While you're mulling over gun purchases in Far Cry 5, standing at one of the many retail counters and scrolling through racks of pistols and shotguns, take a moment to consider that you don't really need a rocket launcher or SMG to get things done. The humble shovel, once assumed to be a tool just for digging or clonking people over the head, is far more useful than it appears.
In fact, it's more like a javelin. Besides giving people exciting new hood ornaments (you're welcome) you can also nail enemies to trees with a throw of your trusty shovel.
Over on reddit, the shovel has garnered a bit of a fan club—one could perhaps call it a cult—with players comparing their STPM (shovels thrown per minute) and making Who Would Win memes featuring the smiling and ever-so-useful gardening tool:
via Redditor Melbourne_Australia.
One Steam user has even condensed the game down into a review strictly based around shovel-related pros and cons, which are all pros, because there are simply no drawbacks to using Far Cry 5's shovel:
Via 'Chris' on Steam
As for me, I've mostly been hunting with it. Well, maybe it's not technically hunting. Toss a hunk of meat on the ground in Far Cry 5 and some hungry creature will appear as if by magic from the nearest bush and make a beeline for the food, which isn't really how nature works.
Of course, this isn't really how shovels work, either.
You can carry nine shovels with you at all times, and retrieve them after you've thrown them, so you'll never be without a bunch of shovels to sling at man and beast alike.
There are a few animals that aren't quite so easy to hunt as the easily bamboozled dumbwolf seen above. Below, I take on the symbol of America, a bald eagle, with a shovel. Several shovels, actually. Like America itself, it doesn't give up, but like a guy with a shovel, I keep digging in. Make sure you have your sound on you can hear the final, patriotic clonk.
It claws at me after my first miss, then dodges the second throw, smartly retreating when it realizes I mean business. On it's third pass, it screeches down at me right out of the sun. Clever bastard.
I love the shovel so much that I get a bit concerned when I see someone else using one. Shovels are my trademark, lady, not yours, and why are you using it to dig, anyway? Shovels can do so much more than that. Don't you want a killer STPM? Won't you consider accepting the power of shovels into your heart?
Okay, that made me feel a bit bad, so I help her up and leave what she was doing, which I think might have been burying a loved one. Sorry, Miss. I see now that my actions may have been a bit callous in this challenging time. May the shovel guide you.
It's possible I may have gone a bit shovel crazy, but in a game with religious cults, dive-bombing eagles, and guys who don't seem to mind having a handful of shovels embedded in the grill of their cars, who's really going to notice?