We reached out to (one of the few) Far Cry Primal player who finished the game in the highest difficulty setting: Survivor mode + Permadeath activated (= only 1 life, no respawn).

Here's the complete interview.
Enjoy and post your own tips & tricks on how to best play this mode in the comments!

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How did you feel during your progression in Far Cry Primal’s Survivor mode with Permadeath activated?

I was scared...

Every single percentage was a huge achievement for me. Every step I made in #Oros felt like reality. I checked areas twice, thrice, and more before taking a step forward. I realized soon (at approximately 2% progression) that I was the prey and not the super-imba-hero anymore.

But because my first try of Survivor mode plus Permadeath was after 130 hours of regular gameplay, I already knew what could happen. I tried Survivor mode three times before finishing it. For the Survivor mode plus Permadeath activated run, it took me approximately 16 tries!



Impressive. Congrats on completing it! Can you introduce yourself to the community?

Hi, my name is Pan and I am a 40-year-old passionate PC gamer from Germany living in Dubai. I have been into gaming – especially RPGs – since the dark ages. It all started with pen and paper games (AD&D, RuneQuest, etc.). My first MMRPG was Lord British’s Ultima Online in the ‘90s. Great times – I remember paying 100 EUR one month for a dial-in connection; my parents almost killed me!



Ok so what suggestions would you give to someone who wants to try Survivor mode + Permadeath?

• Slow and careful! You are not the hero but the prey in this mode!
• Use every possible easy sidequest to get points and add perks; they will save your life later!
• Take your time; double check places with your Owl.
• When you reach the point when you fight Batari, use Berserk bombs with your upgraded Hunter’s belt on her fighters.
• Never forget that you can die every single moment in Survivor, and if this happens put the game aside for a few hours and start all over after a coffee break (happened to me many times).

What were your biggest challenges / scariest moments?

The fight against Batari! That moment when the song “The Wolf” (Fever Ray) starts playing…oh god, my heart starts beating faster even now.

Second, I would say the first time you meet a sabretooth tiger in Sayla’s quest (it killed me three times!).



What weapons did you use most in this mode?

Well, I mainly used the longbow from the moment it was available with Jayma. This weapon saved my *** so many times. I upgraded it ASAP.

Next was the spear for close-distance throws. I always avoided close enemy contact in that brutal mode. The good thing was that you could quickly upgrade your melee weapons and the hybrid (spear), while with the longbow you had to wait much longer for a full upgrade with Jayma.

I know some Permadeath Survivor players avoided the multiple-kill perk upgrade. But I used it. It was important in some situations, especially when there was no way to avoid confrontation, like in Ull’s caves.

But still, my best weapon was the sneaky takedown/stealthkill...as you can see in the image below (look at the stat "# Stealth Kills").



What about the perks, which ones did you use to help your progression? Which ones are important?

Oh, this is easy...to survive in Survivor/Permadeath you will need all the life, stamina and healing you can get!

So prioritize perks that increase:
a) your life.
b) your stamina (to run away).
c) healing skills.

I put all my effort toward increasing these perks in Survivor/Permadeath from the very beginning, so I was even saving points to increase my life bar to the max (three bars only) after saving Karoosh.

Ok and what were your biggest achievements and wow moments?

Killing Ull and Batari in Permadeath and watching the Far Cry Champion “The End” Video from the Dev team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cwH5-hUljM

And also the Dream "Batari’s Fear" where you shoot the moon! :)



Which beasts did you use most during your adventure?

In Survivor/Permadeath mode it was the black tiger – I was too scared to try to tame the sabretooth or the cave bear. It was very difficult to bring him down to 50% to tame him, a lesson I learned in prior attempts in this mode.

Thanks for all the useful advice! Any other last words?

Thanks to the Dev team for this game, because frankly speaking, Far Cry Primal Survivor/Permadeath was the most intense gaming experience I’ve ever had. Also, thanks for the #Wenja language, which is the most amazing language, created by two great linguists (the Byrds)! This language helped me a lot to immerse myself into the game, and it increased the fantastic game experience. You can find their website here: https://speakingprimal.blogspot.ca/
And their Twitter is: http://twitter.com/speakingprimal

Now only a VR experience with this mode could top it. I am up for this challenge! ;-D



All screenshot in this article were made by Pantelis. you can find his other pics here: http://imgur.com/a/mHwt9