Far Cry 6 - Joseph Seed: Collapse

By Oliver Giles

AVAILABLE ON: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC

Far Cry 6’s third and final DLC is now officially available to download and play across all major platforms, and it’s a near-perfect season pass finale.

The Plot

Taking place inside the mind of Far Cry 5’s terrifying cult leader Joseph Seed (aka The Father) the expansion shows exactly what led him to make the choices he did in between the events of Far Cry 5 and its 2019 sequel Far Cry New Dawn.

While both Vaas and Pagan’s mental journeys showed their twisted reasoning for their choices, as well as the characters attempts to rationalize those choices, Collapse show’s Joseph’s mental struggle to make amends for the events of Far Cry 5, as well as his ultimate failure and what turns him into what he had become by the beginning of New Dawn.

Gameplay

Similar to the previous two season pass DLCs, Collapse infuses roguelike elements into the usual Far Cry formula. While exploring the decently-sized map to collect three shattered pieces of Joseph’s cross to unlock the final trial, if you die at any time for any reason, you have to restart all over again, keeping only your unlocked traits.

This may seem quite brutal for a game series like Far Cry, but it really isn’t. Even on the game’s harder difficulty the combat isn’t all that difficult if you are at least decent at first-person shooters, keeping the same fun and fast paced weapon combat featured in the main game.

While your main goal is to collect the three pieces of Joseph’s cross, there are many other events around the world that are well worth your time if you are looking to complete the DLC properly. One example of this is the weapon trials found around the map, your only means of unlocking new weapons as well as a free way to upgrade them to the next level as you go deeper into Joseph’s mind. 

There are also events around the map featuring the memories of the seed family. Not only is it necessary to complete these if you want to get all achievements/trophies, but they also provide a great deal of insight into the events of Far Cry 5 and New Dawn.

Collecting Penance throughout the DLC is absolutely vital to making it through all five levels of Joseph’s mind, as it is the only way to upgrade your traits, something you’ll absolutely want to do to increase your health, healing syringe storage, as well as many other abilities to help you against the increasingly difficult enemies throughout the world.

While it doesn’t take all that long to escape Joseph’s mind, that isn’t the end of the DLC. In order to get the true ending you’ll need to escape Joseph’s mind five times by going through all 5 mind levels, with each level becoming more difficult than the last. 

Because of this, its absolutely worth taking your time to collect powers and level up your traits and weapons, otherwise you’ll find yourself overwhelmed quite easily in later stages.

The Map

Fittingly for the mind of Joseph Seed, Collapse takes place in a condensed version of Far Cry 5/New Dawn’s Hope Count, seemingly right after the rather explosive true ending to Far Cry 5.

A partially bombed-out world with traces of its former beauty, the map created perfectly fits the tone of DLC.

Being a reconstruction of Hope County, players will see a greatest-hits style mashup of familiar locations from Far Cry 5 as they explore the map, including the incredibly memorably Hope County Jail. Eagle-eyed gamers can also spot references to several Far Cry 5 characters whose fate remains unknown following the end of the game, including fan-favorite Jess Black as well as Cheeseburger the bear, suggesting that at least some of the featured cast of the game survived the bombing.

Weapons

Staying with the roguelike elements of the DLC, the weapons featured in Collapse aren’t exactly powerful when you first start. While weapons like the shotgun and LMG are particularly useful in certain spots, it’s best to spend time upgrading your weapons for them to become properly useful. This goes double for the sniper rifle, which is practically useless in its original state.

Tips & Advice

• The starting pistol is your best friend through the DLC. Not only is it the easiest gun to find ammunition for, both from fallen enemies and from chests, but it allows you to land headshots with relative ease, especially when upgraded. This works particularly well since a lot of the combat in Collapse is done at close to medium range.

• Upgrading your health and syringe carrying abilities when it comes to traits and powers is crucial to success. While there is a greater influence on stealth and evasive fighting in the DLC than in the base game, it’s still a Far Cry game meaning that when you get into a firefight you’re likely to get shot quite a bit. Even if you’re playing on the easier difficulty it's worthwhile to do this as there are a lot of sections that will put you against large groups of enemies.

• Stay away from flamethrower enemies as much as possible and kill them from a distance. They use their flamethrowers to shoot several-second long bursts of flame at the player, forcing the player to stop to put out the flames and by the time that’s over they could already have another load of flame ready to go. If you aren’t careful you can get locked into an endless cycle of being set on fire. Flamethrower enemies typically only appear in high-difficulty areas, and are particularly deadly in the cramped confines of the New Eden camp.