How to Get Ethanol (and Fast) in "Far Cry New Dawn"

One thing is very clear in Far Cry New Dawn; it's all about the ethanol.

The latest instalment in the Far Cry series has been unleashed on gamers and it marks an interesting step in the series.

Well, perhaps step is a bit of an exaggeration. It's more of a shuffle to the side because Far Cry New Dawn is actually just Far Cry 5 with an apocalyptic spin bound to make Mad Max envious.

Thankfully, it's beautiful; maybe not as sparkling as Assassin's Creed Odyssey or as rigorously realistic as Red Dead Redemption 2, but it certainly holds its own.

But let's get to the actual crux of it all. The trick to dominating this game is getting that ethanol, and the quicker you get it (along with other supplies), the easier Far Cry New Dawn becomes. See, ethanol is needed to upgrade workbenches within the home base of Prosperity. These can range from your weapons crafting bench to your cartography base.

The thing is, it's quite scarce and, depending on the difficulty level you're playing on, heavily guarded.

To make things a little less painful, here are all the ways you can collect that sweet, sweet fuel to get Prosperity prospering.

Take on enemy outposts.

At first, enemy outposts are daunting. Armed with only Level One rusty weapons, you'll need to take on a whole base of enemies without the option of going in stealthy. Once you get through the first one, however, things start to get a bit easier. 

Liberating outposts (for the first time) will grant you between 100 and 450 units of ethanol, but you'll get even more bonuses for taking them stealthily and without triggering an alarm.

Once an outpost is liberated, you'll have the option of "scavenging" (AKA stripping and abandoning) the base for more ethanol, but this will also mean turning it back over to the Highwaymen. Once you've given up control of the outpost, higher level guards will come in and you'll get the option to do it all over again for slightly more ethanol. You can take over outposts three times but obviously, each time will get a bit more difficult.

Hijack tankers.

Look. We get it. You're halfway through your three-kilometre journey to the mission starting point when an ethanol tanker speeds past with its convoy. The last thing you want to do (especially before fast travel becomes a viable option) is chase down the tanker, kill the Highwaymen and then safely transport the tanker All. The. Way. Back. to Prosperity.

Well, given how difficult ethanol is to come across in the game, you're just going to have to suck it up because hijacking and transporting ethanol tankers back to base (or liberated outposts) is one of the easiest ways to score it. Each tanker gives you 75 units of ethanol.

And, it might just give you enough to upgrade a crucial resource to make that next mission just a little bit easier. Trust us.

Loot supply drops.

Supply drop alerts randomly pop up throughout the game so once you see one, look up to the plane in the sky and follow the falling loot box. If you miss it, don't fear because the game will show you where it's located anyway.

These supply drops are vital because not only are they loaded with general goodies (like supplies for upgrading), they also contain that much-needed ethanol; somewhere between 30 and 50 units of it.

But, as with just about everything good in post-apocalyptic Hope County, here comes the bad: these loot boxes are guarded by Highwaymen scavengers who will race you to it and shoot anyone in their path. Stay alert, fellow scavengers.

Far Cry New Dawn is available now on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Header Image: Ubisoft