So, I'm having a real hard time getting the stealth bonus for liberating outposts and was hoping you guys might have some tips. It seems like every time I try someone locates me and it just turns into a bloodbath.

I will usually start from a fair distance away and begin tagging all the enemies I can find. Next, I'll use either my silenced sniper rifle or bow to start picking guys off. It's at this point things begin to go downhill. If I manage to kill a guy and there are no other guards nearby, I'm usually okay to move on to the next dude. However, more often then not, my first shot will either miss (with the bow) or not kill the guy (with the sniper rifle, unless I get a headshot) and the idiot will start yelling and freaking out and before I know it the whole outpost is next to him and they someone locate me and sound the alarms. Aside from sneaking around and just knifing everyone in one of the very first outposts, I have never managed to successfully silently liberate one. More often then not I will begin with a silent approach, then just say "fuck it" when things go bad and mow everyone down with a shotgun.

So, yeah. Any tips?

Shoot the alarms before shooting guys. Also, I had better results sneaking around with my knife after tagging every enemy.

If there's a caged animal in the outpost, use it to your advantage to distract the enemies and thin them out. When they're shooting a tiger, they won't freak out from your sniper rifle fire.

To be fair, though, I think the "fuck it" attitude is the perfect attitude for this game. Improvise, dude. You'll get enough XP from other things, you don't need the bonus. And blowing shit up in FC3 is rad.

DESTROY (FROM A DISTANCE).

OR.

DISABLE (UP CLOSE).

THE.

BRIGHT RED ALARM BOXES.

Unless you know a guy is way off the beaten path where no one will see him, don't just shoot him with the bow. The game can be a bit finicky about guys you shoot with the bow being heard too so you need to be extra sure they are far away from people and off the beaten path. It's not as good of a stealth weapon as you might imagine.

The best method is really always getting right in there close and using the takedowns were possible and then the bow when you need to.

• Make sure to keep an eye out for the holes in the fences that every outpost has because those are very useful ways to get in.
• Upgrade to the takedown that allows you to move bodies after as soon as you can. The other take downs are also very useful but this one is essential to stealth
• Make liberal use of rocks. You can use them to lure guards away where you can get a takedown on them unseen but also remember to use them to distract. If you throw one in front of all the guards they will all look at it, so you can very easily sneak by for example. Or you can throw one in front of two guards and one will go investigate while the other looks on. You can use a take down on the guy who stays put and have enough time to deal with the other unseen.
• Make the first priority getting to the alarm and hitting the action button to disable it. They usually are not heavily guarded.
• Once you have the chain takedowns and other group ones, things are a lot easier. Once you figure out how those work you can stealth kill three guys relatively easy. It's just a matter of figuring that out.
• Look for ledges to climb on. Getting to high ground is made much easier this way, it'll take you a bit to realize what to look out for. You can take out snipers in those spots and also get the falling takedowns.

I thought I remembered there being a tutorial about not shooting the alarm boxes because it only disables that one box and doesn't affect the sirens? Or does that not apply to outposts, or am I remembering wrong?

it's all about throwing rocks

@PoisonJam7 said:

I thought I remembered there being a tutorial about not shooting the alarm boxes because it only disables that one box and doesn't affect the sirens? Or does that not apply to outposts, or am I remembering wrong?

I believe it works fine, but as I suggest you can just turn them off.

I'm the type to get up close anyways.

You could try sneaking up to one of the alarm boxes and interacting with it to disable all alarms. Then you can dispatch the enemies any way you want, even noisily, and you'll get the XP bonus for not allowing reinforcements. Another tip is to remember to throw rocks to distract enemies. Another option is to look for caged animals and shoot the cage with a silent weapon, then using the ensuing commotion to either kill the remaining enemies or disable the alarms, yourself, then mop up. Finally, I've often just resorted to using explosives to blow up all of the alarm boxes, which is usually not too hard since there's typically only 2 of them. Between the grenade launcher, the rocket launcher, thrown grenades, and explosive arrows, there are plenty of ways of quickly producing explosions.

I'm using the silenced sniper rifle. You can literally kill two dudes run away, come back and they're still dead. Jusy rinse and repeat.

If you miss a shot, the enemies will usually know where it came from. All you have to do is keep hidden, keep movinh and circle around them. They'll just keep moving towards your last known position. You could also use distractions. If you blow up a barrel or C4, they'll go running towards the explosion instead of you.

@PoisonJam7: If you miss with the rifle and they go on alert, but haven't seen you yet, just fucking book it. They won't sound the alarm unless they actually see you, even if they have a dead bro, so a lot of times it's perfectly feasible to haul ass to a different location before they spread out and find you, then continue your sniping assault. By the end of the game I got pretty good at picking off entire camps with the sniper rifle. The .50 cal you eventually get will take care of a lot of those issues, if you don't have it already, because it pretty much kills anything in one shot no matter where you hit them, except for the heavies, but it enables run of the mill headshots for them.

@Fattony12000 said:

DESTROY (FROM A DISTANCE).

OR.

DISABLE (UP CLOSE).

THE.

BRIGHT RED ALARM BOXES.

@PoisonJam7: The one thing you have to understand is that the AI can still inuit your position, or triangulate your general location based on where the shot was fired, assuming they actually witness one of their allies being shot. So ideally, if your picking them off from a distance, you want to ensure that the others don't witness your shots. If they're alerted after the fact, once they find a body, they'll freak out a bit but they won't investigate your position. However, if they're alerted while witnessing one of their allies being shot, that's when their awareness really heightens and they begin converging on the position from where the last shot was fired.

And just to be clear, once you alert them in any way, the AI awareness does heighten, so it becomes easier for them to detect you.

I actually had no clue you could shoot the boxes...... 

@the_OFFICIAL_jAPanese_teaBAG: you can shoot the box, but it only disables that specific alarm panel. the others will still be active, unless you physically disable the panel up close. besides, if the enemies are already going for the alarm, you've already missed the big xp payoff in taking the outpost undetected. plus, once the outpost is yours, you're stuck with these ugly, broken alarm panels. who needs that aggravation.

@PoisonJam7:

1: Sniping is great but do it from as far away as you can manage and stick to high ground when possible. Always hit shift before you fire to steady, always go for the head shot. If you can't get a clean headshot change position until you can. If you can't period move in closer for the bow. If you still somehow can't pull it off with the bow never underestimate the power of throwing a stinking rock. All you need for a clean take down is for them to be looking in the wrong direction for a few seconds. The guards will always look where the rock hit a surface or landed, they will only look at where it was thrown from after investigating the sound source first.

2: Kill dudes who are alone first. The other guys won't notice them go down and it thins the herd. Specifically take out snipers in nests early. They almost never are being seen by others and they normally have some of the best vantage points to see you.

3: Lay low. Even if you kill a dude, they find the body, they rush out looking for you..... nothing bad happens if they don't actually see you. They won't trip the alarm, ever, unless they actually spot you. So, even though they know "someone is there" you are still undetected because they didn't actually see you. Don't be afraid to pick off 2-3 guys knowing they will be found. Run away and just wait a minute or two for things to calm down.

4: That bear in the cage sure is a mean sob if he gets you in melee. Just saying I watched a bear take out a heavy and two pirates once on his own. By the time he was done all I had to do was snipe the sniper (drumroll), and stealth takedown two dudes who where on opposite sides of the camp.

5: If you screw up let them kill you. You lose all your progress but the game still spawns you near the offending camp.

PS: You can one shot kill the heavies with a headshot even in early game without the 50 cal, you just have to hit them in the back of the head. Easier said than done I know, but it can be done.

Sniping everyone is actually pretty easy.

if you get detected just run the fuck away. The enemies will eventually return to their original routes. You could lay some C4 around your sniping spot too. If they get close to your location just blow them up.

1. Spot everyone
2. Shoot any animal cages with a silent weapon
3. Disable the alarms by interacting with one directly
4. Use rocks to your advantage to lure guards
5. Knife takedowns + drag backwards move will help with hiding bodies
6. The chain takedown move will come in handy
7. Most importantly: be patient and observe guard paths. Use rocks if they stop moving for too long.

Good luck!

Some of them are easier then others. The ones with only like 4 guys are simple and if you just snipe them all with a silencer they'll never even know you were there. 
 
You can also usually shoot the alarm as there only ever seems to be one at the outposts- so they wont be able to use it. I've actually had bad guys shoot it on accident before, which was kind of funny. 
 
When you can try to take it from the opposite side of the direction they are facing. This is not always possible as sometimes it's on the side of a  hill coming out from a mine or something, but often it's the best way.  
 
Make use of the animals in cages. It's best to do this when you've taken out a couple guys though, usually full force they destroy the animal in seconds with little regard. There are a few times when you can use that to your advantage but usually it's not as helpful. 
 
Get all the take down types so you can take down from above and below giving you more stealth options. Sometimes it's better to go at it from above and other times from below. Like if they are on the side of a hill or have a lot of buildings around them taking them down from above could be a useful option. If they are near water it's useful to be able to do it from below. Plus all the other cool ones help with this too if you get good using them in a chain. 
 
Play around with your options; you'll eventually find what works best for you.

All good advice so far, one thing I haven't seen mentioned is using c4 as a distraction to lure guards out of a camp. I've driven cars as close as I can and placed c4 on it. Then flanked around to the alarm box, blew the c4, snuck in to disable the alarms and picked off the guards as the come back. This is helpful when the outpost have the heavy armor guards since melee takedowns don't work with them without specific upgrades.

Use the combat syringe the highlights all human enemies and then go to town with the silenced sniper rifle.

A lot of good advice here and my personal take is the meticulous scouting, sniping and moving position. However, I once let a bear loose and watched it kill everyone in the camp minus the sniper...who I shot in the face. Boom. Outpost taken. When I loaded back in my Rakyat warriors shot the shit outta the bear and I got a skin out of it.

Well, I got my stealth trophy by accident. I found a rock outcropping overlooking a small outpost, so I brought out the RPG and emptied the entire clip into the base.

Lot of explosions and fire, pirates running around screaming, then…silence. Base flag switches to blue and I get a stealth capture trophy. Must have managed to knock out all the alarm boxes during the barrage.

You mileage may vary. I really really enjoy this game.

Rocks, knife throw takedowns, and the Shredder.

Distract, chain kill stragglers or patrols and then mow down the rest.

I find the knife far more useful than any other stealth weapon in this game. I usually spot everyone, then do my best to knife dudes.

I have yet to pick off dudes with a sniper rifle without their buddies noticing and beginning to move toward me. Certainly there are ways to do it, but I just feel like the knife is a much better stealth tool with a lot of versatility.

'Course, I'm also the guy that loaded up a car with C4 and sent it careening into an outpost earlier today. I spend a lot of time going into these things with the biggest bang possible.

Guards will react upon spotting that an alarm has been shot, so if you're going that way you must make sure you can nail all the alarm posts. Usually though they can still be handled even after spotting a shot up alarm system.

I actually would vary my approach depending upon the base set up. Take into account number of sentries, what types and LoS they have and ease of access. Some bases are actually way easy to just sneak into and you can switch off all the alarms by getting to one of them.

Keep in mind that releasing any caged animals will not trigger the guards against you. At least, never did for me.

Edit: Regrettably though I never got around to launching a vehicle with C4 plastered on it into a base at speed. Not exactly a quiet entrance I know.

1. Shoot yourself in the head.

2. Become Ghost.

3. Perform stealth assault.

4. Wait for Aragorn to relieve you.

Shoot the alarms before shooting guys. Also, I had better results sneaking around with my knife after tagging every enemy.

If there's a caged animal in the outpost, use it to your advantage to distract the enemies and thin them out. When they're shooting a tiger, they won't freak out from your sniper rifle fire.

To be fair, though, I think the "fuck it" attitude is the perfect attitude for this game. Improvise, dude. You'll get enough XP from other things, you don't need the bonus. And blowing shit up in FC3 is rad.

@Demoskinos: I thought you only needed 2 for that skill.....

I like to scout and tag from high ground maybe using the heightened senses drug. then I'll look for natural funnel-points or paths and mine them up. switch to c4 and get a distraction ready then use rocks to get them out into the mines. if there's a bear or tiger in a cage great! suppressed weapon to open that up. now a tiger is ripping in to them, dude just stepped on a mine, I hit the C4 (hopefully on a vehicle) then use suppressed weapon on any barrels or fuck it switch right to the launcher and empty it. maybe sprint in for some chain-stabby.

GOTY

@believer258 said:

I find the knife far more useful than any other stealth weapon in this game. I usually spot everyone, then do my best to knife dudes.

I have yet to pick off dudes with a sniper rifle without their buddies noticing and beginning to move toward me. Certainly there are ways to do it, but I just feel like the knife is a much better stealth tool with a lot of versatility.

'Course, I'm also the guy that loaded up a car with C4 and sent it careening into an outpost earlier today. I spend a lot of time going into these things with the biggest bang possible.

I feel this is a case for a ton of weapons in this game, even with the recurve bow. If there's a guy at least ten or so feet away from another guy, if they get pinged with an arrow, they'll almost always be heard by the guy I didn't take down. I kind of wish you could move bodies after you take them down, and not just after a knife takedown. It would be super useful to move bodies since the odds of another guy seeing a dead body, (even through grass) is kind of ridiculous and crazy.

I just sniped my way through most of the outposts, though early on the "heavy" enemies were really annoying. If you make sure you are well hidden, they won't find you and won't raise the alarm. Or you can just sneak in and disable a box, and go apeshit on the place without any worry of reinforcements arriving.

Tag them first, then let the animal out of it's cage second, then distract them with a rock, and disable all the alarms, then silently take the rest out one by one.

Far Cry 3 is the sniping game that every other sniping game wants to be. Scout the place out, mark your targets, find a nice vantage point where it's easy to change position, free any wild animal (they might as well do some of the work) and just start picking guys off when they're out of sight of the others. Should you be left with groups of guys you might want to sneak in and finish them off up close.

Goddamn that game is great!

The AI gets weird flashes of clairvoyant omniscience sometimes. I'll sneak around and plug a guy with an arrow, and when others in the outpost discover his body they'll sprint to the exact spot at which I'm standing, or was standing when I fired the arrow, even if no one was alerted immediately by the thwip of the bowshot.

On one occasion, I was perfectly hidden some two dozen meters away from the group of pirates before one of them blew himself up with a grenade. I hadn't begun to attack them in the slightest to provoke this, but regardless, the surviving pirates, now panicked from the explosion, charged in unison to my exact spot. I hadn't been spotted. I hadn't been identified. The group of them simply ordained, from behind a cluster of buildings, that my specific covering of underbrush was the place to go. And of course, that's when I was finally noticed and murdered.

Yeah the game has this stupid thing where if you miss your headshot, everyone seems to know where you're shooting from, but if you kill the guy, they don't seem to care.

Just pick off anyone who is isolated, don't miss your shots, shoot the alarm boxes, or go in like I do and kinda rush for the nearest one, to turn the alarm system off, and then go knife crazy.

I never really liked doing it stealthily, the only times I had fun doing it was when I had unleashed a tiger and then they threw molotovs everywhere and killed themselves. I just watched the carnage unfold. I generally like to just rush for an alarm box then go on a shotgun frenzy.

Yeah my best way was tag then alarms then sneak to each enemy and knife them, shooting always messed it up.

Remember to use your rocks to spread out the guards, get the perk that when you stab a guy, you can drag him back. So the other guards dont spot his body.