You’re standing on a cliffside in Kyrat. The air is thin. To your left, a Golden Path rebel is screaming about a propaganda center, and to your right, a honey badger is actively trying to end your life. This is the chaos of Ubisoft’s 2014 masterpiece. But if you’re looking at a far cry 4 mission list trying to figure out how much game is actually left, you’ve probably realized that this game is a messy, sprawling beast. It isn’t just a straight line from A to B. It’s a jagged web of drug-fueled hallucinations, Himalayan expeditions, and political infighting between two leaders who are, honestly, both kind of terrible.
Kyrat is huge.
The campaign itself is shorter than you think, but the "fluff" is where the world actually lives. Most players get tripped up because the game hides progress behind specific triggers. You might think you're done with the main story, then suddenly a "Y" icon pops up on the map and you're being sent into a snowy death trap.
The Core Path: Ajay Ghale's Terrible Vacation
The "official" campaign follows Ajay Ghale. He just wanted to scatter his mom’s ashes. Instead, he got a civil war. The main far cry 4 mission list consists of 32 core missions. That sounds like a lot, but some of them are barely ten minutes long if you have a decent sniper rifle and a buzzer.
It starts with Prologue, where you meet Pagan Min—the best dressed villain in gaming history—and ends with To Each His Own. But the middle is where it gets weird. You have to choose between Amita and Sabal. This isn't just flavor text. Choosing one over the other locks out specific mission variants. If you back Amita’s plan to turn Kyrat into a drug state for the sake of the economy, you're doing different legwork than if you back Sabal’s traditionalist, albeit oppressive, religious vision.
The mission flow generally breaks down into these chunks:
- The opening act in Southern Kyrat (The "Learning how to not die" phase).
- The Mid-game switch to Northern Kyrat after the bridge mission.
- The final push into Pagan’s fortress.
A lot of people miss the fact that you can actually beat the game in 15 minutes. If you just sit at the table and eat the Crab Rangoon like Pagan asks you to at the very beginning, the credits roll. It’s the "hidden" first entry on any honest far cry 4 mission list. It’s also arguably the only way Ajay stays sane.
The Mission Types You’ll Actually Encounter
If we are talking about what's actually on the map, the campaign is only the tip of the iceberg. You’ve got the Balance of Power missions. These are the ones where you decide the future of the Golden Path.
Then there’s Longinus. He’s a diamond-obsessed priest who is definitely a nod to Far Cry 2. His missions usually involve tracking a smuggler to a vault. They’re repetitive, sure, but they give you the best guns. Honestly, if you aren't doing the Longinus track, you're making the game twice as hard for no reason.
Don't forget Hurk. If you have the DLC or the right version of the game, Hurk’s missions add a level of stupidity that the game desperately needs. It’s a lot of "blow this up" and "drive this thing." It’s great.
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The Shangri-La Diversion
This is where the far cry 4 mission list gets divisive. Some people love the mystical vibe; others hate losing their modern weapons. There are 5 Shangri-La missions. You play as Kalinag, an ancient warrior, with a white tiger at your side.
- The Hunt for the Protector
- The Bell of Enlightenment
- The Paradise Destroyed
- The Surrender to Enlightenment
- The Rakshasa
These are technically "side" content, but they’re massive. They provide the backstory for Kyrat’s mythology. If you skip these, the ending of the game feels a bit hollow. Plus, the bow mechanics in these sequences are actually tighter than the main game's stealth.
Why the "North" Changes Everything
Once you cross into Northern Kyrat (usually around the mission City of Pain), the difficulty spikes. The enemies start wearing heavy armor. The wolves get meaner. The missions in the latter half of the far cry 4 mission list focus heavily on dismantling Pagan’s inner circle: Noore, Paul "De Pleur" Harmon, and Yuma.
Yuma’s mission, Payback, is a trip. Literally. It’s another hallucination sequence that forces you to fight a boss in a way that feels nothing like the rest of the game. It’s these sudden shifts in gameplay style that keep the list from feeling like a chore.
The Numbers Most People Ignore
If you're a completionist, the mission list isn't just the 32 golden path markers. You're looking at:
- 4 Fortress takeovers (which are basically outposts on steroids).
- 17 Bell Towers to climb (to clear the fog of war).
- 24 Outposts to liberate.
- 12 Assassination missions.
- 8 Eye for an Eye missions.
And then there’s the Yogi and Reggie missions. These two are the bane of my existence. They drug you, you wake up somewhere naked and confused, and you have to run back to your gear. They are technically "campaign" missions in that they appear on the main map with unique icons, but they feel like a fever dream. There are about 4 or 5 of these, and they are essential if you want the "100%" badge.
Making Sense of the Choice System
The game doesn't tell you this outright, but your choices in the far cry 4 mission list lead to different outcomes for the NPCs. If you kill Noore, you miss out on a specific bit of dialogue. If you spare Paul, he ends up in a cage where you can go visit him and feel weird about it.
The biggest split is at the very end. The mission Dinner in the Palace is the finale. You have the choice to shoot Pagan Min the second you see him, or sit down and talk. If you talk, you get more story. If you shoot, it’s over. I always recommend waiting. The dialogue in those final moments is some of the best writing in the series. It turns the whole "hero" narrative on its head. You realize the Golden Path might be just as bad as the guy you’ve been trying to kill for 40 hours.
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Final Tactics for Clearing the List
Don't rush the story. If you just burn through the main far cry 4 mission list, you'll be under-leveled and your wallet will be tiny.
First, hit the Bell Towers. This unlocks free weapons. Seriously, free. Why pay for a 1911 when you can just climb a rickety wooden tower and get it for nothing?
Second, do the hunting quests early. You need the larger loot bags. There is nothing worse than being in the middle of a high-stakes mountain raid and realizing you can't pick up any more ammo because you didn't skin enough pigs in the first act.
Third, use the Buzzer. It’s the small helicopter. It trivializes almost every "travel" mission. If a mission asks you to go to a waypoint 2000 meters away, don't drive. Fly. Just watch out for the altitude ceiling; the little engine will stall and you'll drop like a stone.
The real beauty of the far cry 4 mission list isn't the checkboxes. It's the way the missions bleed into the open world. You'll be on your way to a serious political assassination and get distracted by a "Karma Event" where a tiger is attacking a mailman. Embrace that. The list is just a suggestion; the chaos is the point.
To get the most out of your run, focus on unlocking the "Heavy Takedown" skill as early as possible. It changes the way you approach the late-game fortress missions, allowing you to stealth-kill the armored units that otherwise require a grenade launcher to take down. Also, keep an eye on the "Himalayas" missions—these are self-contained, linear levels that provide a great break from the open-world grind. They are easily the most atmospheric parts of the game, even if they are essentially "on rails."
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Once you've cleared the final mission, take a trip back to the starting area. There's a secret epilogue location depending on whether you spared or killed the leaders of the Golden Path. It’s a grim reminder that in Kyrat, there are no happy endings, just different shades of red.