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Getting Started with Far Far West

Far Far West is a 1-4 player co-op extraction shooter developed by Evil Raptor and published by Fireshine Games. You play as a robot cowboy dropped into a futuristic frontier crawling with bounties, monsters, and loot. Your job is to complete objectives, collect resources, and extract alive.

Your first few drops will be rough. That is expected. What matters is understanding what you actually keep when you die and what you lose, because the game does not explain this well.

What You Keep When You Die​

This is the single most important thing to understand before your first mission. Far Far West uses a forgiving persistence model, not a brutal roguelike wipe.

You always keep:

  • All Hero XP earned during the run
  • All Weapon XP earned during the run
  • All Weapon Fragments collected toward unlocking new guns

You lose on death:

  • Un-extracted Gold (the in-mission currency)
  • Un-extracted Souls (the meta-progression currency)

That is it. Dying stings, but it does not reset your progress. Every failed run still pushes your account forward. Take risks early and learn the maps without fear of permanent setbacks.

The Core Loop​

Every mission follows the same cycle. You launch from the Saloon hub, drop into one of the game's biome maps, and start working.

  1. Explore and scavenge. Mine gold veins, complete side objectives, locate secrets, and collect Joker cards. There is no timer during this phase. Take your time. Complete everything before engaging the bounty.
  2. Kill the bounty boss. Once you pull boss aggro, the fight begins and an infinite wave of enemies starts escalating. You cannot go back to leisurely exploration after this.
  3. Extract. After the boss dies, you have exactly 90 seconds to reach the extraction ship. The timer is rigid and does not pause for any reason. Get on the ship or lose your Gold and Souls.
tip

There is zero incentive to rush the exploration phase. Mine every gold vein, finish every side quest, and hunt every secret before you trigger the boss fight. The 90-second extraction timer only starts after the boss dies.

Your First Loadout​

You start the game with two weapons: the Leveredge (a primary rifle) and the Revolver (a secondary sidearm). There is no "starter spell" given to you automatically. You unlock elemental magic (such as Fireball or Drain) as you progress.

The Revolver hits hard at close to medium range. The Leveredge handles longer engagements. Focus on learning the reload timing for both, because reloading mid-fight leaves you exposed.

As you earn Weapon Fragments from completing objectives and bounties, you can unlock new weapons permanently at the Saloon. Weapon unlocks cost 300 Gold (reduced from 500 Gold in the May 2026 update). For a full breakdown of every weapon and spell school, read our Combat and Weapons guide.

The Gold Mining Trick​

This one detail will double your income on every run.

When you find a gold node on the map, you have two choices: mine it manually with the provided pickaxe or blow it up with a weapon, explosive barrel, or spell. The game penalizes you for taking the shortcut.

MethodGold Yield
Mine with the pickaxe40 Gold
Destroy with explosives, weapons, or spells20 Gold

That 50% penalty compounds massively over a 30-minute run. Always use the pickaxe. The few extra seconds per node are worth hundreds of Gold by extraction time.

The Saloon Hub​

Between missions you return to the Saloon. This is your central hub for spending currency and managing your loadout.

The economy runs on three resources:

  • Gold: Earned during missions. Spent on mid-mission NPC purchases and weapon unlocks.
  • Souls: Earned during missions. Spent on permanent upgrades and Joker cards from the Gamba Machine.
  • Weapon Fragments: Earned by tracking and completing objectives for a specific weapon. Once you hit the fragment threshold, that weapon permanently joins your armory.

You do not sell weapons. You do not find incrementally better guns in the field. Every weapon is a permanent unlock managed at the Saloon. The in-mission economy revolves around Gold for buying supplies from the Wandering Trader and Joker cards for buffing your loadout between rounds. For a deep breakdown of the Joker system, read our Joker Cards guide.

New Player Traps​

Destroying Gold Nodes​

Already covered above, but it is worth repeating: do not use weapons or spells on gold veins. Mine them manually. New players who do not know this mechanic consistently report feeling "Gold starved" when the real problem is their harvesting method.

Ignoring Side Objectives Before the Boss​

Many players rush straight to the bounty target. This triggers the escalating enemy waves and the 90-second extraction timer. You cannot go back and explore after the boss fight starts. Clear the map first, fight the boss second.

Thinking Death Resets Everything​

New players rage-quit because they assume dying wipes their character progress. It does not. You keep all XP and Fragments. Only un-extracted Gold and Souls are forfeited. Take risks. Experiment. A failed run where you explored and learned the map is more valuable than a safe run where you extracted with 50 Gold.