Far Far West Bounty Hunting Guide: Contracts and Payouts

Bounty hunting is the entire game in Far Far West. There is no campaign and no side mode that rewards you differently. You take a contract from the town sheriff, you execute it, and you either get paid or you do not.

That makes contract reading a core skill rather than a menu habit. This guide treats a bounty as three phases with three separate failure conditions, because confusing them is what turns a winnable run into a lost one.

The contract is a difficulty setting

Steam's description is blunt about the fantasy: take dangerous contracts from the sheriff, track down targets, put them down, collect the bounty. What it does not spell out is that the contract you pick does more work than the difficulty slider next to it.

A contract sets three things at once: enemy density on the route between objectives, the objective set you must clear before the target appears, and the payout ceiling, which scales with the risk asked of you.

Players report the objective types are randomized between runs — destroy nests, activate structures, operate artillery, launch a missile, hold a point. You cannot pre-plan a route before you see the map, so the useful skill is recognizing within the first thirty seconds which type you drew and adjusting pace.

If you are still learning the combat loop, play one tier below what you think you can handle. The reason is not caution for its own sake: a tier you clear repeatably earns more gold per hour than a tier you clear one time in three. See /guide/far-far-west-beginner-guide if your loadout is not settled.

Phase one: objectives before the target

The objective phase is where you accumulate the run's value, and where most optional content lives — treasure, caches, mining outcrops, side activities.

The rule that matters: the boss generally does not spawn until the main objective chain is complete. That gives you control over the clock. You can detour, and the only cost is time and exposure rather than an accelerating boss timer.

Two consequences follow. Clear side objectives before you trigger the final objective, because player write-ups agree that exploration gets more dangerous once extraction pressure starts — anything left for "the way back" tends to get skipped. And do not detour until the squad is dry, because a group that reaches the boss empty-handed has converted a payout into a wipe.

Phase two: the boss is a checkpoint

The boss is not the end of the run. It is the gate between the profitable half and the dangerous half.

Encounters combine a large target with continuous enemy waves, so the fight is two problems at once: burn the target, and stop adds from collapsing your position. Teams that fail almost always fail the second. Burn-focused play is covered further in /bounties/boss-fights.

Practically: assign one job per player, with one player managing adds while the rest burn the target. Pre-stage resources before you trigger — reload, heal, reposition, because there is no reset once it starts. And do not spend your spell loadout on the approach; spells are your burst window, and spending them on trash means the boss fight starts with your best tools on cooldown.

Phase three: extraction is the actual test

This is the phase players underestimate, and the one the store copy actually advertises — "get paid and get out alive, most of the time."

Once the target is down, an extraction point opens and the map gets louder: denser spawns, pressure from directions you had already cleared, and a squad low on everything. Players report that failing to extract costs the run's haul, which reframes the decision — gold in the bank beats gold on the ground.

Three habits pay for themselves. Decide before you fight: if the squad is at half supplies when the boss dies, leave, and do not "just check" a nearby cache. Move as a unit, because a staggered retreat becomes three separate 1v5 fights. And keep one panic tool — a knockback throwable or defensive spell held in reserve is worth more at extraction than anywhere earlier.

Reading a contract before you accept it

Ask three questions in this order.

Can this squad clear the tier while tired? Play your best tier fresh, one lower on the fifth run of the night. Fatigue is the most common reason a group that "always clears tier X" suddenly does not.

Does my build cover both range bands? Objective layouts vary; some force long sightlines, others corridors. A loadout that only works at one distance will meet a contract that punishes it. /weapons/best-weapons-tier-list covers the criteria.

Is the squad's element coverage redundant? Four players on one school cannot trigger cross-element reactions. One acid setup plus one fire trigger beats four fireballs, as /spells/all-spells-guide explains.

The gold loop, and what compounds

Bounties pay gold, gold buys power, power unlocks higher tiers. The loop only compounds if you spend deliberately.

The purchases that survive the next patch are the boring ones: one weapon upgraded repeatedly, a second spell slot so you can run setup plus trigger, and enough utility stock to survive a long detour. What feels good and does not compound is cosmetics and a wide spread of half-upgraded guns.

A simple weekly routine

Run your comfortable tier until you can afford one meaningful upgrade, then push one tier up to test it. If the higher tier fails twice, drop back and bank. Progress here comes from repeatable clears, not from one heroic attempt. Squad roles are covered in /guide/coop-guide.

Not sure which contract shape you are looking at? Bounty types breaks down every objective pattern and what it demands from a squad.