Far Cry New Dawn‘s postapocalyptic setting understandably contributes to its central mechanics. Yes, it’s still a first-person open world shooter with lots of explosions. But to get the most out of the action, you must find the pieces that add up to create it.
New Dawn revolves around crafting, from upgrading facilities at camp to snapping together new weapons to making a motorcycle with sidecar for you and Timber (a good boy). We’ve put together a crafting guide to help you find and best utilize the materials scattered across Hope County.
Core crafting materials
For beginners, the variety of craftable materials and where to find them might seem overwhelming at first. Here’s a list of the core crafting materials in Far Cry New Dawn, along with where you’re likely to find them.
- Ethanol: Upgrades facilities in Prosperity – liberating outposts, looting supply drops, and stealing tankers
- Duct Tape: Crafts weapons and vehicles – at marked locations, treasure hunts, expeditions, and by trading animal skins/fish
- Components: Crafts weapons and vehicles – at marked locations, treasure hunts, expeditions, and by trading animal skins/fish
- Gear: Crafts weapons – at marked locations, treasure hunts, expeditions, and by trading animal skins
- Spring: Crafts vehicles – at marked locations, treasure hunts, expeditions, and by trading animal skins/fish
- Titanium: Crafts weapons and vehicles – expeditions, loot enemy trucks, safes, animal skins
- Circuit Board: Crafts weapons and vehicles – expeditions, trade animal skins
- Carbon Fiber: Crafts weapons and vehicles -liberating outposts, trading animal skins
- Copper: Crafts ammunition and consumables – in containers (the big yellow ones), looting enemies, trading animal skins/fish
- Blasting Cap: Crafts molotovs, dynamite, pipe bombs, proximity mines, and smoke grenades – in containers (the big yellow ones), looting enemies, trading animal skins/fish
- Black Powder: Crafts explosives and smoke grenades – in containers (the big yellow ones), looting enemies, trading animal skins/fish
- Solvent: Crafts molotovs and heals guns for hire – in containers (the big yellow ones), looting enemies, trading animal skins/fish
- Yucca: Heals guns for hire – in forestry
- Bougainvillea: Heals guns for hire and crafts medkits – by lakes and in riverbeds
- Cistanche: Crafts medkits – in caves and alongside roads
- Meat: Crafts bait, medkits and heals Fangs for Hire – loot animals
Each item you craft requires at least two different materials, though weapons and vehicles typically need four materials. Everything is different, but you can check each facility to see the materials and how many of each you need to craft what you desire.
Treasure hunts are so worth it
Treasure hunts, marked by the diamond symbol on the map, are one of the best sources of materials. You can find these hunts organically by speaking with fellow resistance fighters in the open world. Once you find a new hunt, do not neglect it.
Each hunt requires you to take out a small group of baddies and then find a way into the locked treasure room. They don’t take very long, but once you get in the room, you’ll be rewarded with a trove of varied materials used for crafting weapons and vehicles. Each treasure location also contains 45 Far Cry credits which can be put towards buying weapons outright (Far Cry credits are standardly bought with real money).
Upgrade Cartography facility and buy maps
In terms of finding loot, the Cartography facility in Prosperity is the most important facility to upgrade with ethanol. At level one, you can buy maps showing locations of gears, springs, and various animals. At level two, you can buy a map that shows treasure hunt locations. And at level three, you can buy a map that reveals monstrous animals locations — elite animals that can be traded for quality loot. Maps cost ethanol, but not a lot of it. Trust us, it’s worth the price.
Sometimes walking helps
Sure, driving and fast travel are a much quicker means for getting to your next location, but in the pursuit of loot, walking can be helpful. Rather than follow the winding dirt roads, duck into the woods and see what you can find. Chances are you’ll stumble unmarked enemy areas with loot. This is also a good opportunity to pick up the herbs needed to craft medkits and heal guns for fire.
Locations, locations, locations
After unlocking the locations on the map, you can fast travel to these spots for a quick way to earn specific loot. Running low on duct tape? No problem. The areas marked with the duct tape icon are filled with it. You’ll have to search the area when you arrive, but it never takes more than a few minutes to raid the spot of its precious materials.
Hunt and fish
Hunting and fishing are great ways to get specific loot, too. Check the workbench to see what each animal trades for. All of them give you X number of a certain material — every time. When you see animals out there in the open world, kill and loot them. Next time you return to your workbench, you can swap their skins for sizable returns.
For fishing, you’ll first need to buy the Fishing Rod perk. Fishing is also a relaxing activity, if you need to unwind after blowing a bunch of Highwaymen to smithereens.
What should you spend materials on?
Materials aren’t necessarily in short supply, but if you don’t want to spend hours off the beaten path, you may want to think about the best way to allocate what you already have.
We recommend upgrading your workbench to level three as soon as possible. This is done by feeding it ethanol earned mainly from liberating outposts (always scavenge liberated outposts!). The sooner you get rank three and rank four weapons, the better.
Here’s the thing, there’s a fair amount of material crossover between weapons and vehicles. You absolutely do not need rank three or elite vehicles, even though they do look cooler. Instead, we really think it’s smart to allocate the brunt of the shared materials to creating several rank three or elite weapons for the late game missions, where things get pretty darn tough. With the Heavily Armed perk, you can carry three long weapons (shotguns, SMGs, Saw Launcher, sniper rifles, etc) and one pistol. Fill those slots with high-rank weapons first and then spend as frivolously as you want.
Search mission areas and outposts
After you finish a mission or clear out an outpost, don’t forget to check the area for materials. All outposts have materials chilling on tables and the like, and plenty also have a safe. Story mission areas are also great spots for picking up useful materials. Obviously focus on the main objective first, but then take a look around.
Unlock Repair Torch and Lock Picking perks
Most perks in Far Cry New Dawn don’t relate to crafting, but two of them will help you get one of the rarest materials: Titanium. Repair Torch and Lock Picking perks both allow you to open safes, while Lock Picking also lets you open locked doors where materials typically reside. Most of the safes we found in New Dawn — usually located inside enemy buildings — contained Titanium. This is important because Titanium is needed to craft certain weapons and vehicles and it’s in shorter supply than other materials.
Go on and return to expeditions
Expeditions, like treasure hunts, are great opportunities for materials. Each of the seven expeditions can be completed three times (they get harder with each run). You can check your Journal to see the rewards for each expedition. You’ll typically earn a handful of different materials for completing an expedition (and a lot of them at that).
These heist-style missions take around ten to twenty minutes to complete. At the end, you’ll be rewarded handsomely for your good work. The best rewards come from the higher ranked expeditions, so you do have to replay the same mission if you want huge helpings of loot.
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