How to earn Ethanol quickly in Far Cry New Dawn

There is a war for the future of Hope County raging across the fluorescent landscapes of Far Cry New Dawn, and you’re here to make sure the right side wins. As the new sheriff (sorry, “Captain of Security”) in town, your fully customisable character will be liberating the land from the Highwaymen, outpost by outpost, accruing all manner of resources along the way, the most important of which is Far Cry New Dawn Ethanol. 

This is one of your chief forms of currency in Far Cry New Dawn, replacing Far Cry 5’s Resistance Points, used to upgrade your Homebase, access new story missions and abilities, and push the Highwaymen out of Montana for good. While you’ll earn Ethanol for a variety of activities in Far Cry New Dawn, some achievements will net you more than others, meaning there’s definitely more effective ways to go about stockpiling them as quickly as possible. Below is a list of every Ethanol yielding excursion in Far Cry New Dawn, and how much of the liquid motor fuel you'll receive for each one.

  • Liberate a 0 Star Outpost - 100 Ethanol (+25 undetected bonus)
  • Scavenge a 1 Star Outpost - 50 Ethanol
  • Liberate a 1 Star Outpost - 200 Ethanol (+75 undetected bonus)
  • Scavenge a 2 Star Outpost - 100 Ethanol
  • Liberate a 2 Star Outpost - 300 Ethanol (+150 undetected bonus)
  • Scavenge a 3 Star Outpost - 150 Ethanol 
  • Liberate a 3 Star outpost  - 300 Ethanol (+150 undetected bonus)
  • Loot a supply drop - Between 30 to 50 Ethanol
  • Commandeer Ethanol truck - 75 Ethanol

As you can probably already tell, the best way to collect Ethanol is by liberating and scavenging (i.e. letting the Highwaymen recapture) Outposts, as doing so will upgrade that Outpost’s Star Rating each time, which in turn increases the amount of Ethanol you’ll receive for liberating and scavenging it again. This Star Rating will max out after the third liberation, but you can keep liberating and scavenging the same 3 Star Outpost as many times as you wish, for a grand total of 450 Ethanol each time (600 if you manage to liberate it undetected). 

That said, 2 or 3 Star Outposts are tough cookies to crack, manned by Elite guards, mortar stations, and even bomber dogs, so your character, weapons, and Homebase ought to be heavily upgraded in accordance, otherwise you’ll be wasting your time fighting an uphill battle against overpowered Highwaymen. With that in mind, try liberating a variety of different Outposts across the map up to Level 2, and wait until you’re ranked high enough before taking on these higher tier challenges. 

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Otherwise, Supply Drops provide you with quick, light doses of Ethanol when discovered across the map but - for the most part - commandeering Ethanol trucks and taking them back to Prosperity or a liberated Outpost for 75 Ethanol just isn’t worth the time, especially as there’s a likelihood it’ll be blown up by Highwaymen along the way. You’ll be able to spend Ethanol to upgrade any of the different Facilities of your Homebase at Prosperity, but it’s worth investing the points into specific sectors to accelerate your Ethanol yields. 

For example, rather than spending Ethanol on the Cartography Facility to unlock access to Treasure Maps, upgrade your Workbench, Infirmary, and Training Camp to rank up your weapons, health, and Guns for Hire, which in turn will give you the tools you need to liberate level 3 Outposts for even more Ethanol. You get the idea. You will need to upgrade every Homebase Facility at certain parts of the campaign to unlock access to new chapters in the story, but you’re otherwise free to spend the Ethanol how you wish. 

And that should be everything for finding Ethanol in Hope County. For more help with surviving the Montanan apocalypse, read up on our best Far Cry New Dawn tips.

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Alex Avard

I'm GamesRadar's Features Writer, which makes me responsible for gracing the internet with as many of my words as possible, including reviews, previews, interviews, and more. Lucky internet!