Hope County

Hope County is a remote and rural fictional county in the state of Montana, United States, and is the main setting of Far Cry 5, Far Cry New Dawn, Inside Eden's Gate and Far Cry Absolution.2017-05-22, Far Cry 5’s first teaser welcomes you to Montana. Polygon, accessed on 2017-05-24 The county has been slowly taken over by the Project at Eden's Gate doomsday cult over the years, through buying the majority of the farmlands, the local radio stations, and by paying off most of the staff of the local Sheriff force. However, with the arrival of the Junior Deputy, the silent takeover turned into violence and bloodshed.
== Geography ==
The county is divided into five distinct sections (two small areas and three major regions)
=== Dutch's Island ===
Dutch's Island is the smallest region in the game, and the island where Dutch's doomsday bunker is located. This is where the player starts the campaign, and it serves as a tutorial region that must be liberated before the Holland Valley, Henbane River and Whitetail Mountains are unlocked.
=== Holland Valley ===
Holland Valley is the farming region of Hope County. It is largely composed of flatlands filled with farms and arable land. During the years leading up to the events of Far Cry 5, John Seed took great efforts to gain most of the local farmlands by legal means. After the violent takeover of the cult, the region completely falls under John's control, who plans to reap whatever he can from the locals. Holland Valley houses the county's largest settlement, Fall's End. Deputy Joey Hudson is held hostage in this region by John Seed.
=== Henbane River ===
Henbane River is the main recreational region of Hope County, with its name coming from the large river that divides it. Its landscape mostly consists of bungalows and hot springs. The region is controlled by Faith Seed, who is relying on field labor to produce the drug known as Bliss, which is used to convert the locals into angels; Marshal Cameron Burke is also subject to such treatment while being kept hostage by Faith. Resistance operations are stationed at the Hope County Jail, under control by the Hope County Cougars. They are led by Mayor Virgil Minkler and Sheriff Earl Whitehorse.
=== Whitetail Mountains ===
The Whitetail Mountains mountainous region of the county in the north, full of wildlife and secrets. The region is ruled by Jacob Seed, who is using the area as a training ground and staging area for the cult's armed forces. The region is also home to many preppers and survivalists who oppose the cult, with the Whitetail Militia being the largest of them. Deputy Staci Pratt is held captive by Jacob Seed in the Whitetail Mountains stronghold of the cult.
=== Cult's Compound ===
The Cult's Compound is the largest island in the game that is located in the center of the map. It appears at the prologue of the game. It then stays locked for the duration of the campaign, until all three Heralds (John, Jacob, and Faith) have been defeated.
== The Fate of the County ==
Depending on the chosen Far Cry 5 ending, the fate of Hope County unfolds as follows:
If the Junior Deputy refuses to arrest Joseph Seed at the beginning of the game, the task force retreats from the compound, despite the outcries of Marshal Burke, who threatens Sheriff Whitehorse and the Junior Deputy of arresting them. Whitehorse then says that the Deputy made the only logical choice: had they arrested Seed, none of them would leave alive. He then tells the Marshal that they will summon reinforcements, implying that he intends to return soon with more officers to subdue Eden's Gate. To unlock this ending, simply do not press any button when prompted to arrest Seed in the Prologue mission.
=== Resist ===
* If the Junior Deputy fights Joseph Seed, the Father is eventually defeated and arrested. However, once he is cuffed, nuclear bombs detonate around Hope County, and the valley quickly bursts into flames, proving that Joseph Seed was right all along about the Collapse. In this ending, Hope County suffers catastrophic damage. All infrastructure on the surface is either badly damaged or completely destroyed and the valley's flora is mostly reduced to ashes due to the heat blasts from the bombs. Hope County's fauna is also greatly affected as most of the animals either perish in the flames or die from other causes. Thanks to the numerous bunkers in Hope County, many of the locals are able to take shelter and survive, anyone unable to make it to a bunker most likely perish. The Junior Deputy, alongside Whitehorse, Pratt, Hudson and Joseph, race in a truck to Dutch's Bunker to escape the chaos but everyone apart from The Deputy and Joseph are killed after they crash into a falling tree. Joseph carries an unconscious Deputy to Dutch's bunker, with Dutch presumably being killed by Joseph. Joseph unilaterally declares the Deputy his 'child', and the screen slowly fades to black.
Far Cry New Dawn follows up the Resist ending.
=== Walk Away ===
* If the Junior Deputy accepts Joseph Seed's offer to walk away, the Father lets the Deputy's colleagues go. while the rest of their allies are taken into Joseph's church. Despite protests from Deputy Hudson, Sheriff Whitehorse and his staff leave the compound by car. Whitehorse then tells his deputies that he'll go through with his original plan, by driving to Missoula and asking for reinforcements to take down the cult for good. Once he turns on the car radio, the Junior Deputy falls into Jacob's brainwashing, potentially killing their colleagues. It is unknown if Hope County gets nuked in this ending.
The game promptly resets the player and the game world to the state they were in before the final confrontation. However, if the player chooses the Walk Away ending, they will not have access to the Outpost Master and New Game+ features, and the 'Where It All Began' mission will remain active, effectively indicating that the only ending that has a follow up of the story is the Resist Ending, which takes place in the spin-off Far Cry New Dawn.
==Far Cry New Dawn==
The bombs that leveled Hope County brought forth years of nuclear winter and radioactive rain. However, six years after the events of Far Cry 5, the fallout settled and nature began to reclaim the county. By then, the appearance of Hope County had radically changed. A vast amount of the Henbane River had been irradiated, and the Collapse caused the McKinley Dam to burst, causing much of the Whitetail Mountains to flood. Places like Fall's End were buried under dirt and debris. Wildlife in the area mutated due to the radiation, and foreign species began to migrate into the valley.
Seventeen years after the events of Far Cry 5, the ashen and desolate Hope County became vibrant and colorful due to a super-bloom. What little remained of the pre-war settlements and structures were largely overgrown and left to decay. Survivor communities grew from the rubble, with the two largest being Prosperity and New Eden. However, the peace of the apocalypse was shattered when a group of bandits known as the Highwaymen invaded the county, sparking a war between them, the Hope County survivors, and the members of New Eden.
==Far Cry 6==
In Far Cry 6, dialogues from NPCs, the letter from Hurk Drubman, Jr. about sending Boomer to Yara and the Letter from Seed Family to Lorenzo's Riel at Oceguera Farm implies that Hurk, Seed Family and most of the county are alive as of 2021.
Since the world was not destroyed in 2018, it's likely that the wave of crimes and sectarian violence in Hope County did not happen, or at least nowhere near the level seen in Far Cry 5, as the Seed Family are still alive in Hope County with public online presence as of late 2021, likely because they were not breaking the laws, at least not to the point of being confronted by US law enforcements, as the US government is not distracted by WW3 in this case.
By the time Dani Rojas listened to the news on Miami beach about the pandemic, entire Hope County was likely under lockdown like the rest of the US.
In the Far Cry 6 DLC Joseph: Collapse, a corrupted version of Hope County appears inside Joseph Seed's mind, taking place after Resist Ending and before New Dawn, as Joseph struggled with post apocalyptic survival in the bunker and foresaw his failures in saving his son.
== Infrastructure ==
=== Road ===
Despite the presence of a few highways and paved roads, most of Hope County contains dirt roads.
=== Rail ===
Hope County was at some point serviced by the now abandoned Hope County Railway Line. There were at least 2 train stations in the county - Henbane River Station and Holland Valley Station. While the rail line definitely served industrial purposes, being connected to the Baron Lumber Mill and Linero Building Supplies, it is unknown if the above stations were used to service passengers.
== Trivia ==
* While not based on any particular existing Montana county, Ubisoft took inspiration from several real-life locations when creating Hope County for Far Cry 5. The first promotional videos of the game were shot in and around Great Falls, Cascade County (which may also have inspired the name of Fall's End). However, based on its low population density and geography (especially considering that its largest settlement, Fall's End, is just a small town), the in-game county itself seems to be inspired by extremely low-population Montana counties without any large metropolitan area, such as Petroleum County, Treasure County, or Golden Valley County.
* During the Prologue mission, Marshall Burke tells the Junior Deputy that by driving northeast, they can reach Missoula "in a few hours", and get help. Although the real-world Missoula County is bordered by the State of Idaho to the southwest, this statement suggests that in the Far Cry universe, Hope County situates itself within the vicinity of the real-world Lolo National Forest and the Bitterroot Mountain Range.
*In Far Cry, it's implied that Hope County is somewhere in the the southwest of Missoula County, although in real life Montana, the southwest of Missoula County is only bordered to Mineral County, Ravalli County and State of Idaho.
* Hope County is traversed from east-to-west by a state highway, S-224, which enters and exits via mountain tunnels. S-224 is an actual Montana state highway, but it instead runs north-to-south in Liberty County, on the Canadian border.
*There is an abandoned railway line (possibly abandoned because of the cult). But unlike the roads which go to collapse tunnels, the railway lines don't seem to connect to Montana's mainlines.
*Before the events of Far Cry 5, Hope County had a decent tourist industry.
*It is theorized the U.S. Government is fully aware of the events occurring in Far Cry 5 but are not getting involved on purpose, possibly to observe how the average American citizen reacts to an invading force such as The Project of Eden's Gate. This theory is backed up by the presence of Willis Huntley, a CIA agent, in Hope County, and numerous government documents mentioning the cult and its activities. 
== Gallery ==
Far cry 5 1.jpg|The local life
Far cry 5 3.jpg|A local farmer transporting hay
IMG 2681.jpg|Hope County Loading Screen (Post Ending, Resist Ending)
Hope County FC5.jpeg|The grassy fields
File:Screenshot0007.jpg|Hope County in New Dawn
== References ==
it:Hope County
pt-br:Hope County
pl:Hope County
ru:Округ Хоуп
Category:Far Cry 5 locations
Category:Far Cry New Dawn locations
Category:Far Cry Absolution
Category:Inside Eden's Gate