A few nights ago, while playing Far Cry 6, I arrived at a small beachside shack that was surrounded by a tall fence. Inside I found notes about a man who was being terrorised by a mongoose. When he finally caught it, he trapped it in his shed behind his home while he picked up some gasoline. So I snuck in, found his key to the shed, and let the damn thing out. I sprayed more bullets than I expected, but the mongoose did die. Then, it dropped a key to a treasure chest inside the house. I got a cool gun out of the ordeal.
This is one of just many treasure hunt side missions you can run into in Far Cry 6, and nearly all of them are great in some way. These missions often blend comedy, oddball stories, and puzzles together into some of the game’s best moments. Compared to the formulaic nature of the overall game, or its flawed narrative, Treasure Hunts are an absolute standout.
In Far Cry 6, treasure hunts are side quests that often take place in one central location that will task the player with puzzles, offer notes, and perhaps require some light platforming before you reach your reward. They rarely involve combat, outside of shooting some animals or door locks. They are a perfect palette cleanser after spending hours blowing up the world.
After 30+ hours, I’ve already beaten the game and seen the credits — but the Treasure Hunts have kept me coming back night after night. The devs and designers behind Far Cry 6 have some fun with the design, and aren’t afraid to get a little weird with it. Like, for example, exploring a power plant that’s become an obsessive shrine for the island nation’s leader. Or exploring a tourist trap themed around betrayed pirate lovers.
Another great treasure hunt I ran into involved a brewery and a man who had trapped himself and his sweet, custom-made super-weapon in an office at the top of the building. To get up there, I had to unlock some doors, open some valves, and a few other things I won’t spoil here. The end result is a giant explosion that rips a hole in the top of the brewery, letting you climb up into the office to find a beer-powered rocket launcher. (It’s a very good weapon, I get why he wanted to hide it from Yara’s dictatorship and military.)
I also loved the treasure hunt set in an underground abandoned nightclub that’s been flooded. To reach its secret treasure, you’ll need to make your way through water charged with electricity, if not find your way through hidden passageways. I don’t want to spoil too many of these or reveal how to solve them, but trust me. If you haven’t been checking out the treasure hunts in Far Cry 6, you should. To find them, look for pink-coloured diamond icons on the main map.
If you were a fan of Far Cry 5’s prepper stash missions, like former Kotaku EIC Stephen Totilo, these will likely be up your alley. In some ways, Treasure Hunts seem inspired by those wonderful puzzle-focused side quests found back in digital Montana.
These Far Cry 6 treasure hunts (and Far Cry 5’s stashes) are so good that I really wish Ubisoft would make a full-on open-world puzzle and exploration game at some point. Something without much or even any gunplay, with way more puzzles to solve, and using the same tech. Until that happens, I still got some treasure hunts to complete in Far Cry 6. What can I say, I’m a sucker for big maps, action, and over-the-top, open-world zaniness.
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