5 Things You Absolutely Must Do in Far Cry 4

1. Ride an Elephant

A new mechanic introduced in Far Cry 4 is the player’s ability to ride and weaponize elephants. Once you’re seated atop one of these powerful animals, Ajay is practically invincible. You can charge towards enemy vehicles, ram them, and knock them over. Alternatively, you can get the elephant to toss an enemy soldier high up in the air with a flick of its trunk. Whichever you choose, elephants are a great means for taking down enemy soldiers and liberating outposts.

You can also use an elephant as a mode of transport to get around in Kyrat. If that’s a little too slow for your tastes, there are other vehicles available for you to choose from…

2. Fly Around in a Buzzer

Buzzer, gyrocopter, whatever you want to call it. This little flying vehicle is hands down the best way to get around in Kyrat. Though there’s a limit to how high you can go before the buzzer starts beeping and going crazy, nothing beats the feeling of flying over the tall mountains and structures and getting away from the chaos for a little while.

Once you’re tired of flying around, why not take a leap of faith? Hop off the buzzer while it’s airborne and open up your wingsuit to land safely on the ground once more. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, perform a takedown on an enemy soldier from the buzzer. This vehicle takes the idea of ‘death from above’ to a whole other level.

3. Do Yogi and Reggie’s Missions

Yogi and Reggie are tourists who are trapped in Kyrat after having their passports taken away by Pagan Min. When you first encounter them, they’ll be setting up shop in the Ghale homestead where they’ll offer Ajay a puff of whatever concoction they’ve cooked up that time. Yogi and Reggie are the junkies of Far Cry 4 and their missions will never fail to entertain. After taking a quick smoke and getting rudely jabbed by Yogi, Ajay will find himself in some area of Kyrat, stripped of all his equipment, and start seeing Kyrat in a whole new light. Literally.

These missions are worth doing just to see how beautiful the color palette changes are. Flying rocks, smoky human beings, and Kyrat in neon colors. What’s not to love?

4. Enter Shangri-La

After completing your first mission with Yogi and Reggie, mystic thangkas (or paintings) will start appearing on your map. Finding one of these will allow you to enter the mythical land of Shangri-La, where you take on the role of Kalinag and relive his journey and attempts to stop the Rakshasa from invading the paradise. Armed with a bow and arrow, and a spirit tiger by your side, the Shangri-La missions start off a little slow before quickly ascending into a heart-pounding climax when elephants and fire-breathing demons get thrown into the mix.

These segments are a welcome change of pace from the usual run-and-gun missions you see in Far Cry 4 and certainly help to add to the world’s intriguing lore.

5. Turn off the HUD

One of the major complaints for the console versions of Far Cry 3 was that players weren’t given the option to turn off the HUD and user interface. Thankfully, Ubisoft listened and you can now get rid of all that clutter on your screen by going to the options menu and turning everything off. It’ll be a little scary at first, considering that you’ll no longer have visual aids to let you know where the enemies are or how much health and ammo you’ve got left. But turning off the HUD is a wonderful way to truly lose yourself in Kyrat and experience it the way it was meant to be experienced.