Far Cry 5 Combat Guide – Combat Styles, Throwables, Explosives, Mounted Weapons

Far Cry 5 Combat Guide to help you learn everything you need to know about Far Cry 5 Combat System, how it works, what are different options at your disposal, and how to utilize them to their full potential.

Fighting and combat mechanics in Far Cry 5 are important to your overall experience. Since there are threats including tough human foes, zombie thingies, and terrifying monster animals, you will need to stay sharp and know how to tackle these situations. Our Far Cry 5 Combat Guide highlights some play-styles and firearms you can choose to deal with these threats.

Far Cry 5 Combat

Be it Peggies (the cultists) or some drug-fueled zombified humans, or some wildlife predators; you need to be on your toes when it comes to handling them. Combat in the game works in a variety of ways.

These include approaching the game in a more offensive way using firearms and melee weapons. You can also go about the game in the stealth manner if you are the more patient type. Finally, you can stay away from land entirely by using vehicles to rain fire from above. Everything is up to you in Far Cry 5, so check out which style suits you best in combat!

Stealth

If you are like me, a big fan of the Metal Gear series, you would like to adopt stealth in most of your gameplay choices. This one should not be any different. Avoiding the line of sight of enemies and approaching them from behind will allow you to perform a silent takedown.

In case you are up to a silent crackdown on a cult outpost, beware the alarm towers. They might draw some uninvited guests to spoil your party. When an outpost is raided, the alarm is sounded which calls in the reinforcements, so be sure to disable them first. The alarms are usually located in the precincts of the main building and are not as hard to take out.

The good thing about this method is you save a lot on your ammo. Additionally, even heavily armored enemies can be taken out if you can approach them undetected. Later in the game, you can upgrade to ‘Takedown Mastery’ skill that allows you to take multiple targets silently at once. It also increases the distance from which you can perform a silent takedown.

Of course, it is highly possible that you suck at this part of the game. In that case, if you mess up, a black meter appears which continues to fill and become whiter as the suspicions of the enemy increases. This will eventually lead to the enemies become aware of you and so they will turn hostile and attack you. Well, make sure to avoid all of this if you want to go about stealthily.

Melee Combat

Yes, it is highly possible that you could be a fan of the previous installment of the Far Cry series, Far Cry: Primal. Here you use strong melee weapons for brutal and up-close combat with the enemy.

This is easily the most dangerous way to go about since you can be vulnerable against heavily armored enemies. However, you can aim for heads of the foes while using your melee weapons. The spiked bat is a good one! You can also unlock the ‘Close Combat Mastery’ skill to make your melee weapons more effective against opponents.

Firearms

This is the most common play-style that fans of any series go by. Since this is the safest method to adopt, you can choose from a variety of available weapon types in the game.

Each weapon comes with its own upgradeable perks to reduce reload time, increase ammo etc. Each weapon can be aimed for accuracy or fired from the hip to increase movement speed. Each weapon will suit a different play-style because of their varying accuracy, range, and fire-rate.

Shotguns, Pistols, and Flamethrowers fall under the short-range category. Though they may boost damage output, they exist for the closer and more personal combat. Blasting your enemies to pieces or burning them down to a crisp, it is personal all right!

For a safer or a medium range, you have rifles, sub-machine guns, machine guns, and bows. This is if you rely on accuracy more than damage output and you do not want to get in the face of the enemy. You can also choose to stay out of the enemy’s face entirely by firing from long-range. Weapons falling under this category include sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and grenade launchers. If used wisely, they can take out powerful enemies and vehicles.

Explosives and Throwables

As discussed above, launchers deal a great deal of damage when it comes to inflicting hits on vehicles and heavily armored weapons. Other explosives like C-4 can be planted and then detonated at will. They are usually used as traps for the enemy.

Other ones like the smoke bombs can be used to cover your position and remain hidden even in the face of the enemy. Remember two tips though: these explosives can damage you too if you get too close, and they come in limited supply so make sure to keep collecting materials required to craft them.

Baits are important to the type of fish you catch. Other than that, you can even attract foes affected by ‘Bliss’ using these same baits. This makes it easier to eliminate them. An interesting tactic that you can adopt is to throw bait near a predator when a cultist approaches, this way both the bait and the cultist will get torn apart.

In Throwables, you also have throwing knives. These come in handy in stealth too since you can easily take out an enemy by targeting these knives over their heads. This will eliminate them instantly.

Mortars and Mounted Weapons

Hope County has an abundance of mortars but these are more common near cult outposts. You need to be extra careful here since this weapon can deal a lot of damage. Once fired, you will see a flashing bomb icon on your screen meaning you need to clear the radius of the explosion and find cover.

You can alternatively, take out the operator of the motor. Firing the weapon, you need to be aware of the 2-second time delay from firing and the shot hitting the ground. Mounted weapons are particularly useful against ground-based vehicles, watercraft, and aircraft. They have infinite ammo but will overheat if used in quick succession. Conversely, take out any enemy gunners since they can be quite lethal behind these mounted weapons.

From the aircraft, you have access to powerful machine guns, missiles, and bombs for raining havoc from above. Clearing out vehicles, and large hordes of enemies were never easier. However, cultists carrying rocket launchers may spoil the party so those taking out those targets first should be your priority.

Binoculars

Not used to deal damage, but this often gets overlooked. Binoculars are crucial in the combat system of Far Cry 5 since they will tag them and will leave them marked with a red outline even when they are behind walls or in buildings.

This gives you a sense of hostile geography indicating the places you need to avoid and the ones you do not. This comes in as an advanced strategy and planning tactic to carry out before actually performing an assault be it stealthily or guns blazing. Got to look through those glasses every once in a while!

Moving on, following are some of the essential tips that might give you a head start and help you avoid some rookie mistakes.

Know your Maps
It is undoubtedly essential to know where you are headed and what way you need to use to be there. Moreover, to make sure you do not keep going around in circles, the confusingly alike terrains and puzzling mountain track can take you off. So be sure to periodically keep checking the map and mark your trail. Moreover, most importantly, be sure to tread fast to avoid unnecessary conflict.

Save Captive folks from Cultists
I know they can be annoying and a bit infuriating, but some of the might reveal hidden bounties, locations of stashed of weapon and cash and sometimes even offer side missions. Therefore, although it might seem to be a pain in the buttock, they might as well be a genie in the bottle for your in-game desires.

Keep Plundering and Scavenging
Imagine entering a swarmed cultist outpost for a fun time just to realize you are out of firepower, rookie mistake actually. Always make sure a take a scavenging trip to craft weapons before entering a full-scale combat. Scattered material and items plundered from the corpses of the enemies provide a wide range of menu to cook up for the guests.

Make a Pack
Teams and alliances are always useful for staying safe. The variety of strategies mentioned above, when used in a coordinated manner, can make you unbeatable. Therefore, a good player always travels in teams that comprise snipers, bow attacks, explosives, and locators.

This is all we have in our Far Cry 5 Combat Guide. If there is anything else that you would like to add, let us know in the comments section below!

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Ali is a passionate RPG gamer. He believes that western RPGs still have a lot to learn from JRPGs. He is editor-in-chief at SegmentNext.com but that doesn't stop him from writing about his favorite video ...