Best Far Cry 5 Hunting Locations

Hunting is how you make money in Far Cry 5 there is no other easy ammunition buying way. Yes, you will receive some money from missions and side missions, but that’s not a lot to buy another shiny boat or big rugged truck it will come from skinning animals and catching fish. Hunting each species of animal will also earn you perk points.

The problem is hunting is unsteady in Far Cry 5. You might fall into a location where you can make thousands of dollars in a few minutes or you might waste hours looking for a single skunk. Below, we’ve got a map and some tips for finding all 19 of Hope County’s varieties along with some information on how to get the most money out of every hunting trip.

FINDING HUNTING SPOTS

There are three ways to discover Far Cry 5’s official hunting spots — the ones that will show up on your map:

• Stumble across them. As you’re wandering — especially when you’re taking a cross-country shortcut — you might just happen across a hunting spot. You probably won’t even notice until the notification pops up on the left of your HUD.
• Road signs. If you stick to the roads, you’ll find animal crossing signs every once in a while. These correspond to nearby hunting spots.
• Maps and magazines. Inside some of the buildings that you find — both residences and cult outposts — are hunting and fishing magazines. When you pick these up, new spots will get added to your map.

The actual thing about the official hunting spots, though, is that they’re more suggestions than sure things. They serve as a good starting point, but you’re seldom going to find precisely what you’re looking for at that marker. Instead, explore around hunting spots for prey species. For carnivorous species, toss some bait nearby — you’re not promised to get the animal you’re after, but one will pop up if you try hard enough.

FAR CRY 5 HUNTING MAP AND ANIMAL LOCATIONS

Check out the above map as a guide to help you in your search for great hunting grounds. There’s at least one spot where we reliably found each of the 19 species. Not every spot lines up with official hunting spots, but these are the locations that worked for us. (We accidentally got a hunting achievement while researching this map, so we know it works.) Here’s what we found out from all that hunting:

• Hunting birds are hard and not worth your time. Of the 19 species of animals in Far Cry 5, five are birds. All birds drop an item called feather and that’s it. You can sell them for $100 each, but — if your aim is as bad as ours — that will barely cover the cost of your ammo. Hunt enough of each species of bird to get your challenge perk points, then don’t worry about them anymore.
• Headshots work on some animals. A headshot will drop some animals with one shot, which will save you a lot of time. That said, M60 works just as well without all that bothersome aiming.
• Don’t rely on the hunting spots on your map. Like we said above, they’re more suggestions. If you find someplace where there are reliably animals, make a note of it. Trust your experience more than the map.
• Some animals’ skins are more valuable. Check the table below for the prices you can sell animal skins for. Some animals are just not worth your time if you’re only looking to make some quick cash. Focus on high-dollar animals that you can find consistently, or just read our guide about hunting at the Harris residence.

HUNTING TIPS AND TRICKS

Hunting is not exactly nuanced in Far Cry 5 — shoot a thing until it falls down, then loot it — but there are some things you can do to squeeze a little more money out of the process.

FINDING THE ANIMAL YOU JUST SHOT

Things can get pretty hectic in a hurry while you’re trying to do anything in Far Cry 5. If you’re hunting something small or fast — things like hares and ducks — it is surprisingly easy to completely lose track of where it fell.

Whenever you kill something — an animal or a cultist — a faint X will appear on your compass at the top of the screen. It’s very easy to miss, but it’s also invaluable. Use this X to guide you to your loot.

HUNTING PERKS

There are two perks you’ll want to unlock as early in your hunting career as possible:

• Harvest master (survivalist, eight points). This skill doubles the loot you pick up from plants and animals. Where you’d usually only get one skin, you’ll get two.
• Journey pack (prepper, seven points). This perk gets you a larger backpack. You’ll be able to carry more gear like medkits, but more importantly for this guide, you’ll be able to carry more skins, feathers and bait as well. This means more hunting before you have to go to a vendor.

A couple other perks will help you out, but these are optional:

• King of the jungle (survivalist, six points). First, this decreases the injury you take from animals. That’s great because you’re going to be attacked by wolverines a lot while hunting here. It also makes prey species less likely to flee from you.
• Sneaky sprint (assassin, four points). This perk makes you move quicker while crouched, which keeps you movable while staying out of sight.

SPECIALISTS AND WEAPONS

Apart from your perks, you can make hunting easier by taking along the best boy and our favorite fang for hire, Boomer. He’ll mark animals on your HUD by itself — white markers are prey and red markers are dangerous. He’ll also sometimes recover small animals you kill so you don’t have to go scanning for them in the brush and I have to tell you looking for dead animals can be challenging at times.

If you have to pick one friend, pick Boomer. If you can bring two, Jess Black, alpha huntress, is a great companion. Her friendly perk means that animals won’t run away from her. When Boomer finds an animal, put it in your sights and order Jess kill it.

The loot you get from an animal depends on how you kill it. If you shoot a deer with a gun, you’ll get one skin. If you kill the same deer with a bow instead, you’ll get two. Bring a bow hunting and use it whenever you can. It’s not always possible, though, so bring along anything stronger to back it up. Just make sure you use your bow as much as possible, particularly on the more expensive animals.

HOMEOPATHIC AID

The homeopathic you can make called ultimate hunter is really handy while hunting. It perfectly marks all animals and enemies around you for a short time but it is quite handy.