Challenge mode - Share your stories, opinions & times!

[Scyzara]

As we currently lack challenge mode leaderboards I just wanted to open a thread to give people the chance to talk about their experiences with the two new challenges "The Hunted, Part One" and "Hopeless Rescue" and possibly compare their results.

I've played both challenges once so far and they were both great fun. Hunted was definitely more exciting for me, though. But maybe that was because the second part of Hopeless Rescue is pretty much the same as the Sea to summit challenge (Congratulations @cowboymrh, your idea really made it into the game! ) so it wasn't all new for me. 

I'll definitely try to improve both of my times in the future, but for the time being I'm just happy I somehow made it alive on my first attempts. 

Thank you Hinterland team for this awesome new way to experience the game! Just can't wait to finally turn the tables and kill the evil bear in "The Hunted, Part Two"!

 

PS: 

If you want to share any particular tips for a challenge, please make sure to use a spoiler tag! ([.spoiler] just without dot)^^

[TSmith]

[MueckE]

hmm, just finished the bear challenge 1 day, 11 hours, 24 minutes

(didnt make a screenshot :))

My strategy: (spoiler)

-after the attack i went inside the basement and slept for 7h ( i wanted to have enough time to go to a better place) after that i had something over 30 condition, looted the basement, went out again

-i was shocked that the normal path downhill to the river was blocked, but i didnt want to fight to wolves and have to run so far. So i "climbed" down the cliff directly to the river and straight to the farmstead. there i checked for better clothes, took the water out of the toilet and slept through the night to heal up

-next morning i went straight east towards signal hill to the mine to hydro dam (had no encounters there), inside the cave, i made a fire and slept für 2h, than went to hydro dam

-inside hydro dam i had to fight fluffy (forgot to reload the flaregun :p) and went on to logging camp

-as soon i left hydro dam, the bear came after me and i had to use the flaregun

-at the logging camp i slept again for 2h to heal/warm up a little than headed towards lone cabin-unnamed pond - fought a wolf at unnamed pond (2h of daylight left, about 50 condition)

than went straight to trappers (one flare for the wolf in the valley between unnamed pond and trappers)

I didnt loot anything except sticks and everything that was directly on the way. You basicly dont have to loot anything ecept the basement at the beginning and maybe a few cattails for tinder.

It is possible to make the run way faster if you use the nighttime and dont sleep throu it. You dont need anything to loot outside of the basement. Next time, i will go straight from skeeter's to the mine and sleep there only for 4h total. And if i can scare fluffy away, than i am sure that you can make it in half of the time

,

 

[Morgan le Fay]

I'm 0 for 6 or 7 now on The Hunted, Part 1. My strategy for all but the last run-through was to try to make it down off of Skeeter's Ridge and head to the Pleasant Valley Farmhouse as soon as I could. I have yet to make it to the farmhouse.

I just finished my longest attempt so far. I lasted 7 days. After holing up in the basement for a couple of days to heal (and scavenge food), I looted the cars at the Point of Disagreement and then spent a night in the abandoned prepper's cache. I then went to Timberwolf Mountain with the idea of getting supplies (I had no shoes, very little clothing, and no food, plus no means of trapping rabbits or killing deer to get food).

I hung out there for about 3 days or so, and raided some of the storage crates nearest to the Mountaineer's Hut. I saw a wolf kill a deer, so was hoping to scavenge for some gut, but I was never able to find the carcass.

I made it back down to Pleasant Valley, and headed for the hunter's blind coming down off of Skeeter's Ridge. I was hoping to build a fire there and get some rest (by that time I was exhausted and my health was going down, plus freezing), but a blizzard happened (yay...not), so I stuck myself with a stim pen and just blindly ran, hoping to make it to Three Strikes Farmhouse and at least be able to build a fire and get some rest.

That worked, until the Magical Never-Ending Blizzard....well...never ended. So I could never warm back up and my health was at like 17%, and the bear was frickin' right outside the hut. I used the last of my sticks and wood to start a fire and slept for as long as I could but woke up freezing.

My last-ditch effort was to try to make my way to the similar hut between Three Strikes Farmstead and the Pleasant Valley Farmstead, so I blindly ran out into the blizzard, found the road, and started crossing the bridge and then....bear.

I tried to run back to the shelter and pick up sticks along the way, but my health was at 12%. No fire...freezing...so just went to sleep and said Surrender, Dorothy.

I haven't been successful yet, but I'm really liking the challenge mode. Thanks, devs!

[wilkinscw]

I've only attempted Hunted one and a half times so far. First attempt, I stood up from the initial attack, bandaged myself, and was immediately killed by a wolf. That's the "half" attempt. Second try, I managed to hop down the cliff to the river after bandaging myself, only to succumb to my wounds a few minutes later. In my defense, I know next to nothing about the PV map, so I had no clue where I was to begin with. Thought about checking the burned down cabin right after the attack, but figured there'd be nothing there, or I'd just piss the bear off even more, lol. Looking forward to trying again. 

[Morgan le Fay]

OK--Just tried @MueckE's strategy described above (climbing down the cliff to the river from Skeeter's Ridge), and I have made it to Carter Dam, have successfully dispatched Fluffy, and am currently resting up for a big push to the Trapper's Hut tomorrow. Yay!

Downside: No more ammo for the flare gun.

[MueckE]

ok, i have done the other challenge with the flare from ML to TM and to the lighthouse in DP

This challenge is really hard, every few meters you have to warm up, the cold is the challenge here and the stamina (because of the climbing)

never starve and always be hydrated!!! Pick up every stick,wood that  you see on the way, dont craft enything, use the rifle only to scare off wolves and try to warm up by sleeping for 1 - 3 hours (you will have to make campfires, but try to avoid it because it costs to much time and wood that you really need in some crucial spots)

 

EDIT: I have to admit, that climbing down the cliff is a little bit cheating because i exploit the mechanic to climb down every wall without dying. Obviosly the devs wanted us to take the path north, thats why they changed the terrain. I dont want to argue about it, just saying if some of you dont play like "its not a bug, its a feature" but are "moral heros", than you should take the path to complete the challenge

[MueckE]

and here my bear challenge

i didnt make a single fire, only warmed up by sleeping, longest sleep time was 3h, i walked through the night (and slept a few hours), used the stim after logging camp for the last push,

i was extremely lucky because for some reason fluffy ran away from me, so i didnt had to fight him, still had over 40% condition at the end in trapper's

 

Like in my last try, i saw the bear only once (after i left farmstead) so i had to use 1 shot with the flare, rest i used against wolves

[Morgan le Fay]

@MueckE: You're lucky! Almost every single time I leave a building that freakin' bear is after me within about a minute or 90 seconds.

Fluffy ran away from me, too, and romped around up on the catwalks for awhile, before coming down and fighting me. In retrospect, I could have just ran on through, so maybe I'll try that on my next run.

[ungoliant]

just got mauled by bear at the deadfall at about 14H 30M, decided he didn't care about my stove fire i was making for last push.  probably should have known since wolves tend to do the same thing at deadfall and trailers.  *sigh*

also, before i knew what i was doing in tireless menace, i had a start on this challenge where there was a cup of coffee in the skeeters basement at the start.  so that's a thing.  would totally destroy this challenge with that, probably <13 hours.  basement loot rolling is probably the reason why you can't skip the bear cutscene at the start.

[Fuarian]

On my second run I got myself going. I got to the farmhouse and decided to head out. I avoided Mr. Bear but a blizzard started up (perfect timing...) then I ran into 5 wolves in the field. I tried to fend them off with a flare but eventually one attacked me I fought it off and stabbed it right in the neck with my hunting knife killing it, then another one was waiting for me and got me down to 8%. I blazed it on stims and ran off trying to find my home but eventually faded away in the field.

[ungoliant]

world record right here.  eat it, tarling.  18 hours my butt. hah!

[wilkinscw]

Success! Apologies in advance for the length of this post.

Attempt number 3, I ran to the basement, bandaged, and looted the place. Using clothing I found, I repaired everything that I could, then ate, and took off. Hopped down the cliffside (which I find to be perfectly acceptable, I'd do it in a heartbeat to avoid a monstrous bear that couldn't be killed), a blizzard set in, and I had to use the emergency stim in order to make it to the farmhouse.

Once there, I took my time, looting, repairing, etc. Stayed the night, then set out the next morning. Bear came at me as I neared Heartbreak Bridge. Shot him with a flare, he took off like a monkey with a tiger on its tail (in hindsight, I should have just ducked into the car there and waited an hour or so).

Made it to the rural store with no problems. There was nothing there to loot, so I continued on. Crossed the bridge and had a wolf try to attack me, so I ducked into the car, exited from the opposite side, and made it into the nearby cabin. I was still around 40%, so I stayed the night there. Next morning, I took off for the abandoned mine, with Baloo (he's much nastier than Baloo, but there's a passing resemblance there) conspicously absent.

Didn't see him again until I was near the train unloading area. He was too far away to be a threat, so I entered the ravine and found myself in a blizzard. What a surprise! I hunkered down in the little cave, built a fire, ate the .6 kg of venison I found on the deer carcass near the fallen tree, and bedded down for the night, praying I'd not get eaten in my sleep.

Next morning, I entered Mystery Lake. I decided to bypass the dam entirely, heading straight down the railway. Baloo showed up, took a flare to the face, and ran off past me. Just then,a wolf decided to try and eat my face. With the bear so close (about 30 feet or 10 meters), I put my third flare into the wolf and continued running.

The bear came back at me just in time to keep me from looting the body and first aid kit next to Derailment, but I managed to duck into the railcar. No loot inside at all. The RNG gods hate me. I bedded down for an hour, and when I emerged from the traincar, no bear in sight. I hightailed it to the camp office.

After another night of rest, I dumped all my gear except for the emergency stim and flare gun (with my fourth and final flare loaded) and took off. I ran across the tracks, up by the camp office prepper cache (it wasn't there, too bad), and down by the deadfall area. Halfway to Max's last stand, Baloo caught back up and received my final flare for his efforts. I made it to the homestead about ten seconds before he crested the hill at a run.

After that ordeal, I look forward to turning his head into a canoe.

File upload failed (probably because of the size), but challenge completed in 4 days, 6 hours, 6 minutes.

[MueckE]

@wilkinscw 

rural store, abandoned mine, ravine???? Why did you take the way via CH? It is way closer to to the hydro dam. From skeeter's draw a line straight east and you reach the mine to hydro dam and on the way there is the farmstead (if needed) If you dont want to climb down the cliff, than take the path north a little bit and than turn right as soon as possible (you should reach draft dodger's cabin) and from there its the same way, just straight east.

 

@ungoliant

10 hours??? That seems to be impossible. Lets say you dont heal up after the attack, dont go inside the basement or anywhere else, just hit the "run" button and run all the way, never stop, never rest or sleep, this would take more time? How did you do this without resting/sleeping/making a fire?

I will test it by starting a sandbox and try to start with full condition and run without stopping

 

[MueckE]

THIS IS NOT A LEGIT RUN!!!!! I wanted to test how fast you actually can do it if you would just run through without a singe stop. There is currently a bug (hope will be fixed soon) where the world and all the loot reset when you enter or leave a building (when saving). After the bear attack, i went inside the basement, took the flare and the stim, went out again and back inside. The stim and the flare were reset and i could loot them again .... I repeated this a few times so i had 6 stims and lots of flares for the gun. All the loot-abuse took only a few ingame minutes. After that i climbed down the cliff and used the first stim -  ran all the time except inside the mine. everytime the boost was lost, i took another stim and just ran

so yes, it is possible to somehow (without exploiting) make the challenge within 10 hours. With using this exploit i still have 6 hours left where i could've slept/healed warmed up. Maybe it depends on finding coffee too.

[ungoliant]

1 hour ago, MueckE said:

@ungoliant

10 hours??? That seems to be impossible. Lets say you dont heal up after the attack, dont go inside the basement or anywhere else, just hit the "run" button and run all the way, never stop, never rest or sleep, this would take more time? How did you do this without resting/sleeping/making a fire?

I will test it by starting a sandbox and try to start with full condition and run without stopping

 

run was done exploit-free.  if you must see how its done properly, i recorded the entire run on twitch and highlighted it.

https://www.twitch.tv/ungoliant33/v/62268299

[MueckE]

as i said, it is possible

really nice run by the way very entertaining and now you got me to beat it thanks for sharing

[TinyMouseGirl]

Wow, those times are incredible! I was happy just to complete The Hunted at all, it took 10 days and 4 hours (I assumed there would be a leaderboard and didn't take a screenshot).

I didn't know the challenge started in PV (and I haven't spent much time on PV in ages), so the first part was hectic! I think it would have more replay appeal if the start point could be randomised. The first part, when I didn't know where I was, was the most terrifying (and fun). Of course, this would make a leaderboard impossible (or you'd need a multitude to cover each spawn).

Overall, it was fun to be chased by an unkillable, psychic demon-bear.

[MueckE]

now i did it in 10h 51min

i didnt went to draft dodger's and went straight to farmstead, found only 1 times coffee, slept 1h too

SPOILER :::::::::::::

we can say, you need to make 1 fire in farmstead and 1 inside the cave to warm up and for the warmthbonus (heat up coffee), also it is basicly not possible to do it without coffee (in less than 12hours)

you can drop most of the inventory right at the start. All you need is the water from the backback, things to make a fire (2 -3 cedar/fir, + tinder), stim, flare, torch and the clothes you can get. Maybe painkillers and 1 bandage. No food, bedroll or anything else needed

If you skip draft dodger's, and dont sleep for 1h, i think it is possible to make it under 9 hours.

Ill try it

 

Edit

Skip the 1 hour of sleeping (you did it at draft dodger's) and here we go

[jumpingbean77]

I just tried the hunted challenge.

It went well, went down to Farmstead and healed up. After I went out the bear come running, I shot him once and he ran off. I run away direction tunnel, between the bridge and the pond the beer come again, I shot and missed and dit not have time to reload so the bear mauled me. I didnt have time to stand up correctly and pick up the lost flare gun and the bear mauled me AGAIN... so dead. Is this normal or did I just have bad luck? So from 95% all good to ~10% to 0..

 

 

[wilkinscw]

11 hours ago, MueckE said:

@wilkinscw 

rural store, abandoned mine, ravine???? Why did you take the way via CH? It is way closer to to the hydro dam. From skeeter's draw a line straight east and you reach the mine to hydro dam and on the way there is the farmstead (if needed) If you dont want to climb down the cliff, than take the path north a little bit and than turn right as soon as possible (you should reach draft dodger's cabin) and from there its the same way, just straight east.

 

 

Like I said in my first post, I don't know Pleasant Valley at all, lol. I discovered the route there from Coastal Highway a while back and didn't know how to go straight to Mystery Lake from there, so I took the way I know. In my current sandbox, I'm on CH getting ready to head to Desolation Point to make some arrowheads. Once that's done, I'll do some more exploring. 

 

 

 

[MueckE]

@jumpingbean77

it is normal i guess (was not eaten by the bear in the challenge yet) in sandbox before the update you would have had enough time to pick up the flaregun again.

 

oh and by the way, all credit still goes to ungoliant

the 9h challenge only was possible because i watched his genius approach. I just modified it a little bit but without his run, i bet i still would need more than 20 hours for that challenge. 

[ungoliant]

sick time, MueckE, just heard about this in someones stream, had to come check if it was posted here.  yep.  should of known the copycat runs would start coming out of the woodwork if i publicized the run, but man, even 24 hours on top woulda been nice, lol.  looks like i'll have some refining to do

[Morgan le Fay]

Not a very good time, but my first success at the Hunted challenge. The last leg was blindly running in a blizzard from the hunter's blind at the unnamed pond toward the trapper's cabin. I made it by the skin of my teeth, and fell down a rock ledge that sided the cabin area. Now to try to get the time down.

 

[ungoliant]

Well I was a little distressed at being beaten out in less than 24 hours, so i went back to the drawing board, and came up with some new ideas, and cut back on some stuff that was unnecessary.  The result is gonna blow your mind, and this one was recorded and is public as well.  probably going to be tough to beat this one without some practice.

 

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