Planted my first mine with "0". Did a base recap and was amply rewarded.

If you leave her alive, she appears to become a Yak rancher - you can find her in a camp by a meadow full of Yaks in the hills. So maybe she gets a fit of conscience or is just living quietly on her ill-gotten gains.

They're useful things when you can be arsed to use them. Like the fancy arrows & - to a lesser extent - the syringes.

I use them a lot in FC3, one of the first things I do is mine the roads leading into the base, then set off the alarm and wait for the fireworks.

I've tried planning my attack like that a fair few times, but either get too close and get detected or a sniper picks me up when I'm creeping around and then things 'escalate'.

I need to work on my sneaking skills.

It's easier if you plant them up the road and out of sight, but generally I find the enemies are oblivious to anything outside the walls until shit happens. Another way to do it is set mines for random passing patrol to get them all stirred up and distracted, get into the main building and shoot them from the windows. Note I have yet to try this in FC4.

That's just a front for her poppy farm.

Gonna try out a couple of weapon mods:

For arrows & bolts:
https://www.nexusmods.com/farcry4/mods/53

"Getting shot with a huge metal spike should kill things."

General firearms:
https://www.nexusmods.com/farcry4/mods/59

"Faster ADS, better hipfire spread, etc." (ADS = aiming down sights, apparently)
 

This looks pretty cool too:

https://www.nexusmods.com/farcry4/mods/26

"This mod removes all of the requirements and locks from weapons, attachments, signature weapons and skills. It also unlocks the North "

I've never modded FC4 - it never occurred to me. Whereas I've modded Skyrim to the nines, both in the flat and VR versions.

I'll probably start with the bow and crossbow mod while I carry on with some open world stuff, leftovers & base-recaps. I tried a few of the latter as one-offs, but they weren't very challenging, like they were undermanned, and the reinforcements were underwhelming. Might do the reset all bases option, that seemed to work better in FC3, at least with the Ziggy's mod on it.

Gotta remember to turn off the tagging and seeing through walls BS.

Still got some weapons and load-out testings ahead of me before I'm ready to tackle hard difficulty.

I might try the "unlock everything" one when I do another play-through (you still have to pay for weapons or 'win' free ones, and earn points for skills). I like the idea of going up North before anything's visible on the map, finding my way to and flying over that bridge in a buzzer when it's still bricked up then establishing a quick-travel beachhead on the other side.

I'll be intrigued to see if it lets you. I've got this feeling I tried (without a mod) and kept being respawned.

Yeah you definitely can't do it in the unmodded game.

Holy Fuck Batman, the Arrows n Bolts mod is totally worth it! It bestows the crossbow the range and accuracy of a sniper rifle (shame it doesn't support a proper scope). One shot kills, Heavies 4-5 shots. The bow is enhanced too, but not the fire arrows (AFAICT, but was trying from a crazy distance). The mod, and resetting bases (vs. the one-off "base commander" recaps) goes a long way to restoring the thrill of the game.

I started the play through again, but the realisation of how under powered you are at the start of the game is hitting home.

Is there a mod you've found to give all the animal skin upgrades from the off and make the weapons available to buy?

Yeah, here (I'll probably use it for my next playthru):

https://www.tehforum.co.uk/forum/index.php?webtag=DEFAULT&msg=42251.179

Although -- the arrows and bolts mod makes the bow so deadly it may get you through the early stages nicely (the bow is one of the first weapons you can acquire, from a pick up IIRC)

Thanks, I vaguely remember you mentioning it before, but didn't want to spend time going back through all the FC threads.

Slightly embarrassing it was only a handful of posts ago.  :-$

Can you mod and continue your current game or is a new game on the cards after applying the files?

you'd have to read up on the specific mod. Didn't have to for arrows and bolts, but I had already finished the FC4 game story and was into reset bases assuming that matters. The one I put on FC3, "Ziggy's Mod" can't remember for sure but I think it was same situation.

Started a new FC4 game on "hard" through the prologue, really noticed more and (I think) enjoyed it more, cleaned out the last enemy outpost near the tower with a leopard assist, killed and skinned the leopard, and looted the outpost too (first go I just sneaked past it all). I stuck with the arrows and bolts mod for this one, we'll see how that plays out.

Fuck me, FC:ND is good! Great, sweeping narrative, action, wit, cruelty. Maybe above all a compelling reason to take on side quests: some main quest set-pieces are so demanding that you have to ramp up before approaching them (they're flagged up, so there's plenty of warning).

Best FC ever, I think.

The over-weighting of bows is surely flagging up a native American focused FC6?