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The problem with open world sandbox games is that the more you win, the more boring the world gets. (I think I'm the only person in the world that really enjoyed Far Cry 2's respawning outposts).

The first time I played InFamous, I did every side mission. By the end of it, I had all these totally super sweet powers...and nobody to use them on! Saints Row, same thing! By the time you get the cool guns, you've cleared half the map and there's nobody to do drive-by RPG'ings at.

I told myself this wouldn't happen with Far Cry 3. As soon as I figured out that clearing outposts prevented enemies from spawning, I stopped doing it. Here's a quick graphic of my progress so far:

Rook Island

And it's working! When I travel from mission to mission, I actually have to be on my guard! Random encounters happen! I get to continuously murder people with bullets. I am 100% ok with this.

But...whenever I run out of murdering ammo, I have to trek halfway across the continent to find a friendly gun store. And God forbid I die...respawning sets me so far back from my goal it's like I'm playing EVE Online. I just feel like I've traded one drudge for another. Also, I'm worried that there might be in-game rewards (such as the radio towers = free guns) for clearing outposts that I'm not getting.

Am I missing out on anything important by not clearing outposts and radio towers?

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You really ought to be clearing radio towers; they reveal the minimap in the area, give you free guns, and provide a nearby respawn point (though you can't fast-travel to them). The latter benefit isn't that useful if you're on PC - even though it's not listed in the controls, F9 will quicksave and F11 will quickload, unless you're currently in a mission area in which case the game seems determined to become Call of Far Cry.

Clearing outposts is a take it or leave it sort of thing - as I'm sure you're aware, every cleared outpost becomes a fast travel location which can make getting around the island significantly easier, and provides you with an automated store for ammo refills. Some outposts have collectibles in them, if you're in to that sort of thing.

One less-obvious benefit of clearing outposts is that doing so usually unlocks some local quests. Normally, these are the "go here, stab man with knife" sort of things, or random local color; usually not the sort of thing that's gamebreaking to miss.

However, the big thing you're missing by not clearing outposts are the rare Path of the Hunter quests. A significant number of them have you hunt down rare, adjectival beasts that are impossible to find otherwise; those beasties are used to craft top-tier equipment like ammo pouches or loot rucksacks. If you want to have the biggest bags of all (and really, who doesn't?) you're going to need to clear outposts.

So, that being said, in your situation I would recommend the following:

  1. Activate all radio towers, unless for some reason you object to seeing the minimap in which case you should become friends with quicksave/quickreload.
  2. Use a list of Path of the Hunter quests to figure out which outposts to liberate; the ones for {adjective} {animal} are for rare animals you won't find outside of these quests (e.g, Black Panther, One-Horn Buffalo). Liberating these outposts should also give you a smattering of fast-travel points in useful areas on the northern island, though there aren't as many on the southern island so you'll probably want to grab a few extra there.
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    You forgot one thing tho. If you clear an outpost the map goes from red to normal meaning you won't see any enemies there anymore.
    – Lyrion
    Jan 11, 2013 at 7:12
  • @Lyrion think the asker already figured this out, hence the question.
    – Colin
    Jan 11, 2013 at 7:34
  • @Colin Ah you are right, it's early tho I must have read over it :p
    – Lyrion
    Jan 11, 2013 at 7:46
  • Good call, especially on the Path of the Hunter quests. Didn't even know those existed. Thanks!
    – Steve V.
    Jan 11, 2013 at 22:16
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    My advice here would be stop clearing outposts on the first island until you progress the story to the point of gaining access to the second island. At this point I would go back and finish off clearing the first island as you won't be spending much time there and it will allow you to gain significant skills and upgrades to help with the much tougher second island troops while still allowing for the random encounters on the second island.
    – Colin
    Jan 14, 2013 at 0:17
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There are 2 things that you can miss out on if you stop clearing outposts.

Clearing 17 outposts will unlock a signature weapon named "Shadow".

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You must clear 2 outposts without being spotted if you want to unlock the stealth perk in the Spider skill tree.

  • • Ninja Step: 2 Outposts Liberated without being detected; Lowers the amount of noise you make while walking and sprinting.

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Even if you clear all the outposts, you can still find enemies at the airstrip or Hoyt's compound. (however you might have to walk around them a bit to allow pirates and troopers to spawn)

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I'm a little late to the game but don't worry about cleaning out the outposts unless u want to get 100%. Which is what i did then i reset the outposts and unlocked a few throughout the islands. But if you get rid of all of them u won't have any enemies to kill just animals. Which gets boring. So go for 100%( your choice) but keep more than enough outposts open for enemies hunting you. Get all radio towers. I did so i know go about my far cry 3 day with the bushman(sig), a flamethrower, a bow with 5 of each special arrows(fire & explosive(fire is better) and a grenade launcher for those pesky roadblocks.

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