How to Interloper?

[ChillPlayer]

3 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

Thanks for this.  I was surprised that people were recommending against passing time to warm up.  I view it as simply another tool to manage my condition, not a mistake.   Sometimes it's the right call for the situation.

Why should someone recommend against passing time? If you sleep during the day to warm up you'll be awake all night where temperature is twice as low as during the day.

[Hotzn]

Playing Interloper, you need to plan a lot ahead. Before you leave a shelter, you should know what you want to do, where you need to go to do it, what the costs in terms of condition and resources will be, and how you can minimise the costs. Also think about what could thwart your plan and have a plan B in reserve.

Example:

You have started in PV and ended up at the Farmstead early in the run. You found matches, some clothes, firewood, maybe some other things of lesser importance. You still have water, but no more food. And no bedroll.

Your first priority is the cold, which is taken care of for the moment, since the Farmstead is warm. Cold will kick back in once you leave, and you are not equipped to survive the cold outside for long. Wherever you go, you want to end up in another warm shelter quite soon. And that shelter must have an opportunity to sleep, or you may end up there exhausted, which is very dangerous. So you could make a little trip and return to the Farmstead. Or you could set out for Radio Control Hut, Rural Crossroads or the Outbuildings. Careful with the Outbuildings, since it can get a little cold there, but unlike some players think it does have a good sleeping opportunity - the truck inside the red barn. There is also Draft Dodger's, but that is a little out of the way. Let's say you aim for Radio Control Hut.

Now how to get there. If you know the map (and that's a must in Interloper), you know there are two ways up there - to the right around the cliff, or to the left (and there maybe up the rope). Since there is a bear cave next to the rope, the safer route is around the right. Now that route is longer, and you will take freezing damage. You can either take that damage and sleep it off during the night. But you have no food, and it's not guaranteed you will find enough in Radio Control Hut to fully heal overnight. So plan A is to make a fire en route when you start freezing, and warm up again. That requires wood - you should know how much firewood you need to carry with you for a fire which will actually warm you up quickly (three arrows up). During warm-up your plan provides for making some more water so as not to waste the firewood and time. And before leaving the fire again you will plan to pull torches, leaving the last one burning for some extra degrees of warmth. You should get to the Hut fairly unscathed.

What if the weather turns? Wind could pick up and extinguish your fire. Or snowfall could start, threatening a blizzard. Plan B: Make no fire, continue straight to the Hut. You will eat quite some freezing damage, but I don't see a better alternative. Use your sprint-o-meter to minimise freezing, but leave enough for some seconds of sprint to avoid the unexpected wolf. Hope you find enough food at the Hut to heal overnight. Remember to drink a cup of herbal tea before going to bed if you need to boost your healing. You should know how much calories you consume per hour of sleep, how much condition you heal by sleeping how many hours, and how much boost you will get from herbal tea. Do you really need the boost? If not, better spare the tea for another night. Include the tea in your calculations (100 cal allow for more than one additional hour of heal-sleep). Don't eat more than you need and go back to starving the next morning. Do the 100 cal from the tea push you far over what you need? Interrupt your meal before drinking the tea by hitting ESC and eat exactly the calories you want. Keep in mind you can sleep 10 hours in a row if you fully satiated your thirst before going to bed. The tenth hour gives you much more healing than the first hour, so don't skip it if you need it (and your calories suffice for 10 hours). Such are Interloper calculations.

Only when you have made plan A and plan B should you set out. What if you stumble upon an unexpected deer carcass on the way? Be careful, not greedy. Abandoning the plan has been the undoing of many a promising Interloper Padawan.

[JAFO]

9 hours ago, ChillPlayer said:

The reason why most people fail in Interloper is because they didn't play Stalker enough. This mode is ment for long-time players who know all the corners and item spawn points of the world, who complain that Stalker is way too easy and find it about as challenging as Pilgrim.

9 hours ago, ChillPlayer said:

And why rush into Interloper? If you master it (the hard way) there's nothing else left, it can't get any more difficult without becoming ridiculous.

All this is why, after 550 hours in TLD, only now am I starting to mess with Stalker. I'm in no rush to get to Interloper, because once that's mastered, there's almost no more challenge to be had.

 

7 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

Did this change recently?  My current interloper sandbox, started after Faithful Cartographer dropped, has 2 firestrikers.

Hmm.. I was basing that statement off the Rare Loot Tables.. It would be good if some of our Interloper Masters could help update that table.. we know of at least one missing entry in it.. now there are at least 2.

[JAFO]

2 hours ago, Hotzn said:

Playing Interloper, you need to plan a lot ahead. Before you leave a shelter, you should know what you want to do, where you need to go to do it, what the costs in terms of condition and resources will be, and how you can minimise the costs. Also think about what could thwart your plan and have a plan B in reserve.

Example:

Many thanks, for an excellent example of the kind of planning needed for Interloper!

[Ruruwawa]

14 hours ago, JAFO said:

Hmm.. I was basing that statement off the Rare Loot Tables.. It would be good if some of our Interloper Masters could help update that table.. we know of at least one missing entry in it.. now there are at least 2.

You're assuming I keep track, which I'm too lazy to do.  I just hit up all the likely spots in my travels. 

In my experience -- maybe a dozen 'loper summit trips -- the firestriker at the summit is always there, regardless of which RLT you roll.  

[TROY]

As I read through all the posts in this thread, I saw many things that I felt were good advice, and many things I disagree with.  With over 600 hours in this game, I finally started giving Stalker and Interloper a try. To be honest, the only thing I felt thats unmanageable in Interloper is the sheer amount and aggressiveness of the wolves. You literally cannot go anywhere without running into a small pack, and it's damn near impossible to survive a single struggle. I've spawned in the far corner of FM, at night, in a Blizzard, with only a t-shirt. I made it to the camp office in ML with 40% health remaining. I've survived 7 days without ever finding a single match. I've spawned in TWM, made it all the way to the farmhouse in PV, only to die to wolves 2 meters from the front door. I've managed to survive an attack from a single wolf (I got an arrow in on it as it charged) with 10 or 11% health remaining, and then died from freezing ON THE DOORSTEP of the Hunting Lodge in BR because I was weaving and stumbling and couldnt open the door. I completely disagree with the statement made about time being an infinite resource though. You need calories in order for the clock to keep ticking. Every minute that you don't make use of, is a minute gone from your timeline. That said, I don't think warming up by resting is a bad idea. If you get to nighttime and arent tired enough to get your ten hours, go outside and sprint around til you close to exhausted. You shouldnt ever have to worry about short warm up naps, because you should be sprinting everywhere you go anyways.

If you are regularly having 30 day runs on Interloper, you arent doing ANYTHING wrong.

Less than 25% of ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE PURCHASED THIS GAME have survived 10 days, on ANY difficulty.

[Stormwolf1O1]

12 minutes ago, TROY said:

I completely disagree with the statement made about time being an infinite resource though. You need calories in order for the clock to keep ticking. Every minute that you don't make use of, is a minute gone from your timeline.

This actually brings to notice the particular fact that all runs, on any difficulty, will run out eventually. We just don't know what day it will happen, or from what cause. Likewise, from the day you begin the run to the day it ends, the timeline upon which the run goes is not infinite at all - it has a beginning, middle, and end. It's about how effectively you use your time that governs how long the run is likely to be.

[ChillPlayer]

7 hours ago, Stormwolf1O1 said:

This actually brings to notice the particular fact that all runs, on any difficulty, will run out eventually.

hmm that's not true, with the Magnifying Lense, respawning Wood and Wildlife you could live forever.

[Stormwolf1O1]

9 hours ago, ChillPlayer said:

hmm that's not true, with the Magnifying Lense, respawning Wood and Wildlife you could live forever.

I suppose, but the game is meant to end at some point. Even if you were to continue on for as long as it kept your interest, you'd eventually grow bored. I guess once you stop playing that save, it's essentially 'end game'.

[ChillPlayer]

1 hour ago, Stormwolf1O1 said:

I suppose, but the game is meant to end at some point. Even if you were to continue on for as long as it kept your interest, you'd eventually grow bored. I guess once you stop playing that save, it's essentially 'end game'.

Yes this is how most Stalker Games ended - suicide by boredom - my prefered way was to run into a pack of wolves or jumping down the bridge in the Ravine

Interloper though is a completely different story. Getting to day 100 is already a challenge, surviving past day 200 can be called an act of mastery. I can't imagine Interloper getting boring any time because increased drop in temperature, reliance on sunny weather after you've used all matches and firestrikers and Cabin Fever will make sure that any suicidal thoughts will be based on "I can't take this anymore..." (Dark Souls, anyone?) rather than boredom

[Stormwolf1O1]

12 minutes ago, ChillPlayer said:

Yes this is how most Stalker Games ended - suicide by boredom - my prefered way was to run into a pack of wolves or jumping down the bridge in the Ravine

Interloper though is a completely different story. Getting to day 100 is already a challenge, surviving past day 200 can be called an act of mastery. I can't imagine Interloper getting boring any time because increased drop in temperature, reliance on sunny weather after you've used all matches and firestrikers and Cabin Fever will make sure that any suicidal thoughts will be based on "I can't take this anymore..." (Dark Souls, anyone?) rather than boredom

I think you're right about that. Getting to the hundreds on Interloper would certain be a feat of its own. And the only reason the game tends to get boring is because you've settled in with an abundance of food and water, and have plenty of weapons and fuel. That rarely happens with Interloper. Nearly every day requires planning to make the best use of your time, so it's unusual for someone to get into some kind of boring routine, sitting around and sipping sodas, on Interloper unless they have no idea what they're doing.

[ChillPlayer]

3 minutes ago, Stormwolf1O1 said:

unless they have no idea what they're doing.

which in Interloper is deadly by itself

[Stormwolf1O1]

8 minutes ago, ChillPlayer said:

which in Interloper is deadly by itself

Quite!  But if you're like me, you start off that way, then learn from your mistakes.

[ChillPlayer]

4 minutes ago, Stormwolf1O1 said:

Quite!  But if you're like me, you start off that way, then learn from your mistakes.

That's what TLD is all about, learning by dying. But for the sake of your own sanity, learn in Stalker lol

[Stormwolf1O1]

Just now, ChillPlayer said:

That's what TLD is all about, learning by dying. But for the sake of your own sanity, learn in Stalker lol

Actually, I started off learning in Pilgrim. Then I slowly moved up in difficulty. Actually skipped over Stalker though, went straight to Interloper. Stalker seems like a walk in the park now!

[June]

Boredom still happens I'm on day 100 now, got all tools, all clothes, even climbed the  mountain, got 86 matches (still cooking with mag. glass) and more fish than i can eat. Guess it's time to spice things up by doing something stupid. Like trying to make maps...

[ChillPlayer]

1 minute ago, June said:

Boredom still happens ?I'm on day 100 now, got all tools, all clothes, even climbed the  mountain, got 86 matches (still cooking with mag. glass) and more fish than i can eat. Guess it's time to spice things up by doing something stupid. Like trying to make maps ?

Enjoy while it lasts, it only takes a Ninja Wolf to loose it all  But getting the Cartographer Achievement on Interloper would certainly earn alot of respect

[June]

20 minutes ago, ChillPlayer said:

Enjoy while it lasts, it only takes a Ninja Wolf to loose it all  But getting the Cartographer Achievement on Interloper would certainly earn alot of respect

Nobody would believe that!  I´m doing the "10 days above 0 Calories" - thing at the moment. It works quite well, since I´m doing a daily routine of collecting wood, fishing, cooking, and sleeping. Plans are to go and live on the Broken railway map. With cooking 5 I might live off wolves and bears and stay in Jeremya´s lodge. Let´s see how that works out. ^^

[ChillPlayer]

1 hour ago, June said:

Nobody would believe that! 

just post a screenshot of the Journal with 100% explored in Interloper