invasion, a hole in the ground, or a Legend of Zelda adventure. Take a look at some of our favorite maps released so far collected here. You can access them by either clicking the download link (you’ll need to log in to your Ubisoft account first) or searching for them in the Arcade.
Author: SilverishType: Assault
“Less is more” is a typical tenet in horror, and Silverish’s take on a spooky Assault map satisfies that principle with little more than a shadowy forest, flickering lamplight, and one angry moose. It’s easy to get turned around among the trees, the stormy atmosphere and subdued lighting injecting the pressing paranoia of an axe murderer hiding behind the next trunk. It’s when you finally stumble upon your home that the map falters somewhat, diluting the experience into a zombie rush finale that has you orbit your cabin until the kill goal is met. Still, this is a great way to spend five minutes.
Author: NikoWZRDType: Journey
What begins as an unarmed escape from a madman’s isolated cabin eventually turns into a Dante-style journey through an underground stronghold. NikoWZRD smoothly connects each section with natural transitions hinting at a higher mastery of the map editing tools. The pressure builds from scarce ammo and disabled health regeneration, leading to intense dives behind cover and a faceoff against a heavy gunner who would normally be a trivial nuisance back in Hope County. For that fugitive effect, skip the car in the last section and flee on foot with shots ringing behind you.
Author: Gypo1428Type: Bounty Hunt
Homage maps were peppering the Arcade even before Far Cry 5 turned 24 hours old, and they picked up press for their attention to detail in faithfully recreating a piece of nostalgia. Gypo1428’s Facility hearkens to the second level of the Nintendo 64’s legendary GoldenEye 007, complete with correct enemy spawn locations and crappy wall textures we all fondly considered the future of graphics in 1997. It’s obviously missing the smaller touches of brilliance—there’s nothing like karate chopping Alec Trevelyan’s stupid face before blowing up the final gas tanks—but it’s a treat to walk around the bones of an FPS classic.
Author: UbisoftType: Journey
Ubisoft kicked things off in the Arcade with a set of sample maps showcasing the capabilities of Far Cry 5’s map-making tools, and some of them are actually quite good. The Drift leans a little too heavily on the “intangible otherworld” style, but the low-grav movement and jumping sequences help break up the linearity between start and finish. I still can’t figure out The Drift’s theme—a dying astronaut’s last dream? The result of eating too many Warheads?—but hey, at least it’s anchored by plenty of exploding barrels.
Author: chacko123Type: Assault
Ripped right out of a Mortal Kombat level select screen (or maybe Lara Croft’s walk-in closet), Arena Master is chacko123’s challenge to players who yawn at whatever Montana throws at them. The cluttered environment detail bestows plenty of natural cover, and I particularly enjoyed the extra touch of sunlight beaming from far above. Enemies come at you wave-style, eventually toughening up to a faceoff against a couple boss characters and a swarm of elite cultists. The setup is surprisingly effective at teaching shooter fundamentals of repositioning and finding targets quickly, especially if you grab a buddy and communicate.
Author: FreeClupacType: Assault
Lazy. Dumb. Waste. Skip. FreeClupac’s barebones map of a pile of weapons, a hole in the floor, and a gaggle of goons would probably earn those words if it had a comments section, but I’m sticking it here because it very well might be the most symbolic map of the lot. Fledgling designers often start with little more than a basic structure and a set of enemies for testing, and a hole in the floor has by and large become the “hello world” of level design. But it’s perfect for a few cheap laughs and plenty minutes of fun tormenting the poor souls in the pit with whatever implement of destruction you choose.
Author: Sundic_OuffType: Outpost
The Arcade’s many outpost maps are hard-pressed to stand out from each other, largely because they ape the same base assault formula from the main game—get in, shoot enemies wandering outside buildings, and get out. Sundic_Ouff’s outpost earns bonus points for trying something different, attaching a Journey-style walk through an immolated town before throwing you up against Joseph Seed’s heavily guarded chapel. The ashy skies and ruddy colors shorten sightlines to prevent much sniping, and enemy placements make it tough to stay hidden without raising the alarm.
Author: rat_trash.Type: Outpost
A seemingly generic cluster of buildings belie this take on a challenging stealth run. Alarm panels festoon this outpost’s layout, and successfully ghosting all the enemies turns particularly tough due to the ease of calling in reinforcements and rat_trash.’s clever touch of setting everyone on heightened alert from the start to randomize walk patterns. The surrounding foliage isn’t safe either, as snipers and bowmen pop up from behind trees to punish flank attempts. Can you beat my failure record of less than a minute?
Author: UbisoftType: Journey
Like most Journey maps, Upside Down’s objective is to press W until you win. That leaves your eyes free to roam around the starting house interior, and you’ll notice subtle but escalating changes as you plod ever forward. The map’s shifting orientations and steadily increasing creepiness reminds of sanity-bending sequences from Amnesia or Layers of Fear, including creepy faces in the walls and a strange fascination with goats.
Author: UbisoftType: Journey
As the most played map since Arcade’s launch, Safe Haven doesn’t wow with unconventional design or oddball direction. It’s simply solid. The post-apocalyptic vibe of dilapidated buildings and claustrophobic junk make for a diverse arena, setting up pockets of action for close-up takedowns and long-distance snipes, before ending in a stealthy shantytown evasion from hunters sporting a mounted technical gun. The vibe of urban decay and skyscrapers stretching far above your elevation gives off a great throwback to Gordon Freeman’s flight from City 17 in Half-Life 2, and it’s a good first pick for whetting your appetite on what the Arcade has to offer.
Far Cry 5, Ubisoft's open world action game, has a few different endings. You can see all of Far Cry 5's endings below. Obviously, there are massive, massive spoilers for the ending of the game below.
The first Far Cry 5 ending can come within the first few minutes of the beginning. While preparing to arrest Joseph Seed, you can instead choose to do nothing. Here's what happens in that secret Far Cry 5 ending:
VIDEO: Far Cry 5's early secret ending, also available on YouTube
At the end of the game, once you've defeated Seed's family, you're given a choice: either fight Seed or walk away. Here's what happens if you decide to fight him, courtesy of Dan Allen on YouTube.
You can also choose not to fight Seed and just walk away, mirroring your choice at the beginning of the game. Here's what happens if you choose that path:
There are many reasons why Far Cry 5 has wormed its way into my cold heart far more than I’d ever expected, but foremost among them are its recruitable animal followers. Why have a crack-shot sniper or rocket-spewing airplane pilot watching your back, when you can have a tame bear and unnaturally loyal cougar by your side instead? Sure, there’s a cute dog, but screw that guy – Peaches the mountain lion and Cheesburger the grizzly are the best friends an anonymous law-enforcer on a one-person crusade to rid Montana of murderous cultists could have.
Meet George. He's a resident of Far Cry 5's Hope County and a former minor league baseball player. With his hometown in the grip of a murderous death cult, George is naturally deeply concerned about his missing baseball card collection, and asks you—the one person capable of defeating the thousands of lunatics engaging in bloodshed, kidnapping, and torture—to find it for him.
And I will, George, I will. In a minute. But first, how about we play a little ball? After all, you're standing in the batter's box at home plate on a baseball diamond, holding a baseball bat. You point out to left field from time to time, calling your shot like Babe Ruth (or Tom Berenger imitating Babe Ruth). You even put the bat on your shoulder and take some cuts while you're standing there.
And what's this? Sitting on the pitcher's mound is a baseball glove with a ball in it. Surely, Far Cry 5, which has not only given me my own baseball bat but the ability to throw everything from rocks to cans to grenades to shovels to hunks of meat, wants me to throw you a few pitches. Let's do that right now!
Only, I can't. I can't pick up the glove or the ball. I walk over them repeatedly, which is the time-honored way of picking things up in games. I punch and kick them, but unlike most objects in the game, they don't budge an inch. I know it won't work, but I set a remote explosive under them and attempt to blow them free of the earth. Nothing happens.
George is still standing in the batter's box, looking for all the world like he wants me to pitch one in. I can throw rocks—you can do that to distract guards—so I try that, zipping them in over the plate. George gets distracted and stops swinging to look around at what the noise might have been. It's becoming clear why he never went pro.
I try to time my rock-throwing with his swing, thinking maybe if he's already swinging and his bat connects with the rock it'll, I don't know, unlock the actual ball? Give me a hidden achievement? Clearly, I'm desperate here, because Ubisoft isn't exactly shy about telling you with prompts and icons exactly what you need to do in the game to accomplish whatever it is you want to do.
Well, I want to play baseball, so I try it anyway. Repeatedly. I don't think George's bat ever connects with the ball, but it's at least some dim facsimile of pitching.
Okay, then. I'll complete George's mission by collecting his nine baseball cards, and see if that changes anything. I visit a shop, buy a map they have that for some reason shows the location of each of the nine missing cards (kind of a weird retail item), and spend a night fast-traveling and helicoptering around the mountains, until I've got all of George's cards.
George is happy to have his precious collectibles back, and after a couple attacks by angry skunks, he returns to home plate and I once again wander around on the mound, trying to pick up the glove and ball. I still can't.
What else might work? I return to the shop and buy an aluminum baseball bat, along with hundreds of in-game dollars worth of skins, including a prestige skin, for both it and the wooden bat I already own. I try standing at the plate and swinging my bats, thinking maybe George will go out to the mound and pepper some pitches in. But he just remains at the plate, apart from when I accidentally hit him with one of my swings, at which point he attacks me. I punch him to the ground, revive him, and we're back where we started.
Desperate, I drive a truck onto the mound and fling cans through the broken windshield over the plate. Nothin'. I search the park for some kind of baseball sign-up sheet I can activate to alert the game to the fact that I want to play ball. I pitch hunks of meat, attracting bears and wolves which I then save George from. I angrily set a sign reading 'Welcome Baseball Fans" on fire with a molotov cocktail. I run the bases. I bash the glove and ball with my various bats. Apart from breaking a lot of wooden bats, nothing is accomplished. I even throw some of my bats over the plate.
Okay, I give up. If someone out there knows if and how you can play baseball in Far Cry 5, please let me know, because I feel like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, tearfully asking his ghost-daddy to play a game of catch, except in this version his dad is is like "Nah."
Players are searching for Bigfoot in Far Cry 5, but so far all Chris has found are wolves, bears and angry bison. Sonny Evans, the creator of the PUBG replay system nature documentary series, has thrown himself into the wilderness with an Attenborough-esque take on Hope County.
Here's the premier episode of Far Cry Geographic:
Having recorded similar tongue-in-cheek shorts in Battlefield 1, GTA 5 and Fortnite, Evans describes Far Cry 5's world as "gorgeous" and a "pleasure" to record in.
"You can easily get rid of all HUD and and there are sliders to decrease or increase FOV, if you zoom it right in you'll get that cinematic feel," he tells me of his process. "I did this all in the actual story mode, but if you really want to go all out you can create your own maps and sets in the creator mode. I fiddled around with it a little bit and it's actually perfect to create certain cinematics (you can place down buildings, shrubbery, NPC's and much more)."
In doing so, Evans makes the job look easier. But this is often far from the case.
"In story mode, it's quite hard because there are cultists who want you dead and of course the wildlife who aren't very reasonable either," adds Evans. "I've been pounced by cougars, mauled by bears and actually sprayed on by a skunk... near enough simultaneously while trying to get the perfect shot. It made it so much fun though—the unpredictability of the game is its strongest point in my opinion."
Perhaps Evans' next expedition will uncover sasquatch in flesh. Well, assuming that grizzly's recently bereaved family doesn't catch up with him first.
I've finished Far Cry 5's story missions—you can read my review here—but naturally there's still plenty to do in the open world of Hope County, Montana. While checking out a prepper stash in the northern region today, I found a cabin with a locked door and a note on it. A note mentioning a Sasquatch.
It wouldn't be a stretch for Ubisoft to have hidden Bigfoot in Far Cry 5: there was DLC for Far Cry 4 called Valley of the Yetis. And while I haven't found Far Cry 5's Bigfoot yet, I'll detail below what I have found. If you want to discover it all for yourself, consider this a spoiler warning.
The cabin I found is located in the Whitetail Mountains, directly west of Clagett Bay. If you can find Stone Ridge Chalet, and move west from there across the road, you'll find the cabin. Pinned to the locked door is a note that mentions finding 'proof of that squatch' and kicks off a prepper mission called 'Gone Squatchin.'
You're directed to follow the trail to the north to find Dicky, the owner of the cabin, and along the way there's blood. Lots of blood. Pools of blood. There's also some grappling points to scale up to the peak Dicky is on—I could have just taken my chopper but I was in a climbing mood. At the top, you'll find Dicky, sadly dead, the key to the cabin just inches from his outstretched hand, a dead deer that may have been dragged up the trail, and a small cave containing a few human skeletons.
There are a couple things here telling me this isn't the squatch's cave. First, it's tiny. I could barely squeeze in while crouching, and I guess I sort of always imagined that if Bigfoot did live in a cave it would be one with more headroom. And also, more stuff. Sasquatch stuff.
The other thing is a dead wolf is lying at the entrance to the cave. Now, possibly Bigfoot killed a deer, dragged it to the cave, killed a wolf, and killed Dicky. But I'm more likely to think that a wolf killed the deer and then attacked Dicky, and Dicky and the wolf were both mortally wounded. If there is a 'squatch in Far Cry 5, I don't think this cave is his home.
Returning to Dicky's cabin with his key, I found both his stash and his research on Bigfoot sightings in Hope County in the form of a giant map.
There's also a plaster cast of a Sasquatch footprint on the table:
The map does line up with your personal Hope County map, and you can see Dicky's map has a lot of notes on it: locations of Bigfoot sightings, news clippings, photos with red string leading to spots on the map, marks that seem to track Bigfoot's movements, locations of activity, question marks, and lots of Xs.
There are a number of spots to investigate, so I got in my chopper and flew to one marked with an asterisk, which also has a red string leading to it from a photo and a newsclipping about a sighting. I got to the spot, and while Bigfoot didn't rush out and greet me, it was hard to not notice it's the site of a small crop circle:
I landed nearby, got out, walked over, and was immediately attacked by a wolverine. Of course. Unsure of how one summons a Bigfoot to a crop circle, I threw some bait into the center of it, but that only summoned a bear. I tried a few more times in various spots, but only attracted more bears and wolverines. At one point I heard an explosion, but it was just a couple of angry bison who had apparently rammed my parked helicopter. Ah, Far Cry 5.
I visited another spot on the map (with a fresh chopper) where some Bigfoot footprints were supposedly once found, but didn't find anything of interest there.
That's the extent of my investigation so far, but I plan to keep looking for Bigfoot, and we're sure some of you will too. Reddit is on the case, naturally, so we can assume it won't be long until he's found. We'll update this post with any further clues or progress we come across.