Video Game / Far Cry 6

When tyranny is law, revolution is order.

"Our country is like this grenade. Except, it has two basic parts. Our people... and you. And you must clutch them nice and tight, or we all go 'boom'. Do you understand now? Prove it."

— Antón Castillo

Far Cry 6 is the sixth main entry of Ubisoft's Far Cry franchise. It was announced in July 2020, and was slated for release on February 18, 2021 on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, only to be delayed to October 7, 2021 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Antón Castillo (played by Giancarlo Esposito) is a tyrannical dictator hellbent on restoring the Caribbean nation of Yara to, in his eyes, its former glory. He also plans to groom his young son, Diego, into becoming his successor. Players take control of Yara native Dani Rojas, a resistance fighter who initially is trying to flee the country, but is quickly roped back into La Résistance's plans to liberate the country. Dani is playable either as a female or male character.

The game also spawned two tie-in Comic Book series:

• Dark Horse published Far Cry: Rite of Passage, dedicated to Castillo relating the stories of the previous three games' Big Bads as cautionary tales to Diego on his 13th birthday.
• Ablaze published Far Cry: Esperanza's Tears, focusing on Juan Cortez before the events of the game. The first issue was released in 2021 in French, while the English versions were released on October 12, 2022.

A season pass and its contents were later revealed at Ubisoft Forward 2021, including a series of Roguelike DLCs featuring the aforementioned villains as the protagonists of their own stories, and an Updated Re-release of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.^note At least on consoles - PC players simply received a free copy of the original Blood Dragon instead.

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The game provides examples of:

Main Game

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: During takedowns, Dani's machete may shove through the unlucky enemy's head or neck to the hilt during some animations, with no regard for the bone and tissue inside.
• Abusive Parents: Antón Castillo loves his son deeply, but inflicts horrifying psychological damage on him trying to toughen him up for the role of El Presidente. This includes him attending executions (forcing him to see those murders), trying to get him to kill people himself as well, and in the finale, murdering Diego to spare him from potential exile, imprisonment, or torture.
  • His mother may also fit the trope, although to a slightly less degree, given that María just seemingly straight up ignores Diego.
• Ace Custom: Dani can use crafting stations at rebel bases to heavily customize vehicles and weapons. Similar to the signature weapons of earlier installments, the game also features several pre-customized weapons as well, with flashy paint jobs, accessories and mods - however, those cannot be modified.
• Adam Westing: Several of the trailers feature Giancarlo Esposito playing up the fact that he's an actor who is frequently typecast as cold-blooded villains. The trailers feature him either indulging in supervillain gloating, or actively challenging players to take him on.
• Ambiguous Situation: Following the game's reveal, many players were surprised to see that Far Cry 6 was not set in the post-apocalyptic world of New Dawn, despite chronologically being set after Far Cry 5 in the present day. Even more interesting was that despite that, the game still contained many call-backs to previous installments. For example, a letter at Ocegura Farm implies that the Seed family are still alive and well in Montana, and are running a business selling Bliss plants, which is how they ended up in Yara. Dani also considers the US a valid place to flee to with the secret ending even has them reaching Florida, which appears perfectly fine. When asked about these inconsistencies, narrative lead Navid Khavari clarified that even though Far Cry episodes tend to Shout-Out to earlier installments, they do not necessarily share the same narrative continuity.
• Anachronism Stew: Given that the setting is a fictional third-world Caribbean Banana Republic (or technically, in this case, a "tobacco republic") which is all but cut off from the modern world, it is no surprise that most of the technology available on the island is dated. Despite this, Yara apparently has a modern cell phone service connecting it to the rest of the world (albeit its bandwidth only hovering around 1G), and Dani also gets a rather robust touchscreen smart phone from Lita, used for tagging enemies or receiving photos in certain missions. Several other characters also have access to smart phones, with rebel groups like Libertad and La Moral even having some social media presence. The game implies that these developments are due to the recent investments of McKay Global into Yara to "improve" the country, although that doesn't explain why the newest vehicles the company could import appear to be originating from the early 90's at best.
• Animal Motifs: In the Official Story Trailer, Antón tells his son Diego that the Castillos are lions who prey on the opposing lambs (that is, the guerillas). Official merchandise also refers to Antón and Diego as "The Lions of Yara". The flag of Yara also has a lion imagery, while Castillo constantly makes strongman statements in cutscenes about how he and his son are the lions who must stand above the "lambs".
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Timed events:
    • The timer on Interception missions stops when the player gets within a certain distance of the supply drop. They can then take their time eliminating the opposition and actually securing the supplies.
    • Bandidos Operations need only be started before the timer runs out; additionally, once an operation has been started, the player can exit the game entirely and the mission time will continue to run.
  • Weapons and weapon upgrades:
    • Once purchased, upgrades can generally be fitted to any weapon in a particular class without additional cost.
    • Special ammunition is now treated as just another upgrade slot and no longer needs to be repeatedly crafted; all ammunition for a particular weapon class is now drawn from the same pool, regardless of any special effects.
    • Special ammo types can be selected via the weapon wheel, meaning the player does not need to cycle through every type to get to the one they need.
    • The player can partially reload weapons like shotguns and multi-shot grenade launchers by clicking the fire button midway through the loading sequence; useful if the player needs to get off a shot in a hurry.
  • Vehicles and mounts the player locates as part of a mission are awarded for mission completion; the player need not drive it back to a friendly base. Similarly, new rides will be added to the player's inventory simply by driving them out of the garage in which they are found.
  • Civilian vehicles can be added to the player's vehicle inventory by scanning them with the phone. Any vehicles the player has already acquired will be marked accordingly.
  • Vehicle convoy missions are no longer time sensitive. Additionally, bringing the cargo vehicle back to a friendly base is now an optional objective; the player can instead loot the vehicle in place, albeit for a smaller resource reward.
• Apathetic Citizens: Applies both to the protagonist and several named sidekicks as well:
  • Dani is this at the beginning of the game, refusing Lita's invitation to join the rebellion. Once making contact with Libertad, they explicitly tell Libertad leader Clara Garcia that they're only interested in leaving the island. The game actually allows you to pull this off: once you help Libertad fight through the blockade at the tutorial island, Clara keeps her word and offers Dani a boat, who can then abandon the cause and escape to Florida, unlocking the secret ending of the game.
  • Yelena Morales, leader of the rebel group La Moral, admits that she used to be apathetic towards the nation's troubles. What made her change her mind was Admiral Benítez executing several of her classmates for "crimes" as minor as liking a social media post of Clara Garcia.
• Arc Words:
  • The desire to "rebuild paradise" is commonly discussed both by guerillas and the FND alike.
  • "Truth or lies?"
  • The story is kicked off and finished with the same two sentences ("It's okay Dani. You were the lucky one."), each time told to Dani by a dying character. The first time it is said by Lita; in the finale, it is said by Diego.
• Armies Are Evil: Antón's military, the Fuerzas Nacionales de Defensa (FND) is definitely this. It's a particularly nasty organization carrying out untold amounts of atrocities across Yara, ranging from coercing locals into forced labor on tobacco plantations to carrying out summary executions, torture, and worse.
  • It's slightly Subverted as well, as many guerillas acknowledge that not every soldier is evil - some of them are helping both sides, while others are just trying to make ends meet.
• Awesome Backpack: Juan offers various "Supremo" backpacks for Dani to equip, serving as Limit Breaks, such as the Exterminador (a homing mortar launcher) or the Furioso, an improvised jetpack that blasts the ground around Dani with fire and also allows them to air-dash for a short amount of time.
• Banana Republic: Yara is a Caribeean country clearly inspired by Cuba, led by dictator Anton Castillo. The reveal trailer featured a violent uprising with protesters throwing Molotov cocktails at riot police; the actual game, on the other hand, tells the story of how the various guerilla groups are united under a single banner to overthrow Castillo's regime, resulting in a siege of the nation's capital, and a violent civil war breaking out.
  • Technically, the country is more of a tobacco republic, given that its only source of income is coming from Viviro, a revolutionary cancer treatment drug based on the tobacco of the island.
• Batter Up!: The game features an unusual variant, with Dani being able to throw baseballs to distract and lure soldiers to their doom.
• Bittersweet Ending: As typical to the series, even though the ending of this episode is not that bleak as that of Far Cry 5:
  • Libertad and the groups united under its banner eventually free Yara from Castillo's regime. However, with Clara Garcia dead, Diego killed by his father in what seems to be a twisted form of Mercy Kill, and Dani refusing to take the reins, the country is left without any interim leadership, descending into a bloody Civil War, fought between Libertad and the remnants of Antón's army. Anton also kills himself after executing his own son, meaning that he will never have to answer for his crimes. And finally, besides Clara, numerous other guerillas, like El Tigre and Jonrón also died before seeing their dream of a free Yara come true.
  • Frankly, the secret ending is not much better either. Even though Dani escapes Yara in a boat given to them by Clara, a radio news segment reveals that Clara was killed by Castillo's special forces some months after Dani's escape.
• Black-and-White Morality: Compared to the Grey-and-Gray Morality of Far Cry 4, the FND and Libertad fall into this moral spectrum, with Antón's military carrying out countless atrocities against the civilian populace (including forced labor, amoral human experiments and mass executions), while the opposing guerillas trying to limit their operations mostly to military targets only. Still, the game features some shades of Grey-and-Gray Morality:
  • Various guerillas, like Camila Montero, do not hesitate to brutally torture captured soldiers to get their message across.
  • After taken hostage, an unarmed María Marquessa, propaganda minister and resident telenovela star of Antón's regime is mercilessly gunned down by Talía in live TV after the former misgenders her lover, Paolo, a trans man. Even though María played the Asshole Victim trope to the max, and likely deliberately psyched up the already high-strung Talía, shooting an unarmed hostage to shreds with a sub-machinegun simply because of being a Jerkass certainly qualifies as a case of Disproportionate Retribution.
  • Diego also experiences a nasty case of Would Hurt a Child behaviour when attempting to talk to an imprisoned guerilla of Yara's 1967 communist revolution (which ended with the death of Antón's father, and decades of forced labor for Antón himself on the tobacco fields of Yara). The angry old guerilla makes it clear that if he were unshackled, he wouldn't hesitate to kill the young boy with his bare hands, even though Diego argues that the old man cannot know if Diego ends up like his father or grandfather.
  • Juan Cortez is a veteran KGB and CIA Double Agent, who practically wrote a book on guerilla warfare, is a trusted lieutenant of Clara Garcia, supplies ridiculously-looking, but devastatingly overpowered Homemade Inventions for the cause, and is fully invested in freeing Yara from Castillo's reign. However, he is also an amoral Anti-Hero who mostly sticks around because he just loves the adrenaline and making a buck while deposing a despot, and who is Genre Savvy enough to know that to finish the Castillo threat once and for all, he must end the whole dynasty.
  • Even though his Divide and Conquer rule is characterized by forced labor, mass executions, human experiments and torture, and Blatant Lies in local radio and television broadcasts, Antón is still (mostly) a Well-Intentioned Extremist, who most likely really wants to rebuild Yara by exporting Viviro, a locally-made cancer treatment. With the destruction of McKay Global's logistics assets and the BioVida infrastructure responsible for producing the treatment, the production of the medicine likely also comes to a halt.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: Given the setting, it is no surprise that a sizable portion of the game's arsenal is made up of old firearms:
  • In addition to the World War II-era MP-40 and MP-34 sub-machineguns returning from the previous game, Far Cry 6 also adds some Soviet classics, like the PPSh-41 submachine gun, the SKS rifle, and the Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle to the roster (although the latter is only available via Microtransactions as part of a paid addon pack). The game also features several Cold War-era NATO and Warsaw Pact sidearms, as described in in the relevant wiki.
  • Due to Yara's isolation limiting foreign arms trade, the majority of Castillo's soldiers also use outdated equipment, such as AK-47 assault rifles, T-54/55 tanks and Cold War era helicopters. The fictional tank names and some of their flavor text even imply that they're actually World War II surplus (albeit incorrectly, given that they are obviously based off of Cold War models).
  • A literal example occurs during one mission, where Dani is tasked with rescuing an old guerilla named Karlito, who is supposedly forced to work in a museum repurposed to offer an alternate take of Yara's 1967 communist revolution. It turns out that "Karlito" is actually a tank used by the guerillas back in 1967, and Dani has to commandeer the tank to break it out of the museum.
• Breaking Old Trends: While the core gameplay is still based off the same basics that Far Cry 3 laid down back in 2012, this episode still shakes up the formula with some notable changes:
  • Far Cry 6 breaks from the Unbroken First-Person Perspective in cutscenes, which, by that point, became a series staple. (It's worthy to mention that while New Dawn also featured brief cutscenes that showed the player character, those only occurred after liberating an outpost, and not in the actual story).
  • Unlike previous games, where enemies were nearly always hostile and would immediately open fire on the player once detecting them, enemies in Far Cry 6 feature a suspicion meter. As such, they leave the player alone, unless they are caught trespassing, brandishing a gun, or performing any illegal action. The system is similar to the second island of Far Cry 3, where Hoyt's privateers also had a similar behaviour, once players got hold of the privateer uniform.
  • The skill tree of Far Cry 3 and 4 and the perk system of Far Cry 5 (including all the major DLC expansions) have been replaced with an RPG-like clothing system. As part of this change, most of the basic skills (including the weapon slots and most takedown types) are available from the get-go, while others are tied to clothing items. For example, while the heavy takedowns and directional takedowns are available immediately, the handgun and grenade takedowns are only available when wearing certain clothing items. Sabotaging alarms is also available when wearing a certain pair of gloves.
• The Cameo: Although Far Cry 6 features no actual cameos by characters from other episodes (with the exception of Vaas), it still makes numerous call-backs to them:
  • Given Juan's backstory, it should be no surprise that he was affiliated with Willis Huntley at some point, who also had a tour in Yara back then. Careful players can even find a letter from him in the Libertad HQ island at Juan's bunker, in which Willis damns him for apparently screwing him over. Willis left Juan his dog tags as a reminder, which Dani can use as a weapon charm.
  • If left alive, players can see Sean McKay calling Willis and Longinus to discuss business over phone.
  • Boomer is the only character to return from earlier Far Cry episodes (as an animal companion again, no less). As written in a note in his container, it was Hurk who sent the poor pooch to Yara from Montana, presumably to protect him from the growing influence of the Project at Eden's Gate cult.
  • Pagan Min is seen on a magazine, having been interviewed about his rise to power in Kyrat.
  • Vaas actually "appears" twice in the game. First in the final cutscene of The Vanishing DLC mission, but without his face being visible due to lying dead drunk at a bar counter; and secondly, during The Stinger where we can hear him talk business with Juan.
• Canon Discontinuity: The game ignores the nuclear apocalypse of Far Cry 5's Resist ending, which led directly into the Spin-Off game Far Cry: New Dawn, relegating that ending to an Alternate Timeline. At the start of Far Cry 6, Dani wants to flee to Florida, and they even make it to Miami in the secret ending, chilling on the beach, and with the only threat to the nation being the COVID-19 Pandemic.
  • The secret ending of the Pagan Min: Control DLC implies that only Montana was destroyed in the Resist ending of Far Cry 5, (with either Ajay or the Golden Path being responsible). The reason it's presumably not major news is because no one noticed or cared, as people in the Far Cry universe have many other things to worry about.
    • New Dawn somewhat supports this theory. Examining the SMI of the Paladin reveals a world map that shows only North America and Alaska are affected by the nukes.
• Chekhov's Gun: Implied. During the interview with the American journalist, Ms. Tilly implies Antón Castillo still keeps the blade he used to prune tobacco, back when he was imprisoned and forced to endure hard labor for 15 years after the '67 revolution. He changes the subject and the blade is never mentioned again. During the game's ending, Castillo slits his own throat with a tobacco pruning knife.
• Chummy Commies: The Legends of '67 are a bunch of Retired Badass La Résistance leftover from the 1967 communist revolution of Yara. While they admit their revolution didn't end particularly well (with El Tigre even forced to kill one of their own, once it turned out he would likely end up as a dictator himself), they are all depicted as heroic and decent people.
• Civil War: The island of Yara has quite a history of this, with its last 50 years affected by three different dictatorships, no less: Antón's father, the subsequent communist regime, and finally Antón's rule itself. During the game's story, the conflict is characterized by guerilla warfare, with so-called True Yarans (Castillo's army and his supporters) fighting against Fake Yarans (outcasts and anyone not privileged by the system) and everyone else caught in-between. By the finale, this blows into a full-scale siege of the nation's capital, and then escalates into a proper Civil War, with the various united guerilla forces fighting against the remnants of Castillo's insurgent army, who periodically take over certain regions of the country (forcing Dani to crush said insurgent forces).
• Clothes Make the Superman: Dani's wardrobe provides a large variety of benefits and special abilities. None of these provide superhuman benefits, but can give players handy perks or proper resistance against various damage types and special attacks.
• Cocky Rooster: Chicharrón is a hot-tempered rooster with dyed plumage and piercings, who can effortlessly shred both wild animals and soldiers with ease. He is also a recruitable animal companion, and is ideal for players preferring a stand-up fight.
• Cool Car: Dani can get four customizable cars over the course of the game, as well as steal plenty of "regular" cars to later pick up at liberated military installations. The first of these custom vehicles is Juan's 1956 Beaumont Valentina (a vehicular Expy of the 1956 Buick Century), which players can upgrade with several types of rams, machine gun turrets and defensive equipment like mines or back-facing flamethrowers. Players can also refill their ammo from the trunk of the four special vehicles every 30 minutes.
• Color Motif: Used for both the player's and the villain's factions.
  • Antón and the FND primarily use red and white coloring. Castillo wears a red shirt and tie beneath his white jacket, while Diego also wears a red shirt and red shoes. FND soldiers have red accents on their uniforms under their body armour as well as red guns, while the riot police of the Reveal Trailer (and the Special Forces troops of the game) also have red-accented body armor. PG-240, the chemical compound used to treat the tobacco to produce Viviro, is also red. Finally, FND-controlled locations and bases appear with red coloring on the game map.
  • Libertad and allied guerillas primarily use blue and dark colors to visually identify themselves.
  • Dani's default outfit, on the other hand, emphasizes yellow and dark colors.
• Crapsack World: Yara is an oppressive dictatorship, with El Presidente enslaving the local populace to grow chemically-modified tobacco under very dangerous conditions. However, Yara also has shades of Crapsaccharine World, given that it's still a beautiful island paradise with a rich culture.
• Cure for Cancer: Viviro, a supposedly extremely effective cancer treatment that Antón plans to export, so that he can restore Yara to its former glory.The medication has its own limitations though, as it stopped working on Antón six months prior to the start of the game, suffering from acute leukemia for 13 years.
• Cuteness Proximity: One way to distract soldiers is to deploy Chorizo, an adorable Precious Puppy on the battlefield. Unlike the Peggies who just ignored Boomer in Far Cry 5, enemy soldiers actually stop to pet Chorizo.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The events of Far Cry 5's "Resist" ending are not canonical to the setting of Far Cry 6.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: A hilariously cruel one for Assassin's Creed veterans. If you're on a tower, hear an eagle fly overhead, and see a haystack, do not be tempted to jump in it. You'll go splat.
• Day of the Jackboot: The opening cinematic shows Antón Castillo's takeover of Yara, with him dissolving the country's Parliament, abusing workers, and introducing a lottery for what is best characterized as slave labor. Played with, as Antón was apparently elected into his position, and only showed his true colors after rising to power.
• Democracy Is Flawed: Even though Yara already survived to dictatorships by that point (the first headed by Antón's father, while the next one being a communist regime), Antón himself did not come into power by a Military Coup or a Civil War. Instead, he was actually democratically elected before subverting the country's institutions and installing himself as absolute dictator.
• Design-It-Yourself Equipment: The game's crafting benches allow Dani to craft and install numerous weapon attachments (such as scopes, silencers, compensators, or optical sights), or different weapon mods (such as extended magazines, improved handling or slightly better damage). It also allows Dani to customize Juan's "Resolver" weapons (ranging from a homemade riot shield and a Hand Cannon to a battery powered EMP rifle) and tune the four available special cars with various offensive weaponry and defensive countermeasures.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If you start a Bandido operation that rewards a new weapon, but then you find that same weapon somewhere before the Operation completes, the game will award Resolver Materials like Gunpowder and Supremo Bonds instead.
  • During the mission to kill Admiral Benítez, you see her through a window before she flees. If you're quick enough, you can either shoot her in the head or throw a sticky grenade at the window to end the mission right there and then. After all, just because she's behind a glass doesn't mean it's a piece of bulletproof glass. Alternatively, if you have the Triador Supremo equipped with the La Varita Resolver rifle, you can also activate the Truesight ability, and just shoot her through the wall without having to blast into the final room she hides in.
  • Some missions require you to liberate certain Military Targets, or destroy/obtain certain objects. If you have already done so by the time of starting the mission, you get unique dialogue acknowledging your actions.
• Disc-One Nuke: The early game features several easily-found special weapons that easily outclass the regular arsenal, especially if you cannot mod them at that point due to lack of crafting resources:
  • The "Hi-Fi" is a 40-round automatic rifle with Blast Rounds and a tactical sight, offering quicker reloads and a body shot mod. It is a great choice in the early game both against infantry and light vehicles.
  • The "El Tirano" is a high-powered sniper rifle with armour piercing rounds, which is strong enough to instantly headshot-kill early enemies.
  • The "El General" is an auto-pistol with blast rounds, and as such, is a useful sidearm for taking out helicopters in the early parts of the game when you don't have any missile launchers.
  • You can also buy so-called "Overclocked" guns with real money or in-game special operations currency. These Tier 4 weapons offer extra damage and have the maximum amount of mod slots. In particular, you can buy the "White Lotus" sniper rifle and the "Hammer Of The Gods" machine gun with the initial small amount of microtransaction money you are given by default. They become available as soon as you leave the tutorial island, and can easily take you through the entire game.
• Empty Quiver: In a small museum of Castillo's skyscraper, you can find a large bomb. Reading an information plaque will tell you that it is an American nuclear bomb (similar to a Mark 7) that the US Air Force accidentally dropped on Yara due to a navigation error in a training mission. It was live as it fell and only failed to go off because the detonator malfunctioned. Castillo decided to put it on display as a warning regarding foreign powers.
• Every Man Has His Price: Certain soldiers marked as double agents can be bribed to give you intel on collectible army supplies. One of the rebels explains to Dani early in the story that not all FND soldiers are loyal to Castillo's cause, and many of them were only joining the military just to make ends meet.
• The Evils of Free Will: Antón Castillo describes the rebellious populace of Yara as "strangled by their own freedoms" in the Reveal Trailer.
• Fascist, but Inefficient: Antón Castillo's regime uses a massive amount of slave labor to produce Viviro, and has expanded the military of Yara to about 300,000 soldiers to crush all opposition. It would have been a far more efficient use of his regime to modernize Yara's agriculture, and not turn the military against the public.
  • Special mention goes to Castillo's underlings, especially General José Castillo and Admiral Aña Benítez. Both are General Failure officers, who cause just as much revolt as they suppress with their overt brutality.
• Feigning Healthiness: Antón Castillo is Secretly Dying of leukemia, but being The Generalissimo of a Banana Republic, he wants to appear powerful when he publicly addresses his country. Prior to making a speech, we see him having make-up applied to his face and getting a blood transfusion from an Outcast. However, upon having his Berserk Button pushed by Clara Garcia phoning him, Antón is so enraged that he decides to do his speech as soon as he hangs up, only for his son Diego to point out that he's pulled the transfusion tube out of his hand and now he's bleeding. Antón then promptly hides his hand with Diego's help. Towards the end of the game, as Antón's Sanity Slippage increases, he outright stops bothering to hide the effects of his leukemia from Dani.
• Foil: Compared to earlier episodes, the opposing forces are more clearly differentiated on the moral compass this time:
  • Libertad, when compared to the Golden Path, is more in the White Morality zone. Like the Golden Path, Libertad seeks to overthrow a tyrannical dictator, but while the Golden Path ultimately becomes Drunk with Power and turns Kyrat into either an authoritarian narco state or a patriarchal fundamentalist theocracy (making them as bad, if not worse, than the dictator they have overthrown), Far Cry 6 does not imply similar bleak consequences in its finale. The worst Libertad (or specifically, Juan) tried to do was executing the young Diego, for simply being the son of Antón.
  • Antón Castillo and Pagan Min are complete opposites both in their motivation as well as their personality and methodology. While Pagan Min was motivated by "do whatever the f*ck he wanted to do" as a revenge against the Kyrati people for the death of his daughter and the exile of his lover, Antón is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to lead Yara "to paradise" by any means necessary. Pagan is flamboyant and even goofy at times, while Antón is self-assured and reserved. Finally, when it comes to their heirs, while Ajay brings out Pagan's few redeeming qualities, Antón is determined to make Diego into a ruthless dictator.
• Full-Circle Revolution: Yara has a severe issue with this. Gabriel Castillo, Antón's father was a dictator who was overthrown during a communist revolution led by the Legends of '67. However, that revolution only replaced Gabriel with another dictator, Santos Espinoza, who brought ruin to the country. Once Yara finally got a chance for a democratic election, the populace installed Antón Castillo, who proved to be worse than both of the previous dictators.
  • Clara also sees this issue, and tells Dani at one point that even if the revolution succeeds in deposing Antón, the new President wouldn't last six months, and it would take decades before the new Civil War would end.
• Gender-Blender Name: Dani's name is this, given that they can be either male or female.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Antón is shown with a cigar in his mouth during the Reveal Trailer, while one of Dani's healing animations include using a lit cigar to cauterize a wound. While Antón smokes for pleasure, Dani is utilizing a luxury item for a practical use.
• Handicapped Badass: Chorizo, a cute little Dachshund puppy in a wheelchair who also doubles as a distraction and attack animal for Dani. He's just as happy to take on Castillo's soldiers as Guapo, the crocodile.
• Happiness in Slavery: Castillo's propaganda machine claims that the forced laborers operating under the draft lottery are honored for their service and given the best care possible. This is of course all Blatant Lies, as it becomes apparent immediately from the opening cutscene that they are subject to horrific working conditions, beatings and executions, while slowly poisoned to death from the PG-240 chemical used to create Viviro.
• Harmless Electrocution: Played with. While the game continues the series' fascination with using puddles of water and broken electrical outlets nearby to create barriers for puzzles, such obstacles don't cause instant High-Voltage Death either.
• Hypocrite: A minor example with Ms. Tilly, the American reporter interviewing Antón in one of the cutscenes. When Tilly calls Antón out on using slave labor to produce Viviro, Antón counters that no one will care where Viviro comes from so long as it saves lives. Sure enough, when Diego hands Tilly a box Viviro for her father (who has stage-4 cancer), she takes it without comment, despite having just been criticizing its means of production.
  • Talia also criticizes Antón for this (though not in person), noting that like her, Antón is Afro-Yaran. As such, he should be well aware of their own shared history involving slavery, yet he directly inflicts it upon his own people.
• Hereditary Republic: Antón Castillo considers it the Castillo's birthright to be El Presidente, and as such, puts almost all his efforts to ensure his son will succeed him. The fact that Antón's father was one of the previous dictators of Yara probably factored into a lot in shaping this opinion.
  • Many Yarans believe that every Castillo shares the same sentiments - and as such, they believe that the whole family must be wiped out.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: While the game explores this notion, nothing actually comes out of it that affects actual gameplay:
  • Dani is often called a terrorist and insulted by unarmed bystanders, especially in Esperanza, the nation's capital. Although such NPCs never attack the player, and do not call in enemy troops either, they still indicate that Castillo's Divide and Conquer tactics (dividing the nation into True and Fake Yarans) actually works. It also foreshadows the game's post-campaign segment with the timed weekly insurgencies.
  • La Moral is disliked by the majority of the other guerilla factions, apparently because of their excessive methods they don't agree with (but which, however, don't really stray too far from the type of guerrilla operations carried out by other factions during actual gameplay). Libertad itself only allies with them at Dani's suggestion.
• Improvised Weapon: Besides regular firearms, Juan's arms dealers also sell so-called "Resolver" weapons: overpowered assault tools MacGyvered from an assortment of homemade tools, machinery, and a hefty amount of scrap and junk. Although most of them border on the Awesome, but Impractical side (like "El Pequeno", a minigun powered by a motorcycle engine, or the Discos Locos, a gun that shoots compact discs like shurikens while playing Los Del Rio's Macarena, skipping the soundtrack with every shot), all of them are extensively upgradable with further mods and can pack quite a punch in the right circumstances.
  • Although heavily exaggarated, the "Resolver" weapons still have traces of Truth in Television: according to the developers, they were inspired by Cuban ingenuity borne from resource scarcity.
• Ink-Suit Actor:
  • Castillo's appearance is based on that of his voice actor, Giancarlo Esposito. The same goes for Diego and his actor, Anthony Gonzalez.
  • Averted with the rest of the cast, though. Neither Dani, nor their allies resemble the voice actors portraying them.
• Insane Troll Logic: Yara's Museum of the False Revolution is full of this, as it attempts to vilify the Revolution of '67 (which ended with deposing Antón's father) by whatever means it can. Among the more outrageous claims to anyone that has the slightest knowledge of history is the exhibition's claim that the revolution was funded by the United States. Granted, this might be somewhat believable, given that the revolution occurred during the peak of the Cold War, were it not for the fact that the revolution was a communist one.
• Insistent Terminology: Sean McKay repeatedly points out that he's actually Canadian, not American^note In his own words: "I'm a Canadian asshole, actually. We're like Americans, except we say sorry as we slide the knife in.". That still doesn't stop everyone from calling him a "Yanqui".
• Insulting from Behind the Language Barrier: Anton Castillo is hosting an interview with an American reporter called Tilly, in the presence of Maria Marquessa, Anton's Dark Mistress and Minister of Communications and Entertainment (in other words, propaganda). The reporter, early on, asks Anton's son Diego about his seemingly absent mother, whereupon an indignant Anton asks Maria, in Spanish, "What kind of foolishness is this, Maria?" To which Maria replies, also in Spanish, "It's the American way." Tilly doesn't seem to recognize that she's being insulted, but more than that, Anton and Maria's comments serve to highlight how incredulous they are that Tilly doesn't realize that Maria is Diego's mother.
• Irony: Viviro, a revolutionary cancer treatment, is created by combining PG-240, a hideously toxic chemical, with tobacco - possibly one of the most well-known carcinogens.
• It's Up to You: As is typical of the genre (and the Far Cry series as well), Dani does just about all the legwork in building up the united guerrilla movement against Antón's regime. Dani does not fail to lampshade this early on for Clara, and also expresses annoyance during the Maximas Matanzas story arc when the movement's three so-called leaders tend to make The Protagonist do the busywork (but then reap all the publicity benefits of said operations themselves instead of Dani and Libertad).
• Justified Tutorial: Although Dani has received some military training before being kicked out of the FND, they have no weapons at the start of the game, and they aren't part of the resistance either, having planned to leave for America. Libertad has also suffered a severe defeat recently, becoming so lacking in guerrillas that they push Dani into helping them in the early game.
• Karma Houdini: Dani encounters several of them during the story.
  • One side-quest starts with a woman, Chica Núñez, begging Dani to kill a local Mad Artist, Rodrigo Lecoste, who is notorious for melting people in metal to turn them into statues. However, when completing the mission, the concluding phone call reveals Chica was actually Rodrigo's wife, and she actually enjoyed watching his husband's work - until she saw herself on his list of "talents" to melt. Despite being complicit in his murders, Dani can't catch and make her pay.
  • Bembé Álvarez, the amoral king of Yara's black market, tricks Dani multiple times during the operations he tasks them with, betrays Paolo to save his own skin from the FND, is admittedly responsible for the death of several guerrillas and FND soldiers, and is also heavily implied to be a human trafficker and organ harvester. Despite all this, Dani keeps Bicho from killing him, and he gets away with everything. Dani provides no justification for this, other than the argument that "there'll always be people like him", and that Bicho killing him would somehow taint him to be just as bad as Bembé himself.
  • Technically, this also applies to Antón and his cohorts in the secret ending. Without Dani, Libertad is crushed in months, and Castillo's regime continues unimpeded.
• Last-Name Basis: One mission has Dani help Danny Trejo defend his food stall. Danny suggests that since they share the same first name, they should refer to each other by their last names.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Despite the mostly bleak Civil War setting, the game takes every opportunity for some subtle (and not so subtle) self-reflection.
  • During a drunken chat with Bicho, Dani comments that the first thing people see when they look at them is a gun. Given that the gameplay sections are played entirely from a first-person perspective, a gun is indeed almost always the first thing players see when they take control of Dani.
  • Another quest, "The Seeds of Love", has Dani tracking down and delivering messages to the children of Lorenzo Canseco, one of the guerrillas of the 1967 revolution, who got quite busy after deposing Gabriel Castillo, admittedly fathering hundreds of children from hundreds of Yaran women, and then promptly abandoning them, as he hasn't felt ready to become a parent. Dani is tasked with delivering his letters of apology to seven of those kids he managed to track down, and one of them is a rather... loopy lady who has apparently been under the effects of a certain plant imported from Montana. After being led along by her in a trippy sequence reminiscent of the Bliss hallucinations of Faith, Dani finally says they're "Not playing this game" and leaves the woman after giving her Lorenzo's message. Indeed, this is Far Cry 6 you're playing, not 5.
  • Shortly after giving Dani the "Break the Chains" mission, Talia will contact Dani again, asking why they haven't shown up yet at the quest's start point. Dani will sarcastically ask her if she thinks they can teleport... something the player effectively can do, via Fast Travel between friendly bases.
• Lighter and Softer: Downplayed, as the game is still in line with the core premise of the series (that is, surviving in the darkness of a somewhat untamed, exotic wild land). However, this installment still veers away from some of the more darker aspects of previous episodes.
  • Unlike its predecessor, Far Cry 6 features neither a copious amount of Mind Rape, nor a Downer Ending like the nuclear apocalypse of Far Cry 5. That said, given all the casualties that Dani and Libertad suffer by the finale, this episode also features a Bittersweet Ending at best.
  • Unlike Far Cry 4, the combined La Résistance movement of Yara manages to both avert and defy the Full-Circle Revolution trope. That said, the death of Antón and Diego still results in a full-blown Civil War, with remnants of Antón's army regularly sparking insurgencies throughout the island (serving as the endgame content of the game).
  • Unlike Ajay Ghale and The Deputy (who eventually do just as much harm to their locale with their actions as their opposing factions), Dani Rojas is clearly portrayed as a heroic protagonist. The combined resistance forces of Yara also genuinely triumph in a satisfying, if Bittersweet Ending. As such, compared to Far Cry 4 and 5, the game is even borderline optimistic.
• Loony Fan: The "Truest Yaran" Treasure Hunt has Dani visit the Gran Finca Power Station. It quickly turns out that the manager of the site has a Stalker Shrine dedicated to Antón Castillo in her office, along with a restraining order instructing her not to come near him, write to him, profess her love towards him in an unwholesome manner, or attempt to buy his used underwear.
  • Juan apparently also has one too, who thought that the box of Semtex explosives Juan sent him was actually a "test" of his skills. This is despite the fact that the Semtex came armed, fused, and ready to go off as soon as the fan opened it. He survived, but lost an ear and an eye, and was no less dedicated to Juan.
• Macross Missile Massacre: The Exterminador, the very first Supremo backpack you unlock in the game, unleashes a small one of these, allowing you to one-shot otherwise devastating enemies, such as tanks or helicopters. Unfortunately, its targeting seems to work by distance rather than the threat the enemies pose, so it's entirely possible to aim directly at a helicopter, only for the missiles to completely change course and converge on a single enemy footsoldier that you hadn't noticed, obliterating the soldier and leaving you without a charged Supremo to deal with that combat helicopter or tank. As such, the Pyrotechno Resolver may be a better choice for a heavy hitter, as it also fires 9 fireworks at once, each doing damage as heavy as a rocket.
• Magikarp Power: Some of the unmodded guns can come across as underwhelming at first, particularly early in the game when Dani has little to no resources to upgrade them. However, with proper investment in the right mods, a basic weapon can have its stats boosted heavily and be fitted with suppressors, scopes, laser sights, and mods. With the right mods, a basic weapon can have superior stats to its unique counterpart. Sniper rifles, in particular, suffer badly in the early game, but for example, a fully modded SVD with armor-piercing rounds, a high-end scope, and a decent suppressor can be used effectively to clear out bases and checkpoints undetected.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Strongly averted. Both the various guerilla factions and the opposing FND field male and female troops, with female combatants appearing just as regularly as males (and dying just as easily as well).
• Mythology Gag: Continuing the tradition of previous episodes, Far Cry 6 also contains plenty of these.
  • Far Cry 3
    • A Vaas bobblehead is yet again a decoration for your car's dashboard, with Citra also receiving her own.
    • One of the poses in Photo Mode is a recreation of Vaas' pose from the Far Cry 3 cover art.
    • An early mission revolves around burning crops of tobacco with a flamethrower, while unique music plays in the background. Dani even comments during the job that the whole thing feels so familiar.
    • The Stinger of the game reveals that Vaas survived the events of Far Cry 3, and started operating as a smuggler. He also appears in the final cutscene of The Vanishing Crossover mission, although his face cannot be seen, due to an apparently lost battle with alcohol.
  • Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
    • Rex "Power" Colt's ensemble and arsenal become available for use when purchasing the Season Pass.
  • Far Cry 4
    • A magazine containing an interview with Pagan Min can be found lying around.
    • One of the Bandido operations feature a guerrilla task force tracking down an enemy officer in Kyrat.
  • Far Cry Primal
    • One of the Military Targets that Dani can liberate in El Este is Valle Prehistorico, a prehistoric theme park converted to a helicopter refuel base by the FND, featuring numerous statues of cavemen, mammoths and sabretooth tigers.
  • Far Cry 5
    • Boomer returns as an Amigo, renamed "Boom Boom" by Dani. As revealed by a note in the good boy's container, Hurk sent him to Yara from Montana for his own safety.
    • Some Bliss plants can be found in pots with the Project at Eden's Gate symbol. One of Lorenzo's children whom Dani is tasked with delivering a letter to is also implied to have been briefly inducted into the Project at Eden's Gate, taking on some very... Faith-like mannerisms and speaking as Faith did towards Dani, even referencing "The Father" himself. Dani, for their part, is nonplussed and just gives the woman her letter, before saying that they're "not playing this game."
    • The Deputy's uniform shirt is also available for purchase in the in-game shop.
    • The upgradeable traits in the three DLC packs are named after five of the Seven Deadly Sins, with each character getting a unique one named as "<character>'s Wrath". For example, the Control DLC has "Pagan's Wrath".
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: One of the recruitable animal companions (called "Amigos" in the game) is Guapo, a domesticated alligator with a letterman's jacket. Like all the other Amigos, Dani can command them to maul enemies on command. Juan hand waves this by saying that Guapo apparently likes Dani.
• No Communities Were Harmed: While Yara is a fictional Caribbean island nation, it is clearly based off Cuba.
  • Antón Castillo himself shows traits of both Castro and Batista.
  • Like Cuba, Yara is also a Latin-American island nation, full of older cars due to trade embargoes preventing the import of newer models.
  • The Resolver weapons and gadgets themselves were also inspired by the Resolver ethos popular among Cubans.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: How the story starts, essentially. At the beginning, Alejo, one of Dani's friends they are planning to sneak out of Yara on a boat together with, is killed when the FND raids the city block they're in to round up the local populace for forced labor. When Dani reaches the escape boat with Lita, they persuade the boat owner to give Alejo's now-vacant seat to a child refugee out of sympathy, who was struggling to pay their way with vintage trading cards. This, however, backfires big time, as said child turns out to be Antón's son himself, Diego Castillo, attempting to flee from his father. Antón's forces track down the boat soon enough, resulting in El Presidente himself raiding the boat to take Diego back, and ordering the massacre of the refugees as a lesson for Diego on the cost of him attempting to run away. Due to sheer luck, Dani is then washed ashore of the tutorial island as the Sole Survivor.
• No-Sell: Played for Laughs. When firmly grabbed by El Tigre, one of the old guerrillas of the 1967 communist revolution, Dani attempts to deliver a Groin Attack to break out of his bear hug. El Tigre just laughs them off, claiming he hasn't felt his "cojones" since 1972. Unfortunately for him, a headbutt doesn't produce the same response.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: At the beginning of the game, Dani outright tells Clara, the leader of the Libertad guerrilla movement, that they have no interest in overthrowing Antón Castillo - they just want to leave Yara and start a new life in America. You can actually follow up on this promise: once you break through the blockade of the tutorial island, you can leave Yara with the boat that Clara gives to Dani, triggering the game's secret ending.
• Not So Similar: Although Juan frequently tells Dani that he and them are two of a kind, and are involved in the fight against Castillo's army purely for the bloodshed, Dani proves several times during the campaign that he's wrong in his assessment.
  • While Juan has discarded feelings a long time ago, Dani repeatedly shows compassion, love, and regret for others - even for Diego, Antón's son. This is shown best when they get into an argument about what to do with the boy: Juan wants to kill him to make sure the family's lineage definitely ends, while Dani wants to protect him. To Dani's annoyance, Juan even assumes they're protecting Diego because they want the war to continue.
  • Both Juan and Dani believe that Yara will never see free elections again, but for completely different reasons. Juan is a misanthrope who grew disillusioned of people by that point, while Dani assumes Juan means that Castillo's supporters would do everything to stop such efforts, even after Castillo's death and Esperanza's siege.
• No True Scotsman: Antón Castillo uses a Divide and Conquer strategy by postulating that there are two types of Yarans: "True Yarans," who are loyal to the regime, and "Fake Yarans" who are... pretty much everyone else. Needless to say, it is Antón who has the final say on who is a "true" and who is a "fake" Yaran, with members of the latter group either proclaimed "Outcasts" (candidates for imprisonment and forced labor at Viviro plantations), or simply disloyal "parasites". This divides the country into people who serve the regime, and folks who are served to the regime as slave labor.
• Not The Illness That Killed Them: Anton Castillo reveals towards the climax of the game that he's dying of acute leukemia which his Viviro treatment is no longer working on, and all his tyrannical actions carried out over the course of the game were to restore Yara to true greatness before he dies. Ultimately, by the Final Battle, once Dani corners him and his son Diego in Anton's tower, Anton decides it's Better to Die than Be Killed, and cuts his own throat with the pruning knife he kept from years of enslavement on the tobacco fields, after lethally shooting his son Diego to make sure that Libertad doesn't kill him too, for the Sins of the Father. To quote a previous Far Cry villain, "Cancer won't be what kills you".
• Old Soldier: Such characters appear on both opposing sides.
  • Juan Cortez is a former intelligence agent who worked both for the CIA and the KGB. As such, he has plenty of experience to bring to Libertad's table, even though The Stinger makes it clear that he joined the fight primarily for his own benefit.
  • One of the factions that Dani must recruit are the "Legends of '67", veterans of the 1967 communist revolution that deposed Castillo's father.
  • General Raul, the short-lived Supreme Commander of the Yaran military is also of the age. Based on his prosthetic leg, he's also seen things in Yara.
• Photo Mode: Similar to Far Cry 5, this installment also features a rather feature-rich Photo Mode, allowing you to control the time of day, the weather conditions, apply filters and logos to the image, insert background objects into the scene (albeit from a limited set of props), and even assign specific player poses to Dani.
• Poirot Speak: The game has developed a bit of a reputation for this, as the English original dialogue contains plenty of Gratuitous Spanish phrases and sentences interspersing regular conversations. Translation Convention is also assumed for most of the game, given that Dani speaks both English as well as Spanish.
• Precious Puppy: One of the Amigos is Chorizo, a dachshund puppy in a wheelchair.
• Rule of Symbolism: In the official poster for the game, the red collar of Antón Castillo's shirt gives the illusion of Diego having devil horns.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After completing the story missions of the tutorial island, Clara keeps her word, and gives Dani a boat (or frankly, the watercraft version of The Alleged Car) that they can take to America. Entering the boat and riding away with it actually unlocks the alternate ending, where Dani is shown chilling out on a beach in Miami, while a radio newscaster announces that Clara was killed by Castillo's special forces, and Yara's rebellion was crushed.
• Sequel Logo in Ruins: The logo in the poster is burnt orange with scratches and smudges going through the letters and the number.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Dealing poison damage to your enemies can turn them against each other before they succumb to the damage-over-time effects.
• Shout-Out: Following the tradition of previous episodes, the game contains many examples of this.
  • One of the Special Operations involves Dani infiltrating a makeshift FND base that was once a dinosaur-based theme park, called Mesozoic Park. At the start of the mission, Lola even says "Dani, welcome to Mesozoic Park". The park also has a Spinosaurus statue that resembles the dinosaur featured in Jurassic Park III. As a bonus, the mission's objective - stealing something which must be kept cold and transporting it through the park to a waiting contact - is a subtle nod to Dennis Nedry.
  • During "Words Like Bullets", the mission where you inflitrate a press event hosted by María, the the soon-to-be-dead propaganda minister of Antón, you find her with Dr. Reyes and another woman. What does Talia say to get rid of them? "Bitches, leave".
  • Full Metal Jacket: The Flavor Text of the MS16 L battle rifle reads "7.62 millimeter full metal jacket. Now let's see your war face." A weapon charm is also called the same name, the text being "What is your major malfunction?"
  • The description of the Libertad bottle cap charm is also quite amusing: "Unfortunately, this won't work as currency in a future dystopian Yara."
  • Anton planning the design of his new city while the end approaches is incredibly reminiscent of a similar scene from Downfall.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: At the beginning of the game, Antón Castillo's regime implements a "lottery draft" that forces a large chunk of the population (particularly "Outcasts") into forced labor to grow tobacco, and then harvest its chemically-enhanced crops to produce Viviro from it (often ending the life of said workforce, due to the lethality of PG-240, the substance used to "enhance" the tobacco leaves). The procedure is considered to be slavery both by La Résistance and Antón's foreign critics as well - and Antón himself also doesn't deny it when being called out by an American reporter over this during an interview.
• Special Guest: Danny Trejo starred in a timed-event Crossover Mission, aptly named Danny & Dani vs. Everybody.
• The Stinger: After the credits, there is a conversation which reveals that Juan is benefitting from the Revolution by smuggling out Viviro to a smuggler in return for weapons. What's even more shocking is that the voice of the smuggler is very familiar to long time players.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Unlike previous games, hunting animals must be done preferably with a low-caliber firearm, a bow, or a bladed weapon (like the machete or throwing knives). Using a high-caliber weapon or explosives will damage the meat (unless you build and fully upgrade the Hunter's Lodge camp building, after which killed animals always net good-quality meat, regardless of the weapon used to kill them).
  • The leaving Yara ending is also this. Given that as the player, the game's main plot isn't your concern, nor is it any of your business, you have no stress on your back if you chose to leave Yara and let Clara and Libertad deal with their revolution. That is, until you realize during the alternate ending that all the people begging for your help ended up dying, pretty much making the fight against Castillo pointless. Basically, anyone involved in trying to take out Castillo died in vain, while those who haven't died yet, will eventually do so sooner or later. And their deaths are definitely not going to be quick or painless.
• Tank Goodness: Castillo's forces field tanks, which players either need to destroy with heavy firepower, or hijack after temporarily disabling them with EMP charges. The tanks also reflect the isolation of the country, as they are modeled after obsolete Cold War-era Soviet models, such as the T-54/55 and T-62,^note The actual tanks are fictional, but integrate a lot of different features from those early models. Presumably, in-universe, these are local clones/modifications of the base T-54/55 design, similar to the Chinese Type 59s (which were mass-exported to communist countries). long replaced by now in most armed forces with their more modern successors, the T-72, T-80, or T-90.
• Too Dumb to Live: María Marquessa falls into this big time. After Dani and Talía corner her on live TV during a private tour and call her out for her actions, instead of showing the slightest bit of remorse and trying to bargain with them in exchange for her life, she proudly gloats about all of her evil deeds while mocking Talía. Then, to top it off, she blatantly and coldly misgenders Paolo (a trans male), which results in Talía finally snapping and gunning her down in a fit of rage.
• Training from Hell: Antón Castillo frequently brings Diego along with him to witness various war crimes, and encourages him to use violence himself as well. His father-son bonding sessions range from holding a live grenade on his birthday through being instructed to execute a prisoner to going on a wild animal hunt, where the boy almost gets killed.
• Tropical Island Adventure: Similar to Far Cry 1 and 3, this episode also meets this trope. Yara is a Banana Republic in the Caribbean, inspired by Cuba.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: The game starts with Antón Castillo instituting a set of draconian policies and declaring martial law to dramatically increase the production of Viviro. This takes the whole country by surprise, as he is not only a democratically-elected President, but backstory material (coming from both NPC dialogue and collectible flavor material) also suggests he was a popular leader (at least by Yaran standards).
• We ARE Struggling Together: Antón Castillo and his cohorts have spawned several guerrilla groups against his regime, with Libertad, La Moral, The Legends of '67, the Montero family, and Máximas Mantanzas all opposing his rule. However, these groups all operate independently at the beginning, due to having their fair share of reservations against the other groups. Winning them all over to join forces against the regime is the main goal of the campaign.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Antón Castillo sincerely wants his people to be happy, and sincerely wants to make the island nation of Yara a Caribbean paradise. However, as the Reveal Trailer already made it clear, he also sincerely believes that he has to rule over the people with an iron fist to make that happen, as Yarans don't know how to achieve their own happiness.
  Castillo: And our people, they do not know how to be happy. They are torn apart by opinions, noise, indecision. Strangled by their own freedoms. And even if you have love in your heart, even if you want what's best for them, if you only want to save them from themselves... They will hate you, Diego. Everything you say, do, and believe will be wrong.
• Wham Line: Many of these occur throughout the story:
  • There's an after-credit scene with Juan talking to a smuggler supplying Libertad in the aftermath of Castillo's death. Said smuggler is voiced by Michael Mando, the actor of Vaas from Far Cry 3, implying that he really did survive his Mind Screw fight to the death with Jason Brody. The secret ending for the first DLC, Insanity, confirms that the smuggler is indeed Vaas.
  • Antón also gives one of these to Diego after learning of Maria's death. He calls Diego to his room and has him sit down before giving him the news that Maria, his biological mother is dead. In an interesting twist, this serves both as an in-universe and audience Wham Line as well: Maria being dead is one for Diego, while Maria being Diego's mother is one for the audience. Antón sums it up in four simple words:
  Antón: Your mother is dead.
  • Antón also delivers one to Dani during the ending. When Dani promises to keep Diego safe from their fellow guerillas, Antón seems to accept their answer. Then, as he is still hugging Diego, he says a single word, before shooting Diego in a twisted Mercy Kill:
  Antón:Lies.
  • A subtler one occurs during the Montero arc. After finally reaching the regime's Lieutenant whom Camila has been pursuing so relentlessly, she indirectly reveals the real reason she has been trying to find him:
  Espada: Mierda is right. You look like shit hermanito.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Given the often-chaotic guerrilla warfare setting of the game, it is not surprising that this also occurs a couple of time.
  • After Juan attempts to assassinate Diego during the penultimate mission, but Dani saves the boy, Juan accuses Dani of being a Blood Knight, claiming that they saved Diego only because they don't want the revolution and the ongoing violence to end. Dani, of course, is taken completely surprise by this, and angrily explains Juan that just because they don't want to kill a kid does not make them a bloodthirsty maniac. Dani then turns this train-of-thought around Juan, explicitly telling him that "they never talked about killing the kid". Juan, for his part, seems to accept this, despite himself being an amoral veteran guerilla with questionable ethics, and drops the subject in favor of finishing the revolution.
  • That said, Juan partly proves to be right after the finale - during their last scene together, after burying Diego, Dani is happy to repeat one of Juan's first byword that he addressed to them when they first met ("Once a guerrilla, always a guerrilla") with a smile, implying that they are ready to continue the fight against the remnants of Castillo's army, and also have fun while doing so.
• With This Herring: Following the Action Prologue, Dani starts the game only with the broken phone of Lita, their their deceased friend; some vague directions on the phone pointing to Clara's hideout; and the Boat captain's machete. Dani has to scavenge the rest of their gear and weapons from around the island afterwards to topple the regime (or escape to America, as they originally planned).
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Played straight in Antón Castillo's own propaganda. He uses this messaging to paint all resistance movements in a negative light for his regime's forces and supporters.
  • However, this is mostly averted in general when it comes to the characterization of the various guerrilla movements, as the allied factions are far less prone to morally questionable actions than the Golden Path of Far Cry 4. Even La Moral, which has a much worse reputation than Libertad sticks only to military targets. That said, some fellow guerrillas occasionally still slip into shades of gray (or outright black) morality. Examples include Camila brutally torturing an unarmed, bound soldier to extract information while the victim begs for mercy, Talia executing the Smug Snake, but still unarmed María Marquessa, Juan attempting to kill Diego in cold blood, and most of the allied guerrilla leaders being unfazed about the boy's death in the finale.

Insanity

"Who's watching who?"

"Are you finally ready to be what I need?"

— Citra

• Acid-Trip Dimension: Vaas isn't certain he's in his mind, a dream, hell, or one of these.
• Adaptational Heroism: Vaas was against Hoyt and wanted to protect Rook Island's natives against him. In fact starting a war with Hoyt is just about the only memory Vaas has that he doesn't regret.
• Adaptational Villainy: Citra is a Downplayed Trope as she was always a villain in the original games (just a hidden one) but here is shown to be one of the major forces in corrupting Vaas.
• Always Someone Better: Citra taunts Vaas by saying Jason was a better fighter, lover, and leader.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Vaas Montenegro is Promoted to Playable here.
• Animorphism: During her boss fight, Citra will attack Vaas in the form of a cougar as her health lowers. Defeating her second phase in this form and winning the fight has her revert back to a human enemy who can be killed with a takedown.
• Archenemy: Jason Brody has become this in Vaas' mind, terrifying and haunting him from the past.
• A Real Man Is a Killer: Citra believed this and encouraged Vaas to become one.
• The Atoner: Vaas regrets the horrible acts he committed under Citra and Hoyt's influence.
• Ax-Crazy: Vaas is this by the start of his ordeal. Citra is also confirmed to be this in spades.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: The first DLC takes place in Vaas' mind.
• Blood Knight: Vaas became one of these but rather than making him feel badass, he came to feel he was a monster.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Citra and Vaas clearly have a sexual relationship, though it's not clear if they are blood siblings or not.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Citra tries to kill Vaas when he's having sex with another woman.
• Companion Cube: As seen in the secret ending, Vaas has one of these in the form of a little tennis ball version of himself.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Vaas' phone that he uses for the camera is Jason's "nice fucking phone" he stole from him in the famous intro to Far Cry 3.
  • In most of Vaas' takedowns, he uses the Tribal Knife, one of the optional melee weapons in Far Cry 3.
  • One of Vaas' flashbacks has him watching Joseph Seed preaching on TV in a distinctly thick Southern accent. Joseph and his brothers are from Rome, Georgia, and he traded his natural accent for a Montanan one when he and the Project at Eden's Gate migrated to Hope County.
• The Corruptor: Citra and Hoyt both drove Vaas to become the Ax-Crazy psychopath that he is.
• Enemy Chatter: Enemies can have interactions with each other, which might be easy to miss if the player doesn't bide their time. If Jason Brody is present, he'll give his own unique interactions which vary with the gender of the Rakyat he's talking to.
• Enemy Civil War: Vaas had apparently started a revolt against Hoyt over the latter's attempts to seize Rook Island from the natives. Which, Vaas notes, includes himself.
• Evil Versus Evil: Vaas is revealed to have been in a war with Hoyt to protect the island from his mercenaries. Citra apparently left this part out when she was discussing Vaas and Hoyt's relationship.
• Face–Heel Turn: The attackers in Vaas' dream are his own soldiers. Citra explains that they turned on him because of his treachery.
• Flanderization: Justified In-Universe. The corrupted version of Jason that haunts Vaas' mind is a total Manchild annoying the hell out of his Rakyat buddies in idle conversation and is obsessively petty towards Vaas, trying to show him up to win Citra's favor. This is because Vaas' only interactions with Jason were when he was first captured as an immature rich kid all the way up until that final battle, where he is a deranged lunatic trying to kill Vaas once and for all on Citra's behalf.
• Foil: It is clear from Vaas' flashbacks that Vaas was always one of these for Jason Brody. He was put through much of the same brainwashing and turned into a ruthless killer. Unlike Jason, though, he didn't have the strength to leave Rook Island. Until the end, though.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Vaas reminisces about tripping on drugs with Dr. Earnhardt together, seeming to have a good relationship with the doc, which accounts for why Earnhardt never gets attacked by Vaas' pirates in Far Cry 3.
• Heel–Face Turn: Vaas slowly makes one of these, at least to the point of becoming a Noble Demon.
• Hell Hotel: Vaas visits one of them in his vision. It starts off run down and becomes blood splattered as well as on fire. It also shows Vaas' worst memories.
• Made of Iron: Vaas gets stabbed in the chest multiple times by Citra, and a couple days later he's well enough that he's more worried about his deteriorating relationship with Citra rather than the fact he's recently been stabbed in the chest. The secret ending also shows that he survived being stabbed by Jason Brody as well.
• Perspective Flip: We see Vaas' take on Jason's drug-induced attack on his headquarters.
• Plot Coupon: Vaas must retrieve the three pieces of the Dragon Knife to escape his mind.
• Reluctant Psycho: Vaas is revealed to have been this and never reveled in his evil the way other villains did.
• Retcon: The DLC portrays Vaas as having turned against Hoyt and working to protect the natives of Rook Island. Vaas was working for Hoyt in the game and even discuss Jason Brody at one point. Unreliable Narrator may be at play here.
• Rule of Symbolism: In the promotional picture for the DLC, Vaas represents the "Hear No Evil" of the Three Wise Monkeys. Vaas' entire life revolving someone controlling him and telling him what to do (Citra and Hoyt) and he tries to shut the voices out by covering his ears.
• Shoot the Television: Vaas does this during a televangelist's (actually Joseph Seed) spiel in one of the flashbacks right as the latter starts talking about the definition of insanity.
• Shout-Out: Vaas compares the Hell Hotel to "the trailer with the fucking... with the fucking hallway" and briefly wonders what happened to it.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Vaas also named his pet alligator Guapo.
• Unreliable Narrator: The writer of the DLC has stated that Vaas' take on events isn't 100% accurate.
• Villain Protagonist: Vaas is still an irredeemable murderer and pirate but he is trying to face his demons as part of his quest.
• Wicked Cultured: Vaas makes a reference to Diogenes and Alexander the Great when he says he'd tell God to "lean back, you're blocking my light."

Control

"I, too, am a king who isn't afraid to slaughter to get what he wants."

"Once upon a time, there was a king and a goddess who fell deeply in love..."

— Lakshmana

• Acid-Trip Dimension: As with Vaas, the DLC takes place in a dream-like version of Kyrat in Pagan's mind, either in some sort of nightmare or afterlife purgatory.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The DLC takes place from the perspective of Far Cry 4 main antagonist Pagan Min.
• Arc Welding: The secret ending has Pagan reveal that he has a stockpile of nuclear weapons pointed at Montana.
• Call-Back:
  • The DLC begins with Pagan taking a selfie with his imaginary family (Ajay included) much like he did with Ajay in the beginning of 4.
  • At one point Pagan has a boss fight against Yuma in an almost identical arena to the one Ajay fought her in (albeit much more brightly colored), only Pagan fights Yuma herself rather than a hallucination of her as Kalinag.
  • New Dawn somewhat foreshadows the point of origin where the nukes are launched from. By examining the world map at Fourth Echelon's Paladin, one can see India and Nepal (the countries where Kyrat is based on) are the only countries not from North America that are in the red.
• Character Development: Subverted for Pagan Min. Whereas Insanity has Vaas learning that he doesn't need Citra anymore and Collapse has Joseph trying to atone for the sins he committed against his family, Pagan continues to reinforce his belief that nothing is his fault and everything he did was for the ones he loved, contrary to what he said to Ajay in his "Spare" ending of Far Cry 4.
• Continuity Nod: Much like Vaas and how he still has Jason's phone, Pagan uses his own smartphone for the camera, which is the same model as Jason's.
• Continuity Snarl: Ajay's involvement in Far Cry 4's plot began when he was given Ishwari's Last Request during the reading of her will, which she made only a few days before she died. Here, Ajay receives her final request from her in person moments before she dies in the hospital. This can be Justified considering that the DLC takes place in Pagan's mind, who may have his own interpretation of how Ajay got the request.
• Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Pagan to Vaas. While both are Tragic Villains who suffered from abused by a family member, Vaas, in his DLC is fully aware of his insanity and cruelty whereas Pagan is not and constantly blames everyone else for his current predicament. Whereas Vaas' DLC involves him overcoming his insanity and inner demons, Pagan's DLC has him refusing to accept his and insist that he is a hero. Vaas' DLC ends with him having escaped the Rook Islands and is much more peaceful-minded while Pagan's end with his survival ambigious and still wanting to destroy his enemies out of spite, using Ajay as an extension.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Averted; the Far Cry 6 prequel comic has Castillo mention that Pagan Min was killed by Ajay Ghale, most of the dialogue makes the most sense if Pagan is dead and in some sort of purgatory, and the different methods of his possible death are mentioned (either shot at the dinner table or having his helicopter blown up), but there are a couple lines of dialogue that leave open the possibility Pagan faked his death and is in hiding somewhere. Unlike with Vaas, the ending to the DLC doesn't resolve this in any way.
• Depraved Bisexual: Downplayed; Pagan is shown to be bisexual and is a grandiosely depraved gangster and dictator, but his bisexuality is presented as one of his few sympathetic qualities.
• Enemy Within: While Vaas' greatest inner tormentors were Jason Brody and Citra, Pagan's seems to be a representation of his own evil which he keeps trying to deny about himself, known as the Tyrant.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In his current purgatorial existence, Pagan's only desire has nothing to do with the power or wealth he spent his entire life pursuing, rather he simply wants to spend the rest of eternity with his family.
• Finishing Move: Pagan will sometimes use his signature pen to perform a melee execution on enemies.
• Internal Deconstruction: In Far Cry 4, there was much focus put on the fact that Pagan, despite being a ruthless tyrant, was A Lighter Shade of Black compared to the Golden Path while being surrounded by more vile and monstrous individuals on his side of the conflict and on the group that's fighting against his rule, even going on to showcase his more noble and sympathetic traits repeatedly throughout the story to make the point that he wasn't the ultimate villain of the story despite his position. By bringing his past actions and callous personality to the forefront constantly throughout the DLC, Control reminds players that Pagan is a completely narcissistic Evil Overlord who is more than capable of being (and more often than not, gleefully willing to be) worse than those who oppose his rule and those who serve him, no matter how hard he tries to deny it. It is also flat out stated that Lakshmana's death is also partly his fault due to him being more focused on his own personal glory and worship than doing what's best for his family until it was too late.
• Irony: There's something about Pagan having to follow literal golden paths to reach the locations of the mask pieces that feels like this.
• Never My Fault: The entire DLC involves Pagan denying the atrocities he had done and has him claim that he is a good man and anyone else is the bad guy.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Pagan's own mind makes it clear that any seemingly justifiable motives he had for his actions were merely a pretext for his lust for power and glory. For example, he presents his destruction of Kyrati's native religion as a justified removal of an archaic faith with cruel and barbaric practices (based on Ishwari's resentment of and feelings of being trapped by her role as the Tarun Matara), but it's made clear his real motive was envy and wanting to be the focus of the people's worship and adoration himself.
• Plot Coupon: The main goal of the DLC is to assemble 3 pieces of a golden mask that Pagan can use to hide his flaws.
• The Pen Is Mightier: Some of Pagan's finishing moves involve sticking his pen into the target's skull through the eye.
• Retired Monster: Pagan's main goal is to become this, but his many past misdeeds keep catching up to him.
• Rule of Symbolism: In the promotional picture for the DLC, Pagan represents the "See No Evil" of the Three Wise Monkeys. This represents Pagan covering his eyes and refusing to accept the atrocity he has committed and that he is no different from the "evil" Golden Path he fought.
• Screw Yourself: Pagan is so taken by his body double's resemblance to him that he almost immediately starts making out with him.
• Self-Made Orphan: Pagan killed his own father, and as Castillo pointed out in the prequel comics, was ironically killed by his own adopted son. However, Pagan prefers to tell himself that he died saving Ajay's life from terrorists (due to the truth being way too boring for him).
• Unknown Rival: While Vaas sees Jason Brody as his Arch-Enemy and one of his key tormentors next to Citra, Ajay Ghale plays a much less prominent role in Pagan's mind, with Pagan viewing Ajay's overthrowing of his regime as more of a delinquent act of juvenile rebellion.
• Wham Line: Finishing the DLC at the highest difficulty plays a recording from Pagan directed at Ajay where the former mentions his frustrations with America's meddling in Kyrat:
  Pagan: So underneath this palace is, well, what would you call it, a...a stock? A heap? A... gaggle? An enormous fucking vault of nuclear weapons. A fuckton of them. Pointed right at America. Probably...I don't know, somewhere near Montana to be exact.

Collapse

"You are alive. That is all that matters."

"There is no coming back from this, Father."

— Faith

• Acid-Trip Dimension: Just like how Vaas and Pagan were trapped in twisted, purgatorial versions of the Rook Islands and Kyrat, respectively, this DLC takes place in a purgatorial version of Hope County that Joseph is trapped in. Dead animals are suspended in the air, black tendrils consume the environment and people, and the iconography of the Project at Eden's Gate torture Joseph. It even includes New Eden, the community founded by Joseph and the remnants of the cult in the ashes of northern Hope County.
• Adaptational Modesty: Unlike his debut, where Joseph spent nearly the entire game shirtless, here, he's wearing the white shirt and grey vest he wore at certain points in 5 and is often depicted wearing in official artwork.
• All for Nothing: Even if Joseph did manage to get his entire family to survive the events of 5, their instabilities would've worsened, causing the Bliss effects on Faith to wear off, John to become more violent and Jacob to outright murder Joseph.
• Ambiguous Situation: Whether the Voice is truly God or Joseph's delusion is unknown.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Like the previous DLCs, Collapse is seen through the perspective of Joseph Seed, the Big Bad of 5.
• The Atoner: In contrast to Pagan's DLC, Joseph's involves him realizing his errors cost the lives of many, including his family, and him trying to atone for his actions.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The DLC goes off of the Resist ending to Far Cry 5, with Joseph experiencing the events of the game apparently while in his stolen underground bunker.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to Insanity and Collapse which both had a quite a few moments of levity and comedy, Collapse is pretty much entirely Played for Drama. This could be justified by the source material, as while Vaas and Pagan were Affably Evil loons with colorful, theatric personalities, Joseph was always a very self-serious type of affable.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Joseph can visit New Eden, encounter Ethan Seed and The Judge, and see his own corpse under an apple tree. All of these are seen 17 years later in New Dawn, but the DLC supposedly takes place while Joseph is still in his bunker following 5's Resist ending.
• Eye Scream: One of Joseph's unique takedown animations is gouging out someone's eyes with his bare hands; the same thing he did to the mole who infiltrated the cult attempting to record their crimes in the intro to Far Cry 5.
• The Ghost: For obvious reasons, the Junior Deputy has no canon appearance, but their general role in Joseph's life and downfall is borderline Demoted to Extra. They only have one scene in which Joseph crowns them his "Judge" and gives them the iconic mask and rags we see them in during New Dawn, and then they reappear as a "Sinner" enemy (as The Judge and with no voice lines, naturally), and a brief comment from Joseph asking who they were as he did not recognize them.
• God Is Evil: Playing as Joseph we hear the Voice of God that's been communicating with him and giving him orders. God comes across as pretty evil, even by Old Testament standards, though it's implied that "God" might just be Joseph hearing the echoes inside his own head. Then again, "God" is also apparently able to show Joseph accurate visions of the future, unless New Dawn was just another fever dream of his.
• Replacement Goldfish: Far Cry 5 indicated that Faith may have been a drifter that Joseph reprogrammed into being his sister, and that there may have been multiple previous Faiths. The flashbacks and secret ending to the DLC indicates that The original Faith was Joseph's wife, whose death in a car accident sent Joseph off the deep end and set him on the path to establishing Eden's Gate.
• The Reveal: The DLC not only confirms that Faith Seed is a random woman that Joseph brain washed into being his sister, it is also revealed that they are also all other women that he kidnapped and given the same name as well, all named after the original Faith Seed who is Joseph's wife.
• Rule of Symbolism: In the promotional picture for the DLC, Joseph represents the "Speak No Evil" of the Three Wise Monkeys. Realizing that his sermons have caused plenty of unnecessary deaths, including his family, Joseph shuts himself to prevent himself from saying any more lies.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Joseph uses mind-bending Bliss grenades that can turn enemies against each other.
• Throw the Book at Them: Like Pagan uses his pen for a few of his execution finishers, Joseph will literally thump enemies with his bible, and in one finisher even uses it as leverage by jamming it into an enemy's mouth and twisting it to snap their neck.

The Vanishing

• Adaptation Name Change: None of the inhabitants of the Upside Down are called what they are in the show. The Demogorgon is referred to as El Devorader (or the Devourer), the Flayed are called the Kukly, the Mind Flayer itself is called Chernobog, and even the Upside Down itself is referred to as the Shadow Place. Justified as the operation is being run by Russians who would have no reason to know or use the names a bunch of American middle schoolers came up with in the 80s.
• Call-Back:
  • Much like in the pilot episode of Stranger Things, a Demogorgon introduces itself by attacking someone from above, although Dani ends up much luckier than the Hawkins scientist thanks to well-timed aid from some Russian soldiers stationed in the base.
  • The portal to the Upside Down is the same design as the portal located underneath Starcourt Mall, as seen in Season 3.
• The Cameo: The Mind Flayer briefly makes an appearance while Dani is sneaking through the Upside Down and ends up sending its "Kukly" after them. Vaas also makes an appearance during the end, though his face isn't visible, as a drunk in the bar.
• Crossover: With Stranger Things.
• Here We Go Again!: Subverted with the Christmas lights at the bar beginning to flicker — it's revealed to be cause by faulty wiring. Played straight, however, when Chorizo vomits up a Demogorgon slug, and it begins roaming the Yaran Countryside... Only to be Subverted again when Chorizo promptly chews up and eats the slug before it can get anywhere.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Shest' intends to stay behind in the Upside Down in order to ensure the portal stays closed for good. When the Demogorgon comes through, she ends up having Dani detonate the explosives she had placed, possibly dying in the process while teleporting Dani out.
• Implacable Man: Besides being capable of teleportation, the Demogorgon is tough enough that you can't kill it with your weapons; the best you can manage is to slow it down a bit while you run away. Pretty impressive, considering your arsenal is more than capable of slaying Yetis and Blood Dragons.
• Mêlée à Trois: Russian soldiers and Upside Down creatures will fight each other as well as Dani.
• Psychic Nosebleed: Like Eleven before her, Shest' has this happen to her when she begins overusing her psychic abilities.
• Uncertain Doom: The fate of Shest'. She was last seen being surrounded by explosions in the bunker, but still managed to teleport Dani away before she could be consumed by them as well.

Lost Between Worlds

• Bag of Spilling: Every time Dani gets retrieves a shard, Dani loses all weapons, ammo and gadgets obtained during the trip to obtain it. The chests that hold these items get refilled every time Dani reenters the rifts, serving as the only way to reobtain anything.
• The Maze: This is what The Maze is. It has walls as tall as buildings that shift at random and is riddled with flame traps and enemies, which isn't helped by Dani entering the rift at different points each run. At the center of it is a tower with the portals needed to progress to the next areas.
• Title Drop: One within the first four minutes of the DLC as Fai explains to Dani what they need to do.
  Fai: Five shards are missing from my vessel. Likely thrown into the rifts. Lost between worlds...
• Under the Sea: A majority of Sunken Esperanza is this. Since there are no areas for Dani to resurface to get air, Dani must stay near a glowing crystal that restores her breath and health.

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