Far Cry 3 Survival Mode: A Guide to Survive

As I explained in my previous post, 'Survival Mode' is not a feature which the game supports, but just a rule not to continue the game once you die, but to restart from the beginning. This simple rule makes the game one of the hardest, exciting and painful survival game. My previous post: Far Cry 3 Survival Mode: Best wilderness/island survival game with guns.

This article is a guide for you to survive a little longer in the harsh environment.

You need to keep quiet.
If you shoot at an animal or an enemy, the gun sound brings other enemies, which is very bad for your well-being. In some cases, you can use your machete, but eventually, you'll need silenced guns or a bow. If you installed Ziggy's mod as I recommended, you don't own an assault rifle, meaning you can't attach modifications on a gun, even if you are holding one.

A bow
You can get a bow after clearing the outpost, south of the main village. The Path of the Hunter mission there gives you a great re-curved bow. You can reuse arrows if you can recover them, and a bow looks very cool for a survivor in a tropical island. However, after I saw myself dying on the ground with the fancy bow for several times, I thought I need stronger and easier-to-use guns.

A handgun with a silencer
You own 1911 handgun from the beginning. You can attach a silencer with about 600 dollars, which can be earned by killing a few tigers and crocodiles. And with a few hundred more dollars, red dot sight and extended magazine are also very handy. This upgraded handgun is very effective for killing animals safely and earning more money as long as you don't get greedy and show yourself in front of enemies.

Crocodile: island survivor's best merchandise

Crocodiles can be found by looking for lily pads on the surface of the water, which spawns randomly throughout rivers. It sells at more than a hundred dollars. While you go hunting trip through rivers, try to catch tigers as well.

Outposts
When you think you are ready, you can try to invade outposts. Well, good luck. I'm not very good at it. With Ziggy's mod, you can't tag enemies with the scope, so it is so easy for things to go wrong and die. You need to scout enemy base thoroughly and plan ahead, like Robinson Crusoe did for several years before he finally decides to attack carnivals.

Sniper rifles taken from enemies

After I died for several hundred times, I'm trying a different strategy. No hunting animals to earn money, no bags upgrades. I just jump into the easiest outpost and clear it. Then I grab a sniper rifle there, which, of course, with no silencer but it comes with a scope. Then I go to a next outpost and start shooting with the sniper rifle far from the outpost. After I kill all of them, I approach the outpost and I can acquire the outpost with 'Undetected' experience bonus. After clearing several outposts, the area is safe with no enemy patrolling, meaning I don't have to be quiet when I hunt there.

Far Cry 3 Survival Mode: Best wilderness/island survival game with guns

Have you ever dreamed of crashing in a tropical island, and you find foods and live there? I do, a lot. If you have a PC, you can play The Forest or Stranded II or some other survival games, but you may want to have guns and see more various wild animals. Far Cry 3 can be that survival game and it has one of the best graphics.

This, my suggestion of 'survival mode' doesn't need any mod files or special add-ons. Simply, it is not to load a previous game when you die. If you die, that's it, you're dead. If you want to play it again, you start a game from the beginning. Of course, you don't start an actual new game, but you load a fresh-start save file which will be explained later in this article. This simple 'permanent death' rule changes everything in the game.

You will know how dangerous it is to kill a small pack of dogs even if you have a gun, and how easy it is to die. You think you can shoot down 2 enemies but your gun sound brings another enemy and you die. You will die and start over several times in the first hour. Was this game this hard? You will feel deep frustration, anger, and even agony to lose all your belongings and start again. How dumb I am to do the exact same mistake over and over, and expect somehow not to fall this time?

If you keep dying and trying again, meaning if you can bear the pain, you will understand that no great guns can save you from death, but your complete, utter concentration at the moment can keep you safe, and... still, you die again. You understand any money or high level of skills are all meaningless when you die. And you may understand that completing goals in your mind is not important, but the journey itself, the ground you are standing, the view of the island you are seeing, the 'now' is meaningful. You are there, totally. It is near impossible to achieve any big goals anyway.

Try it for yourself.

And here is how to prepare fresh-start save file. First, start a new game, watch the prologue scene, and complete the tutorial mission. And save the game, and exit it. If you play it via Steam, your save file will be in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\savegames\a54e9b95-1446-443f-8323-17743de6fcc4\46
In the folder, '1.save' is the save file if you selected '1' as your save game slot. FYI, '5.save' is the auto-save file. Make a copy of '1.save' for later use (make a backup). When you die in the game, quit the game and re-start the game and load '1'. If '1' save file is changed for any reason, you can delete it and copy from your backup file.

And I recommend Ziggy's mod, which gives you more immersion, challenge, and freedom. In Google, search for 'Ziggy's mod Far Cry 3', which will direct you to Nexus mods web page.

My related post: Far Cry 3 Survival Mode: A Guide to Survive