A Ranger In Far Cry 4 - Part Two: Elephant Fishing

I'm attempting to play Far Cry 4 without using any guns. Because maiming people with arrows is noble. It began here.

To live the ranger lifestyle, it's essential that I forage for my own food. And by "food" I mean "animal skins", and by "forage" I mean "slice off". My fashionable outer garments aren't going to make themselves. So as I continue trying to play Far Cry 4 with only a bow and arrow, it makes sense to focus on the wanton destruction of local wildlife populations. Except for elephants. Elephants are my steed. From which I can kill other animals.

I knew FC4 had elephant riding. But I didn't realise it had elephant-riding fishing. Which is how I've spent a good proportion of my morning.

This began when given the task of catching a particularly big fish for Chiffon, the local fashion designer. Hey, I didn't write this game. And at the same time, I spotted my first elephant since unlocking the skill to ride them. A moment of universal synergy, cosmic harmony. I can't swim while firing an arrow, but I can sure do it if an elephant's doing the swimming for me. It works like this:

As the video progresses, you'll see I move beyond aimless (quite literally) attempts to set fire to things that are currently underwater, to a whole other realm of fishing: using explosives. And with a bit of alligator murder along the way. And yes, it's perhaps not exactly wholly true to the ranger-life to use explosive-tipped arrows, but if it's good enough for Oliver Queen, it's good enough for me.

Shortly after, I entered one of the sections where my gun avoidance gets paused by the demands of a mission. And indeed, the game itself had me fishing with explosives too. Sadly not explosive arrows that time. (Much credit is deserved by the game for requiring such things.) But how have I done otherwise in my endeavour? Pretty well, actually.

I confess, I did take down an eagle with a mounted machine gun. The bastard thing tried to eat my face, and caused a baddie convoy to get away. Since my bow skills aren't yet quite up to picking swooping birds out of the distant sky, I admit I let revenge get the better of me, and BLAM-BLAM-BLAMed the flying git.

Otherwise, I've stuck pretty hard and fast. Missions are certainly a good deal trickier when you can't unleash bulletty mayhem, and the game's supplies of ammo are certainly not in favour of men in tights. Destroying all the propaganda materials in a base, as increasingly large waves of enemies show up, is a tough fight. I completed it by perching on rooftops, setting an awful lot of people on fire, and - oh, okay, lining the entrance to the base with explosives. Explosives aren't bullets! It still counts!

Oh, shush you're complaining. Calm yourself down with my taking out a charging rhino with a bow.