Tips for new survivors

[KinoUnko]

definitely something not right... any other uncovered body part would get frostbite onset in a matter of hours outside in PV.

[hozz1235]

1. Good way I've discovered to hunt wolves (after they've 'barked' and are approaching me) - throw a decoy, prep your gun/bow and back off some ways to the side (so you get a side profile/larger shot area), wait for the wolf to approach the decoy and boom!  Don't let the wolf get too close because it seems like they can actually grab the decoy from a ways off.
2. <read this one somewhere else>  If you injure an animal (esp. with a bow), immediately wait an hour or two (while the animal is visible).  When you've waited, the animal should have died where it was when you started waiting.  No more roaming around looking for the carcass.
3. If you're working on improving fishing, do it at the Coastal Highway - you can catch BIG salmon there in addition to the normal fish.
4. Heavy Hammer and Hacksaw are your best friends!  HH is repaired with one fir (infinite uses) and Hacksaw is repairable with Scrap Metal (practically infinite).  Use these tools to break items down whenever possible (if  you're concerned with conserving other tools).
5. When it's getting close to dark (maybe 2-3 hours out), start looking for a place to make a fire - don't wait until it's too late!  Great thing about fire spots, is once you make one, it's there for the whole game so you know you can go back to it.  Really sucks stumbling around in the dark waiting for your fire icon to turn green!

Edited January 23, 2018 by hozz1235

[codfish107]

If you are low on food, starve your self a little. Hunger only takes 1% per hour. Eat before you go to sleep.

You can find feathers for arrows near corpses and carcasses, look/listen for the circling crows. Be careful though, if you take from the body the feathers will not re-spawn.

Crows flying across the sky signals a change in weather.

Edited November 19, 2017 by codfish107

[Turbolovers]

Dear gamers! If you read all these tips, then you will not have time to play! Therefore, you should not walk the beaten paths. Feel free to go on your own! What a path you would not have gone, you still fall into the trap of Hinterlad! You will learn about this from the characteristic crunch of your ankle 

[Avelyan]

On 2017-11-19 at 5:54 AM, codfish107 said:

Crows flying across the sky signals a change in weather.

Never noticed that before.  Thanks!

[cekivi]

Welcome to the forums @Naia  

[Aagje]

You can stand just inside the doorway of the Mountaineer's Hut on TWM and work campfires outside the door.

Why would you bother, I hear you ask? Well, if you're doing the Nomad challenge (as I am at the moment), you get credit for being in the Hut, and you can still skill up your Firestarting skill and/or work towards the Fire Master badge. I don't believe those campfires get the outdoor-fire burn length benefit, but I suppose you can't have everything.

[cekivi]

6 hours ago, Aagje said:

Why would you bother, I hear you ask? Well, if you're doing the Nomad challenge (as I am at the moment), you get credit for being in the Hut, and you can still skill up your Firestarting skill and/or work towards the Fire Master badge. I don't believe those campfires get the outdoor-fire burn length benefit, but I suppose you can't have everything.

Welcome to the forums @Aagje

I've got to ask, wouldn't using the fireplace in the hut give the same benefit? 

[Aagje]

5 hours ago, cekivi said:

I've got to ask, wouldn't using the fireplace in the hut give the same benefit? 

Well, sure, but then you have to wait for it to burn out. *yawn* Granted, there's not a whole lot else to do with your time in the Hut, but having 2-3 fires can easily double the rate at which you start new fires. We must be efficient!

[Jolan]

On 2/3/2018 at 6:29 AM, Aagje said:

We must be efficient!

At one point I had the path up to the hut lined with fires.  Go out, get some sticks, light some fires (if the weather was good).  Light some more on the way back out to get more sticks.

 

[kurja]

Tip: your ability to hear from which direction a wolf is coming improves, if you put your stereo headphones on the right way.

Sigh.

[FormalBear]

Save your whetstones for your best hunting knife. Use it only in wolf struggles ("Puncture"; hit the button like mad till it's over!). Sharpen it to 90+ condition after every encounter. (Don't forget! Have I occasionally forgotten? Yes!)

Disclaimer: Anecdotal evidence, merely. ("Hey - it works for me!") Your mileage may vary.

[Jolan]

Never ever scrap your "extra" axes, knives and rifles.  Oh, and arrow making helps buff up your archery.

[Aagje]

5 hours ago, FormalBear said:

Save your whetstones for your best hunting knife. Use it only in wolf struggles ...

Conventional wisdom is that hatchets are more effective than knives in wolf struggles. As you say, YMMV.

[Aagje]

If playing on Stalker or Interloper, you may well want to level your Cooking skill to 5 as soon as possible (to avoid intestinal parasites).

So, obviously cook everything in sight -- reishi mushroom preparations (mm, shrooms -- look at the pretty aurora, far out, man...), rose hip tea, canned food, and so on.

But since you may not wish to eat any of the wolf meat at first from all those wolves you've (hopefully) beaten off with your hatchet/improvised hatchet, one thing you can do to increase your cooking skill quickly is to harvest little bitty 0.1kg chunks of flesh from the wolves; yes, you'll need to cook each one individually, but that's rather the point, isn't it?

Ahh, but how do you get those 0.1kg chunks, you ask? Well, let me show you. In the harvesting screen, go up to the maximum (in this image, that'd have been 5.4kg), then drop it down as low as you can -- in this case, 0.4kg.

Then, as you begin harvesting, cancel out when you're only slightly done -- on PC, hit Escape. You should be able to get tiny little chunks out by doing that, until you get the carcass down to x.1kg of meat remaining. If you're really lucky, you can get that .1kg remaining down to the point where it only takes 1 minute of in-game time to harvest by hand.

(In this instance, the carcass has frozen to the point where I can't use my hand any longer, but it's certainly possible!)

So, that's ~50 chunks of meat per wolf that you can use to level your cooking skill, and it's often faster to strip teeny tiny little chunks off one by one than it is to get nice big 1kg slabs o' meat.

As an added bonus, using 0.1kg chunks of meat as decoys works just as well as using an entire 1kg slab. So keep a couple of those around to make the other wolves happy and off your back while you drag your pounds of flesh back to your cooking fire!

[hozz1235]

On 2/11/2018 at 4:18 PM, Aagje said:

But since you may not wish to eat any of the wolf meat at first from all those wolves you've (hopefully) beaten off with your hatchet/improvised hatchet, one thing you can do to increase your cooking skill quickly is to harvest little bitty 0.1kg chunks of flesh from the wolves; yes, you'll need to cook each one individually, but that's rather the point, isn't it?

This made me mention something I've often thought about while playing - Perhaps your cooking skill should increase based upon what you're cooking.  Could be this way already (haven't tested it).  So, based upon Aagje's example, cooking a very small piece of meat would get you a very small increase in skill, while cooking a full-size moose haunch, would earn a higher increase.

[zaz999]

Qquick question:

How do I get the screen shown in the image below to come up consistently on my Xbox One?  I stumbled on it a couple of times but when I need it I cannot find it?  Access to it really makes the game more manageable. 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[hozz1235]

The interface to melt snow?

[cekivi]

Welcome to the forums @zaz999

If you're looking for the "melt snow" option it is only available when interacting with a lit fire. Furthermore, there needs to be enough time left on your fire to melt the snow. For instance, you won't be able to melt 3 L in 20 min.

[Doc Feral]

I'd recommend always carrying 4-5 bandages, even if someone wrote 2-3 before. The reason is that with a knife or hatchet, and a good deal of fast clicking, you can survive a fight with a pack of even three wolves, if you're unlucky like me and they always gang up. But surviving an epic battle and dying from blood loss is disappointing. Sometimes a wolf attack will cause a bleeding wound, sometimes not, and just today for the first time I've suffered two different bleedings from one attack. Big bad wolf. So I'd rather be safe than sorry (and usually dead) and be generous with first aid stuff. Antiseptic (which is heavier) is not so urgent, you can always use antibiotics or mushrooms later if the infection sets in.

[MHDan]

Hello, new here but been playing TLD for over a year now. 

Really liking this topic, I remember the first few weeks playing this game, it was unlike anything I have played before.

My tip is no matter how long you have been playing...don't get over confident, it will always punish you for it! Just yesterday I nearly fell to my death because I thought I could sprint across a log.

Just wondering if you can be attacked by a wolf while you are sleeping outside? It has never happened to me but I always worry!

[MrWolf]

Here's a tip for times when you're out walking with fresh guts, meat, or anything else that gives off a scent and you see a wolf approaching in the distance.  As long as the wolf has not locked on to you and is just headed in your direction, drop all available decoys.  The wolf should lose interest and change course.  Pick up the decoys and walk in a different direction.  The wolf will walk to the spot where you picked up the decoys, regardless of where you go (unless you get close enough for the wolf to lock on to you).  Once the wolf reaches the spot where you picked up the decoys, it will turn to pursue you again.  You can repeat the maneuver until the wolf gets close to you or you make it to shelter.
 

Edited April 13, 2018 by MrWolf

[Doc Feral]

Not all fires are created equal. You light a fire in the open, throw a couple of logs to make it last three hours and happily settle down to chop a carcass? You still risk a cruel and unusual death by hypothermia. It just happened to me. Always check if your temperature is actually going up, your clothes can make a lot of difference. And a bunch of sticks may generate more heat than a single log, for the same duration.

[GamerPS]

i am beginning to play this game and a i have to thank everybody for yours truly important advices

[Jacksy]

Whats the best weapon to fight wolves with? If i want a chance to give it a mortal wound. 

I also have the wolfskin coat and the bear coat.

Which is the best to wear?

Edited May 5, 2018 by Jacksy