Timberwolf Mountain on Stalker

[tnbp]

I have been trying to get a game started on Stalker difficulty (I normally play on Voyageur) and I have been trying to do so on Timberwolf Mountain.  I've been unsuccessful, so far.

I'm an experienced player, have played TLD for at least a year.  I have almost 200 days in on my current Voyageur sandbox.  But I'll be darned if I can even last a week on TWM on Stalker.  My major issue has seemed to be the cold.  Starting clothing doesn't sustain me very well and the weather has been so bad each day that I've never been able to venture as far as I need to in order to find warmer clothing (and hunting/crafting takes being able to survive many days, first.)

What tips might you other, more experienced players have to help me make it longer than about 4 days on that map and difficulty?

[ridankrad]

I actually have been trying out the same thing as your recently. I was having the same trouble initially, but have been successful enough now to have been able to climb the summit and craft or start crafting some of the animal skin clothing. Okay, that said, here are some tips:

1. Use brands (burning sticks taken from fires) and hot food/drinks to protect yourself from cold. Especially at the beginning, as you have experienced, the player's clothing is awful and the frigid temperatures of TWM will be a challenge to a level well beyond the other regions. However, if you make a fire before venturing out to warm yourself up completely, then heat up some canned peaches, beans, coffee, tea, or even some of those medicinal teas from the mushrooms/berries you can find on TWM, then that will buff your temperature bar. I have found that even with horrible conditions, even in the starting clothing I can go quite a ways if my temp bar is buffed like that. Additionally, right after you have the warm food/drink, if you take a brand from what remains of the fire and take it with you, that will give you a few more degrees of warm, which is essentially like adding a higher quality item of clothing to the player. Of course, the problem with brands is that high winds will put them out immediately, and even in calm conditions the brand will only stay lit for a short time. Still, I've found that the combination of these things can really help out.

2. Open cargo containers for extra supplies. There are actually a number of supply containers at the base of TWM, not far from the cabin on the lake. You will need a hacksaw to open the containers, but I've found that I seem to always find a hacksaw at the cabin, and I have also found additional hacksaws sometimes by some of the cargo containers. Anyway, if you can open them, you can find lots of helpful items such as warmer clothing, medical supplies, matches, flares and canned food (extra useful because they can be warmed; see above). If you can manage to get some of those supplies, it will probably help your chances for survival.

3. Use caves and natural shelters from the elements. Unlike other maps, there really aren't any buildings on TWM. Even the cabin is not a normal building and outside temperatures are only partially insulated and the cabin's temperature can drop tremendously. I still enjoy it as a base, but you have to really be careful staying there and also must realize that you will have to start a fire generally every night while staying at the cabin at the beginning because your clothes and the bed simply won't be enough. However, I have found that caves actually provide better shelter than the cabin. This is particularly true of the caves that have a loading screen associated with them, because their temperature will be set to a fixed amount that does not appear to change based on conditions outside. The loading screen caves are warm enough to survive with simply basic clothes and the warmth from a bedroll. This can make caves a useful alternative to the cabin, especially if your wood supply is low. Also, there are other forms of shelter that you may notice on TWM. For example, there are some trees that are partially hollowed out, so you can light a fire within them that will be protected from the wind, and there is even room, I have found, to get the player in there enough to receive the shelter bonus from wind (shield icon). This means that even far up on the mountain, with no caves in sight, there are still decent means to get warm. The caveat to all this is that the bedroll is required and, with use, will gradually breakdown. So because it has a bed, the TWM cabin is the longterm base of that map, but for purposes of initial survival and climbing to the summit, you will want to make use of the natural shelters that are scattered around the region.

 4. Time your fires carefully. As I mentioned above, you will have to use fires to stay at the TWM cabin, at least initially. However, you actually do not need a fire 24/7. Remember that the bed itself gives a +5 degree celsius bonus to your temperature. The cabin also can be above freezing under ideal circumstances. What this means is that you can warm up in the cabin under good weather, and even warm up in mediocre weather by sleeping in the bed. Fires are important during the coldest part of the night (I think around 3-4 hours before daylight and up to midmorning (10 hours of daylight left). If you don't sleep too many hours at a time, you can monitor the temperature and light your fires only at the point that they're truly needed. The trade off here is that if your condition is low and you need to heal, it's less efficient to take short rests with breaks in-between compared to one long restful sleep. One thing you can do is to sprint around in the cabin to increase fatigue as needed and then do a very long sleep when you do light a fire. If you create a fire that goes for several hours it will be warm enough to ensure you don't die from hypothermia and then you can use the duration of the fire to get one continuous sleep so that you can recover condition efficiently. Also, remember to use herbal tea if you want to heal condition extra fast since it gives a buff to healing.

Alright, well those are my tips. Hope that helps and best of luck exploring Timberwolf Mountain!

[tnbp]

1 hour ago, ridankrad said:

I actually have been trying out the same thing as your recently. I was having the same trouble initially, but have been successful enough now to have been able to climb the summit and craft or start crafting some of the animal skin clothing. Okay, that said, here are some tips:

1. Use brands (burning sticks taken from fires) and hot food/drinks to protect yourself from cold. Especially at the beginning, as you have experienced, the player's clothing is awful and the frigid temperatures of TWM will be a challenge to a level well beyond the other regions. However, if you make a fire before venturing out to warm yourself up completely, then heat up some canned peaches, beans, coffee, tea, or even some of those medicinal teas from the mushrooms/berries you can find on TWM, then that will buff your temperature bar. I have found that even with horrible conditions, even in the starting clothing I can go quite a ways if my temp bar is buffed like that. Additionally, right after you have the warm food/drink, if you take a brand from what remains of the fire and take it with you, that will give you a few more degrees of warm, which is essentially like adding a higher quality item of clothing to the player. Of course, the problem with brands is that high winds will put them out immediately, and even in calm conditions the brand will only stay lit for a short time. Still, I've found that the combination of these things can really help out.

This is really good thinking.  I hadn't ever considered eating hot food to get a little bit of a temp buff.  I've never needed to consider hot food on other maps and likely wouldn't have come up with this on my own.

1 hour ago, ridankrad said:

2. Open cargo containers for extra supplies. There are actually a number of supply containers at the base of TWM, not far from the cabin on the lake. You will need a hacksaw to open the containers, but I've found that I seem to always find a hacksaw at the cabin, and I have also found additional hacksaws sometimes by some of the cargo containers. Anyway, if you can open them, you can find lots of helpful items such as warmer clothing, medical supplies, matches, flares and canned food (extra useful because they can be warmed; see above). If you can manage to get some of those supplies, it will probably help your chances for survival.

On my most recent attempt (which ended in failure), I had managed to at least get the gear out of the nearest cargo containers-- but it was just food and medical supplies.  I know where the nearest clothing container is, as I've thoroughly explored the map on Pilgrim before.  But that container has seemed to be too far away to actually make it to there, which is ironic because if I could only make it there, it would provide me exactly what I need to survive in the long run (unless I got attacked by wolves while I was looting, but a flare would go a long way toward dealing with that problem.)

1 hour ago, ridankrad said:

3. Use caves and natural shelters from the elements. Unlike other maps, there really aren't any buildings on TWM. Even the cabin is not a normal building and outside temperatures are only partially insulated and the cabin's temperature can drop tremendously. I still enjoy it as a base, but you have to really be careful staying there and also must realize that you will have to start a fire generally every night while staying at the cabin at the beginning because your clothes and the bed simply won't be enough. However, I have found that caves actually provide better shelter than the cabin. This is particularly true of the caves that have a loading screen associated with them, because their temperature will be set to a fixed amount that does not appear to change based on conditions outside. The loading screen caves are warm enough to survive with simply basic clothes and the warmth from a bedroll. This can make caves a useful alternative to the cabin, especially if your wood supply is low. Also, there are other forms of shelter that you may notice on TWM. For example, there are some trees that are partially hollowed out, so you can light a fire within them that will be protected from the wind, and there is even room, I have found, to get the player in there enough to receive the shelter bonus from wind (shield icon). This means that even far up on the mountain, with no caves in sight, there are still decent means to get warm. The caveat to all this is that the bedroll is required and, with use, will gradually breakdown. So because it has a bed, the TWM cabin is the longterm base of that map, but for purposes of initial survival and climbing to the summit, you will want to make use of the natural shelters that are scattered around the region.

I have wondered about this idea.  I've tried two or three times now and have always been making my immediate base camp at the Mountaineer's Hut.  It's in a decent central location and it has a bed and a fireplace and always has at least some decent starting supplies.  But I have been pondering whether it's smarter to get there and loot it and then immediately move to a cave somewhere, in part because I think it might possibly be warmer in a cave and also because I could perhaps make my way to warmer clothing bit by bit.  I don't think the solution (for me) is to try aggressively to get to the summit but, rather, to get some warmer clothing from a container and then build up a decent base camp at the Hut that is survivable before pushing for the summit (maybe after I have a bow and the ability to cull/hunt a bit.)

1 hour ago, ridankrad said:

 4. Time your fires carefully. As I mentioned above, you will have to use fires to stay at the TWM cabin, at least initially. However, you actually do not need a fire 24/7. Remember that the bed itself gives a +5 degree celsius bonus to your temperature. The cabin also can be above freezing under ideal circumstances. What this means is that you can warm up in the cabin under good weather, and even warm up in mediocre weather by sleeping in the bed. Fires are important during the coldest part of the night (I think around 3-4 hours before daylight and up to midmorning (10 hours of daylight left). If you don't sleep too many hours at a time, you can monitor the temperature and light your fires only at the point that they're truly needed. The trade off here is that if your condition is low and you need to heal, it's less efficient to take short rests with breaks in-between compared to one long restful sleep. One thing you can do is to sprint around in the cabin to increase fatigue as needed and then do a very long sleep when you do light a fire. If you create a fire that goes for several hours it will be warm enough to ensure you don't die from hypothermia and then you can use the duration of the fire to get one continuous sleep so that you can recover condition efficiently. Also, remember to use herbal tea if you want to heal condition extra fast since it gives a buff to healing.

Alright, well those are my tips. Hope that helps and best of luck exploring Timberwolf Mountain!

These are some pretty interesting thoughts, too.  The most recent failure, I died because of hypothermia.  I just couldn't stay warm enough long enough and chopping wood to be able to survive long term put me in bad condition.  I maybe just didn't balance things properly at the time.  But I also didn't think about sleeping in chunks, paying special attention to those coldest parts of the night.

Thanks very, very much for your reply.  I'm going to give it another shot soon and see if I can put some of these ideas into practice; cave hopping, for sure.

[thinair]

1. Hut is not ideal, because at start you dont have decent clothing. Hut itself provides +10c and windblock and bed gives +5, but its not enough at nights, and especially when blizzard hits at night. However, within first or 2nd day, you can get average clothing from nearby containers, harvest the bad ones, and fix the best ones, and you will end up with around +14 and + 8c bonus, which is enough for the most parts to live in the hut.
2. you dont need a hatchets, due to a fact that right around hut there are so many sticks, in like 5 minutes of real life time can get 50-70 sticks which is like 6-8 hours of burning time.
3. if you dont use a tactic of getting clothing from container at very start, then better stay in indoor cave for a week or so until you get decent clothing and/or craft your own.
4. you can also use burning branches for extra warmth while exploring, and of course hot food and drinks to get a warmth boost.

When TWM came out, i started a new run on stalker, and survived on a first try. Literally only first two days are harder, but after that its easy. Its easy to get free food, skins, and guts because of the wolfs on the lake and deer with rabbit. Just steer it to the wolf, and attract its attention and run to the main hut or fishing hut. Withing first 4-5 days you can get rabbit mittens, which gives decent boost in warmth.

[Hotzn]

If you are interested, you can read up a stalker Timberwolf Mountain run here: 

The Sea to Summit challenge might also give you ideas on how to get to the summit quickly, if that is what you want: 

 

[ridankrad]

8 hours ago, tnbp said:

On my most recent attempt (which ended in failure), I had managed to at least get the gear out of the nearest cargo containers-- but it was just food and medical supplies.  I know where the nearest clothing container is, as I've thoroughly explored the map on Pilgrim before.  But that container has seemed to be too far away to actually make it to there, which is ironic because if I could only make it there, it would provide me exactly what I need to survive in the long run (unless I got attacked by wolves while I was looting, but a flare would go a long way toward dealing with that problem.)

As you may know, there are some containers at the clearing at the end of the Echo Ravine. On Stalker, there are two wolves patrolling, so you have to be mindful of them, but it's a pretty wide area so definitely doable to sneak in without alerting them. Anyway, when I discovered it one of the containers had a lot of clothing in it. Granted, most of it wasn't that great, but there was a heavy wool sweater in there which is the best under clothing item for upper body that you can get. Plus the other clothing can be broken down for cloth which is helpful too.

Anyway, if you're familiar with the location I'm referring to, there's also a cave just a little bit before the clearing that has the cargo containers. That cave can serve as a great forward base for you in case you need a break to warm up, rest, and get some more hot food/drink before going for the supplies. Also, one of the other containers there had lots of matches, and those will become really scarce in the long term because of how many fires you'll be needing to light in order to survive at the beginning. My recommendation is to collect a decent supply of wood at the TWM cabin area, warm up at the cabin, have some hot food, grab a brand, and then head over to the ravine. Bring some extra wood and canned food (if you have any extra) with you when you go so that you can warm up at the cave. Alternatively, there's also a forest area not far from the entrance to the ravine. That forest has a bear and several wolves patrolling, but also has some containers. Of all the locations that have containers, it's the closest to the cabin. I'm assuming that the contents of the containers never change (they've remained consistent for me), so there aren't clothes at that location, but there are medical supplies, sodas, flares, kerosine, and canned food. Getting all those canned goods might help you make a run for the ravine containers, and the flares might be good too in case wolves give you trouble.

Actually, I hope you'll come back and give an update on your progress. I'd be interested to hear how it goes.

[tnbp]

5 hours ago, ridankrad said:

As you may know, there are some containers at the clearing at the end of the Echo Ravine. On Stalker, there are two wolves patrolling, so you have to be mindful of them, but it's a pretty wide area so definitely doable to sneak in without alerting them. Anyway, when I discovered it one of the containers had a lot of clothing in it. Granted, most of it wasn't that great, but there was a heavy wool sweater in there which is the best under clothing item for upper body that you can get. Plus the other clothing can be broken down for cloth which is helpful too.

Anyway, if you're familiar with the location I'm referring to, there's also a cave just a little bit before the clearing that has the cargo containers. That cave can serve as a great forward base for you in case you need a break to warm up, rest, and get some more hot food/drink before going for the supplies. Also, one of the other containers there had lots of matches, and those will become really scarce in the long term because of how many fires you'll be needing to light in order to survive at the beginning. My recommendation is to collect a decent supply of wood at the TWM cabin area, warm up at the cabin, have some hot food, grab a brand, and then head over to the ravine. Bring some extra wood and canned food (if you have any extra) with you when you go so that you can warm up at the cave. Alternatively, there's also a forest area not far from the entrance to the ravine. That forest has a bear and several wolves patrolling, but also has some containers. Of all the locations that have containers, it's the closest to the cabin. I'm assuming that the contents of the containers never change (they've remained consistent for me), so there aren't clothes at that location, but there are medical supplies, sodas, flares, kerosine, and canned food. Getting all those canned goods might help you make a run for the ravine containers, and the flares might be good too in case wolves give you trouble.

Actually, I hope you'll come back and give an update on your progress. I'd be interested to hear how it goes.

Funny that you should mention all this because it's nearly the EXACT strategy I just tried. Haha.

I spawned near the Mountaineer's Hut, looted it (got a hacksaw), built a fire a stayed the night, and set out for that Echo Ravine container and cave the next day.  Unfortunately, I didn't start with any food and didn't find much at the Hut (1 can of tomato soup),  so I stopped at the cargo container at the wing to get those canned goods you mentioned and then I spent some time in the Forest Cave riding out the elements.

I cooked a hot meal, warmed up, and set out for Echo Ravine.  I was feeling really good about the strategy. I saw a wolf out in front of me and down the hill a bit, so I circled up and around to the right (toward the Tree Bridge) and was heading back down toward the wing area. A storm had just then picked up and, unfortunately, in the blowing snow, I crested a small hill and ran into a second wolf (I assume) who was further hidden from my view behind a tree eating a fresh deer kill. Terrible, terrible luck. I had a flare on me but I stumbled on to him so suddenly that I didn't even have time to light it.

He mauled me and I died.

So it didn't work out that time but I really liked the plan. I'll try to pull that off again sometime soon. 

[Dirmagnos]

You can always try to make a push for summit, its risky, but if you succeed youl be set for the rest for a long time. Its possible to get there within 2 days and you dont even need ropes(with rope its probably possible to get from hut to plane tail within day).

[Ruruwawa]

1 hour ago, Dirmagnos said:

You can always try to make a push for summit, its risky, but if you succeed youl be set for the rest for a long time. Its possible to get there within 2 days and you dont even need ropes(with rope its probably possible to get from hut to plane tail within day).

I guess I've never learned the trick to get the entire way up to the summit without ropes.  Are you scaling the mountainside?  I usually use the ropes for the highest two shelves.  Often to get up to the Deer Clearing / Eric's Falls shelf, too.

[terryt3535]

I have never been able to get to the Summit without climbing at least two ropes. My second try at TWM on Stalker, I spawned at Deer Clearing. I went as far as I could until I got cold and built a quick fire, slept for 2 hours and then sprinted for Secluded Shelf and the cave/mine. I built a fire with just enough sticks to use coal in the cave and slept for a few hours. Then I sprinted for the rope to the Summit. I spent 3 days on top opening containers and burning reclaimed wood then crouched and slid straight down the mountain to the area above Crystal Lake, then walked to the Hut. At 33 days I have a full set of furs, but I wasn't able to shed them before my 3rd wolf struggle and now have to repair them before going back to finish looting the Summit.

[cekivi]

11 hours ago, Dirmagnos said:

You can always try to make a push for summit, its risky, but if you succeed youl be set for the rest for a long time. Its possible to get there within 2 days and you dont even need ropes(with rope its probably possible to get from hut to plane tail within day).

Are you sure? I've always needed at least three ropes and @whiteberry-toarda's maps seem to confirm that.

[Scyzara]

If you spawn at deer clearing you only need to climb two ropes. No idea if it's possible to glitch up the cliff instead, never tried that as it's not necessary.

If you wait for a deer clearing spawn and know the way, rushing for the summit is neither particularly difficult nor risky. Works 100% of the time without any pathway exploits or glitches and only takes a few ingame hours. Maybe 6 or so.

[Ohbal]

This sounded like a fun challenge so I gave it a try yesterday. I took my first spawn in the cave just below deer clearing. The spawn was at night, two hours to daylight. Freaking freezing my ass from the start! I sprinted my way to the first rope, grabbing any stick I could find on my way. Climbed it and got to the deer clearing cave with little more than a dozen sticks. already losing condition fast due to the cold. The cave had some firwood, luckily. Started a fire (took three attemps, geez, I forgot how hard it was at the begining) a had a quick nap to get warm and recover the stamina. As I woke up, grabbed a branch and headed out. Still -20 something, and the brand didn't last more than a few secs with the high winds, lol. Sprinted my way to secluded shelf hoping to avoid the wildlife, (specially the bear). When I got to the cave I was already freezing and condition around 60%. 

I looted the small section outside cave A, collected some wood and went to sleep until fully rested. I climbed the rope at night, as I was really low on food and couldn't afford being iddle. Had to stop in both cliffs. The second I had to build a small fire and take a 1 hour nap... but made it to the top with 30% condition or so. From there onwards, it has been a walk in the park. 6 days in I'm just waiting for some guts to cure to have a good set of clothes which is more or less the end of all suffering  

The only thing I'm missing is the magnifying glass, but it was indeed a heart bumping start! 

[nicko]

hehe yeah its a bit more fun on TWM. does pay to go there with a decent set of clothing first though

[tnbp]

On 8/22/2016 at 7:54 AM, tnbp said:

Funny that you should mention all this because it's nearly the EXACT strategy I just tried. Haha.

I spawned near the Mountaineer's Hut, looted it (got a hacksaw), built a fire a stayed the night, and set out for that Echo Ravine container and cave the next day.  Unfortunately, I didn't start with any food and didn't find much at the Hut (1 can of tomato soup),  so I stopped at the cargo container at the wing to get those canned goods you mentioned and then I spent some time in the Forest Cave riding out the elements.

I cooked a hot meal, warmed up, and set out for Echo Ravine.  I was feeling really good about the strategy. I saw a wolf out in front of me and down the hill a bit, so I circled up and around to the right (toward the Tree Bridge) and was heading back down toward the wing area. A storm had just then picked up and, unfortunately, in the blowing snow, I crested a small hill and ran into a second wolf (I assume) who was further hidden from my view behind a tree eating a fresh deer kill. Terrible, terrible luck. I had a flare on me but I stumbled on to him so suddenly that I didn't even have time to light it.

He mauled me and I died.

So it didn't work out that time but I really liked the plan. I'll try to pull that off again sometime soon. 

I tried the plan again last night and had another failure, also due to bad luck with a wolf.  I spawned in Echo Ravine and decided to run down to the cave and see about whether I should make a play for the cargo containers there while I was already close to them.  When I spawned, there was only 3 hours of daylight left.  So I ran down to the cave, looted a body along the way, and then checked in the cave.  I then realized that going to the containers was risky because there were two wolves out there and I didn't have a hacksaw, yet.  I thought that maybe I could find one on the body down by the containers but with daylight dwindling and with one of the wolves spotting me from pretty far away and barking at me, I decided to run up to the Hut to implement the plan as I originally concocted it.

Well, I had seen a deer over by the fishing hut on Crystal Lake as I approached the shoreline.  And then, as it was starting to get a little dark, I apparently didn't see the wolf that killed that deer while I was picking up sticks on the ground.  Where the coast had been clear mere moments earlier, it now had a wolf that I hadn't seen before.  He looked up from his meal, sprinted at me, and I couldn't outrun him to the building.  I managed to kill him on the spot but took some heavy damage.  I got to the hut and used up supplies to heal, made a fire, and woke up the next day at 51%, which was just too far gone to come back from, unfortunately.  The storm outside plus the ripped clothing didn't even allow me to collect wood to try and regroup.  As my condition was rapidly dropping, I ended up deleting the save file when my health was reaching the low teens.

Try, try again, I suppose.

One question that attempt rose for me was about having a hacksaw.  I found one in the Hut.  (I always seem to find one there.  That and a down ski jacket, every time so far.)  Is there guaranteed to be one at other places on the map?  Is it guaranteed to find one on the body at the engine?  What about at the summit?  In thinking over the possibility of making an early run to the summit, I've been wondering if it's possible to take the risk, time, and energy to get up there only to be staring at containers I can't open.  Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.  Or is there always a hacksaw there (like how there's always a heavy hammer at Hibernia)?  If so, maybe I will try my luck and make a summit break on one of these attempts.

And hopefully be lucky to avoid the ill-placed wolf that has thwarted my last two tries, somehow.

[Ohbal]

29 minutes ago, tnbp said:

One question that attempt rose for me was about having a hacksaw.  I found one in the Hut.  (I always seem to find one there.  That and a down ski jacket, every time so far.)  Is there guaranteed to be one at other places on the map?  Is it guaranteed to find one on the body at the engine?  What about at the summit?  In thinking over the possibility of making an early run to the summit, I've been wondering if it's possible to take the risk, time, and energy to get up there only to be staring at containers I can't open.  Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.  Or is there always a hacksaw there (like how there's always a heavy hammer at Hibernia)?  If so, maybe I will try my luck and make a summit break on one of these attempts.

On my run I found a hacksaw at the summit... don't know if its guaranteed but hey, at least you know it can be there!  

[Dirmagnos]

11 hours ago, cekivi said:

Are you sure? I've always needed at least three ropes and @whiteberry-toarda's maps seem to confirm that.

Unless it was changed in last update it is possible to get there without needing any extra ropes, by using only ones that are already there. I had to cut thru cave at some point, but it is possible.

Having 1 rope on you would allow a shortcut, making travel faster.

Player would need to climb, but he doesnt need to carry rope(s) with him. All important points already have them.

[Ohbal]

3 hours ago, Dirmagnos said:

Having 1 rope on you would allow a shortcut, making travel faster.

I guess you mean that you can create a shorcut on the way down, cause on your first trip up, you can only use what is placed  

[cekivi]

4 hours ago, Dirmagnos said:

Unless it was changed in last update it is possible to get there without needing any extra ropes, by using only ones that are already there. I had to cut thru cave at some point, but it is possible.

Having 1 rope on you would allow a shortcut, making travel faster.

Player would need to climb, but he doesnt need to carry rope(s) with him. All important points already have them.

Ah, that's what you meant. I read "you don't need ropes" as "you don't need to climb ropes" as opposed to "you don't need to place ropes"

[morgellons]

On 8/23/2016 at 9:53 AM, Ohbal said:

On my run I found a hacksaw at the summit... don't know if its guaranteed but hey, at least you know it can be there!  

Nice to know that there can be one there because I only tried this once and could not open any containers...where did you find the hacksaw at the summit?

[Ohbal]

Can't recall the exact spot, but definetely inside the plane.. If it wasn't lying on the floor it was in the small container close to the mid section. 

[Scyzara]

I've never NOT found a hacksaw inside the plane.  Pretty sure it's a 100% spawn in all modes.

[cekivi]

4 hours ago, Scyzara said:

I've never NOT found a hacksaw inside the plane.  Pretty sure it's a 100% spawn in all modes.

Same here. I can't confirm that it's guaranteed but every time I've done a Timberwolf mountain run I've always found a hacksaw in the plane.

[tnbp]

Well, so I failed on another attempt.  This time, I spawned in Deer Clearing, and, per previous discussion in this thread, I eagerly decided that to push for the summit made the most sense.  Unfortunately, I was woefully underprepared for it.

I worked straight to the secluded shelf and into Cave B.  Due to my unfamiliarity of TWM, I didn't realize that the cave was so long and twisty and, because I was just starting out, I had no lantern, no torch, and no tinder to even make a fire from which to take a brand.  I had 12 matches on me and burned through 8 of them just trying to navigate the cave, at which point I realized I was lost and that I was going to die from starvation in the darkness that I'd never be able to find my way out of.  Good times.  I quit and deleted the save file.

For those of you who have made the immediate trek to the summit, how did you pull it off?  Did you have a light source to start?  I didn't have the opportunity to find tinder on the way, either, so I couldn't make a fire (though I had picked up MANY sticks on the way there, which I thought was smart.)  Or do you go the long way around and skip the cave to cave route?  Where did I go wrong?

[Thurman Merman]

2 minutes ago, tnbp said:

For those of you who have made the immediate trek to the summit, how did you pull it off?  Did you have a light source to start?  I didn't have the opportunity to find tinder on the way, either, so I couldn't make a fire (though I had picked up MANY sticks on the way there, which I thought was smart.)  Or do you go the long way around and skip the cave to cave route?  Where did I go wrong?

Last time I did it, I spawned near that cave W of Deer Clearing (closer to the tree bridge).  It has 2 logs in it (maybe something else, too - don't remember.  I picked the Reishi nearby, made a fire with one log, made tea, drank tea, took brand, and went for the cave grabbing more reishi and a few sticks on the way.  Once inside, I slept a lot as it was nightfall, then woke and made a fire with sticks.  Got a flare off a body in the cave, IIRC, but already had a brand going.  Once I was that close, it was easy.