Stormwolf's Helpful Facts + Tips for Survival Mode in TLD (for Players New and Old)!

[Stormwolf1O1]

Over the many hours of playtime I've had over the years, I've gathered together a lot of useful information that may be new to other players, for both those who are new to the game and those who are experienced. I figured, why not share them?

RESOURCES

- In case you didn't know, you can harvest curtains, pillows, old bedrolls, and clothing for cloth or leather to use for repairs.

- Branches, sticks, stones, and some other natural items will respawn after about a week in game time.

- Need coal? Head to a nearby mine. I'm not positive, but I'm fairly certain that coal respawns after a certain number of days.

 

FIRESTARTING

- Firestarting skill still low? Make a torch, and light it. The lit torch can be used in place of matches when firestarting, and if it fails, it can be used to try again until the torch goes out. Only one match has been used for this.

- A lit flare can be used in place of matches.

- The firestarting process will keep hostile wildlife at a safe distance from you, as they do not like fire.

FOOD/DRINK

- Water is heavy! Don't carry too much around with you at once, and make extra to keep in your base to refill your inventory supply occasionally.

- Stunning rabbits with stones is easier than some people make it seem. You can crouch and strafe to right in front of a rabbit's path to get an accurate throw.

- Heating up food before eating it does not increase the amount of fullness it provides. It just helps you warm up faster.
- Coffee decreases fatigue by a bit over time. Once one coffee wears off, drink another. This can be useful for those long, dark nights when you're not ready to sleep yet!
- Herbal tea gives you more restful sleep. If your condition is below 100%, drinking herbal tea will allow for sleep to recover condition faster.
- Drinks do not have to be consumed while hot to reap their benefits.

- Eat your lower quality food (30% condition or lower) before going to sleep for the night, provided you have antibiotics on hand. They're more likely to give you food poisoning, but you were about to sleep anyway!

- Hungry and Thirsty, but all you have is salty crackers or beef jerky? Sometimes its best to wait until you have water (unless your thirst is already at zero)!

GENERAL SURVIVAL

- Always keep your bedroll with you. Do not leave your bedroll at home. This is my #1 Rule! You will wander further away from home than you thought you would, there will be unexpected blizzards, things happen. An exhausted survivor is not a thriving survivor.

- Raw meat, cooked meat, or rabbits in your inventory will attract predators. Either use this to your advantage, or store it at your base ASAP!

- If you have a rabbit, some raw meat, or even a bit of cooked meat on hand, you can drop a decoy by holding Spacebar and clicking the relative Drop Decoy button. This will attract nearby wolves to its location, giving you a few seconds to get away to safety.

- Stones can be thrown near wolves to spark their curiosity. They will trot over to where the stone fell while you sneak past.

- Throwing stones at an angry wolf will NOT scare it away.

- Crouching while moving near wolves is a good way to not be seen by them. You can get surprisingly rather close without being detected.
- If you play on a laptop and with a separate wireless mouse, you can click both mouses during a wolf fight to double your click speed.

- A bear's weak spot is right between his fluffy little ears. Also, he may rear up on his hind legs to intimidate you before attacking. The heart is a good spot to aim, too.

- If you're feeling brave enough to shoot a bear, don't use a bow and arrows. Use a rifle, and shoot from a far distance. Chances are, the first shot will not kill him, and he will come barreling towards you faster than you can say "Oh, bother!"

- So you've just been beaten up by an angry bear. Unless you're stupid, like me, don't pick your rifle back up and starting shooting at him again. Go home and recover.
- Sometimes a bear will beat you up, start to walk away, then turn around and decide you haven't had enough yet. Don't stop to pick up your dropped items, just run! You can come back later to get your stuff.

- Stabbed a wolf or shot a deer, and are now waiting for it to stop fleeing and drop dead? Wait for it to get to a place you can see it, then pull out your cards and Pass the Time for about an hour or two. Usually, they will die on the spot.
- A circle of crows flying overhead signals a human corpse or a dead animal on the ground below. You can use them to locate animals you shot/stabbed previously but lost track of.

- Looking for a good base to settle down? Pick a spot that has an indoor fireplace (fire barrel, wood stove, etc.) and plenty of storage containers. A workbench would also be preferable.

- Caves are warm. The entrance of one is a great place to spend the night with your bedroll.
- Caves are also dark. No lantern? Use a torch or flare. Matches work in a pinch.
- Do not attempt to traverse through caves without a source of light. You may fall and get hurt, or even die.
- Some caves have flares hidden about. Keep your eyes open for them and have a couple with you in case your lantern surprises you and runs out.
- Lit flares are also good for scaring off wolves. So are lit torches.

- Hypothermia risk got you worried? Your survivor is stronger than you may think. Check your condition by holding Spacebar and clicking the center button. Under Afflictions, you can see the Hypothermia Risk square filling up slowly with red. Use this to check how much time you have before you need to run inside and warm up.
- Some trees have hollow trunks. It's not warm in there, but it will shield you from the wind while you catch your breath or manage your inventory.
- Have plans for the next morning? Wake up and there's a roaring blizzard? Stay inside. Wait until it's over. Even if the hypothermia doesn't kill you, getting lost will waste your time and energy.

- Organize your belongings! It's a pain to sort through tons of stuff when you're looking for a bandage to stop yourself from bleeding out.
- Speaking of that, it's a great idea to keep one bandage on you at all times. Old Man's Beard dressing or Antiseptic is good to have at all times, too, to follow up on using the bandage. Blood loss rarely comes without infection risk.

- Going to Timberwolf Mountain? Bring lots of Painkillers, you'll need them eventually.
- Always carry two bottles of antibiotics with you. Food poisoning can strike at the worst of times, like while you're out scavenging.

- No painkillers or antibiotics when you need them most? Make tea from rose hips or Reishi mushrooms.

- Sometimes it's not worth it to use your painkillers to treat a sprain. Just sleep for a few hours instead, assuming you've found a safe, warm location.

- Climbing up a rope, but running out of energy? Use an emergency stim. If you don't have one, analyze a climb before starting it to see if it has any ledges. You can stop climbing, look over to the side, and click when you see "Ledge" to get off the rope and catch your breath for a couple minutes.
- Stuck on a ledge? Too encumbered to get back down? Drop all your stuff, including your clothes, if necessary (but not your bedroll!). Climb back down and find a safe place to use your bedroll to build your strength up. Climb up again and retrieve your stuff from the ledge when you're ready.

- Trying to get through Forlorn Muskeg? Struggling with weak ice? Either run over very small stretches of weak ice, or travel between patches of snow to avoid the ice altogether. Ice with snow on top will not collapse.

- Avoid locations like Forlorn Muskeg, Pleasant Valley, Desolation Point, and Timberwolf Mountain until you have some very decent clothes to keep you warm. The weather in these locations can be very harsh and bring your temp down quickly otherwise.

- Trying to use a forge, but the temperature won't increase anymore? Add coal. It's the only fuel that will increase the temp from that point.

MISC.

- You can flip down the visors in the front seat of a car to mark that you've already looted it. This is visible from outside the car.
- If you want to see whether a car has been looted from a distance, you can open the hood and grab the car's battery using the right mouse button. Left mouse button click to place it on top of the car's roof.
- You can also flip open the gas cap! As of right now, however, you cannot siphon gas out of cars.

- Some locations, like Desolation Point and Coastal Highway, allow for "beach combing." Useful items wash up along the shore and are up for grabs. I've found things like fish, wood, flare and rifle ammo, and so on. But beware of weak ice!

- When comparing clothing stats to choose what's best, keep in mind that clothing in poor condition has much better stats when in good condition.
- Reading skill books is definitely worth the time. However, they make very good fuel if you decide you don't need the boost in that skill.
- You can change the way units are measured (Imperial/Metric) in the Settings.
- Don't like holding down the mouse button and waiting for the circle to fill? This function can be toggled under Settings>Controls>Accessible Interactions.

If you have any feedback or suggestions as to what should be added, please let me know in the comments!

[omoon66]

As a fairly experienced player (playing on and off on Xbox for 2 years), I've learned a few things. This is a great guide to help struggling new players. I never knew there was "beach combing", or that stones distract wolves. I guess I wasn't observant enough! 

[Stormwolf1O1]

39 minutes ago, omoon66 said:

As a fairly experienced player (playing on and off on Xbox for 2 years), I've learned a few things. This is a great guide to help struggling new players. I never knew there was "beach combing", or that stones distract wolves. I guess I wasn't observant enough! 

Glad I thought to post this, then! 

[JAFO]

13 hours ago, Stormwolf1O1 said:

Raw meat or rabbits in your inventory will attract predators.

So does cooked meat.. just not as much. 6 pieces of cooked meat (regardless of weight) will light up one scent bar. But even one piece of cooked meat will slightly increase the range at which you can be detected.

[LucidFugue]

I'm not sure herbal tea allows you to recover energy faster from sleep. At least, I haven't noticed this. It does increase the amount of condition recovered per hour of sleep.

Recovering condition from sleep works like so:

For the first 2-4 hours of sleep you recover slightly less condition per hour. Every hour of sleep beyond that will give a higher percentage of condition recovered. The amount recovered is different per difficulty level, from memory. At least, interloper values are:

Early sleeo: 1-2% per hour 

Deep sleep: 2-4% per hour 

Herbal tea bonus: about an extra 1% per hour.

You can sleep up to 10 hours in a single stretch before dehydration sets in, provided you had a full thirst bar before sleeping. Make sure you have enough calories, too! 

So, for best results, make sure you have a herbal tea brewed up in advance. Make sure you are tired enough to sleep for 10 hours (nearly exhausted. I think your Max carry weigh should be around 18-20kgs). Eat at least 900 calories, drink your herbal tea, top off with water, then have the best sleep of your life. 

If you're trying to recover condition, avoid short naps as this will slow down your recovery. 

[Fuarian]

You can't climb a rope with a Stim anymore. You should also mention the 30kg rule.

[Stormwolf1O1]

2 hours ago, LucidFugue said:

I'm not sure herbal tea allows you to recover energy faster from sleep. At least, I haven't noticed this. It does increase the amount of condition recovered per hour of sleep.

Recovering condition from sleep works like so:

For the first 2-4 hours of sleep you recover slightly less condition per hour. Every hour of sleep beyond that will give a higher percentage of condition recovered. The amount recovered is different per difficulty level, from memory. At least, interloper values are:

Early sleeo: 1-2% per hour 

Deep sleep: 2-4% per hour 

Herbal tea bonus: about an extra 1% per hour.

You can sleep up to 10 hours in a single stretch before dehydration sets in, provided you had a full thirst bar before sleeping. Make sure you have enough calories, too! 

So, for best results, make sure you have a herbal tea brewed up in advance. Make sure you are tired enough to sleep for 10 hours (nearly exhausted. I think your Max carry weigh should be around 18-20kgs). Eat at least 900 calories, drink your herbal tea, top off with water, then have the best sleep of your life. 

If you're trying to recover condition, avoid short naps as this will slow down your recovery. 

I noticed my mistake shortly after, when I was playing the game again. Will edit my post appropriately, thanks for the correction.

[Stormwolf1O1]

5 hours ago, JAFO said:

So does cooked meat.. just not as much. 6 pieces of cooked meat (regardless of weight) will light up one scent bar. But even one piece of cooked meat will slightly increase the range at which you can be detected.

Good point, thanks! I will add that bit to my post.

[Stormwolf1O1]

2 hours ago, Fuarian said:

You can't climb a rope with a Stim anymore. You should also mention the 30kg rule.

Is that right? The other day on TWM I used a stim and went right up the rope.

[Fuarian]

4 hours ago, Stormwolf1O1 said:

Is that right? The other day on TWM I used a stim and went right up the rope.

Hmm, I could've sworn they changed it so you couldn't in FC.

[Stormwolf1O1]

4 hours ago, Fuarian said:

Hmm, I could've sworn they changed it so you couldn't in FC.

You may be right, but I could've sworn the stim helped me climb faster.

[Frosty]

First Bear Hunt - My very first attempt at taking down a bear couldn't have gone better and it is in large part due to tips I've learned on this forum. That is a Waterfront cottage in background where I shot the bear from on Coastal Highway map. His route takes him up the shore where I tagged him with my rifle with one shot then bolted inside for an hour, he didn't make it far back to his den.

Bear Meat Tip - I wanted to add to the list a small tip about raw bear meat. It decays at an alarming rate at least on Stalker maybe even worse on Interloper. Harvest the meat using a hatchet or hacksaw it is faster than knife and cook it all ASAP it decays much slower this way especially outside.

Thanks for the tips and stay Frosty out there. I have another bear to hunt now I want that bedroll 

[Stormwolf1O1]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

First Bear Hunt - My very first attempt at taking down a bear couldn't have gone better and it is in large part due to tips I've learned on this forum. That is a Waterfront cottage in background where I shot the bear from on Coastal Highway map. His route takes him up the shore where I tagged him with my rifle with one shot then bolted inside for an hour, he didn't make it far back to his den.

Bear Meat Tip - I wanted to add to the list a small tip about raw bear meat. It decays at an alarming rate at least on Stalker maybe even worse on Interloper. Harvest the meat using a hatchet or hacksaw it is faster than knife and cook it all ASAP it decays much slower this way especially outside.

Thanks for the tips and stay Frosty out there. I have another bear to hunt now I want that bedroll 

Great work! All that meat looks tasty lol. Another bear close by is in the neighboring region, Desolation Point. Consider hiking over there with some bear meat and your first bear fur + some guts to cure them in the Hibernia whale processing building while you prep for your next hunt! The bear over there has a cave just next door.

[Frosty]

17 minutes ago, Stormwolf1O1 said:

Great work! All that meat looks tasty lol. Another bear close by is in the neighboring region, Desolation Point. Consider hiking over there with some bear meat and your first bear fur + some guts to cure them in the Hibernia whale processing building while you prep for your next hunt! The bear over there has a cave just next door.

Thanks for the tip, I ran into that bear en route to that cave near the waterfall, wolf in there scared the hell out of me. I'm going to stay on CH until I get the other bear North of the town that wanders around some small cabins near the road. Going to shoot and scoot inside one of them is the plan. 

[Stormwolf1O1]

43 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Thanks for the tip, I ran into that bear en route to that cave near the waterfall, wolf in there scared the hell out of me. I'm going to stay on CH until I get the other bear North of the town that wanders around some small cabins near the road. Going to shoot and scoot inside one of them is the plan. 

Not sure which one that is..? Was unaware that there was more than just that bear that patrols from Waterside houses to Misanthrope's that you killed.

[Frosty]

9 minutes ago, Stormwolf1O1 said:

Not sure which one that is..? Was unaware that there was more than just that bear that patrols from Waterside houses to Misanthrope's that you killed.

North of the Coastal townsite along the road is a lone trailer. Due North of that trailer is a bear cave spawn possibility. That bear roams the road further northward to a pair of trailers where he hangs out for a bit (where you climb down from Lookout)My plan is to ambush the bear at that point and duck into a trailer. This bear was one of the first I encountered in the game too closely and have tracked his pattern which is quite a long route. 

[Stormwolf1O1]

23 minutes ago, Frosty said:

North of the Coastal townsite along the road is a lone trailer. Due North of that trailer is a bear cave spawn possibility. That bear roams the road further northward to a pair of trailers where he hangs out for a bit (where you climb down from Lookout)My plan is to ambush the bear at that point and duck into a trailer. This bear was one of the first I encountered in the game too closely and have tracked his pattern which is quite a long route. 

Ahh, the trailer..near the mine?

[Frosty]

14 minutes ago, Stormwolf1O1 said:

Ahh, the trailer..near the mine?

Yes sir he goes that way.  I am playing right now the spot I mean are three cabins not trailers and it is more westward from the lone trailer on the road. Its where you climb down from Abandoned lookout if you have rope. This was my first meeting with the bear and I watched him until he left towards the mine westward. 

[Stormwolf1O1]

10 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Yes sir he goes that way.  I am playing right now the spot I mean are three cabins not trailers and it is more westward from the lone trailer on the road. Its where you climb down from Abandoned lookout if you have rope. This was my first meeting with the bear and I watched him until he left towards the mine westward. 

Oh yeah..I remember coming out of the mine during Hopeless Rescue, it was nighttime during a terrible blizzard. Was looking for that stupid Trailer but got lost. XD

[Frosty]

On Saturday, August 19, 2017 at 9:46 PM, Stormwolf1O1 said:

Not sure which one that is..? Was unaware that there was more than just that bear that patrols from Waterside houses to Misanthrope's that you killed.

I found a third bear on CH 

After I got the 2nd bear North of town I headed for Mystery Lake. I like to take the creak along the westernmost side of the map which leads right up to the train tracks and nearly bumped right into it 

It seems the den is nearby the campground area I'll have to track him next time I return 

[Stormwolf1O1]

7 minutes ago, Frosty said:

I found a third bear on CH 

After I got the 2nd bear North of town I headed for Mystery Lake. I like to take the creak along the westernmost side of the map which leads right up to the train tracks and nearly bumped right into it 

It seems the den is nearby the campground area I'll have to track him next time I return 

Ah, yes. The Bear Creek Campground area.  No surprise there.