How do y'all prefer your clothing?

[Tbone555]

Just as the title states - What do y'all tend to wear in the long dark to keep the chill off your bones? I remember back before they added defense, waterproof and encumbrance value to clothing and we would all rush to get the heaviest warmest stuff. But with more recent updates, you have to be tactical about what you wear. Me, I like to be light, reasonably warm, and defended. My current outfit is as follows -

I like light but warm jackets. Ski jacket is an ideal jacket for me, and layering two light sweaters or one heavy sweater underneath it provides pretty decent warmth and defense. Rabbit skin hat and balaclava are both pretty light and very very warm. Wool socks and trail socks are very ideal, preferably two pairs of either. I like trail boots or deer boots. They may not be the warmest, but they're not the worst by far and offer great mobility. Leather work gloves solely for the defensive value, they're my favorite gloves in the game. And as you can see I have snow pants on with cargo pants layered over them for the extra wind blockage and damage protection. Work pants offer much better protection, but they're not very warm and they're very heavy so they're not ideal. Heavy boots are a huuuge no no. Ski boots especially. I hate being slowed down as I travel a lot. Heavier coats are good if I can't find anything else, but as long as I can find a ski jacket I usually stay away from them.

This setup has kept me completely warm on most days, but I know it won't last. I've had some hides curing to make some clothes for when the weather turns. I plan to replace the trail boots with deerskin boots, keep most of my clothing as is, and craft me a bearskin coat. Which is heavy, yes. But offers the best cold protection in the entire game and it shouldn't weigh me down too bad as long as I keep the rest of my clothing light.

So what do my fellow survivors think of my setup? How do y'all prefer dressing yourselves in the morning to face the quiet apocalypse?

[ajb1978]

If RNG cooperates, two expedition parkas, two cowichan sweaters, gauntlets, wool toque, balaclava, moosehide satchel, wool ear wrap, two snow pants, two wool longjohns, two climbing socks, insulated boots.  I prioritize warmth first, windproof second.  Defense and waterproofing aren't real big concerns for me, since I can ditch wolves no problem, and double-tapping C to keep an eye on my clothing is easy.

I typically don't bother crafting clothing, as the weight isn't worth it.  But if I'm looking for a cool paper doll, I like the cloth toque, wolfskin coat, deerskin pants, driving gloves, and mukluks.

[UpUpAway95]

I love finding an expedition parka and snow pants, as well as a fisherman's sweater... but it's all up to luck.  Right now, I'm making do with a Simple Parka, Down Vest, Wool Shirt, Jeans, 2 thermal underwear, 2 pairs of wool socks, a Canada toque, and trail boots.  Of my preferred types of gear, I have a balaclava, gauntlets, fisherman's sweater and a pair of combat pants..  My warmth bonus is a respectable +17, windproof bonus +6, and Protection bonus 23%.  My sprint is at 88%.  I could probably get my warmth bonus up higher if I did some repairs, but I'm holding off to see if I find better stuff, particularly in the jacket department.

Edited June 30, 2019 by UpUpAway95

[Mike in GA]

I really like the artificial clothing, but it seems if I get attacked, it suffers more % loss than skin clothing does. Currently have the wolf jacket, rabbit gloves, deer pants and boots. Two wool toques, cargo pants under the deer ones, 2 x thermals, 2 x hiking socks, and fisherman's sweater. My sprint has taken a huge hit at 68% now. I'm going much more for the tank-ish outrigging than the speedy one. It also bears out that from two wolf attacks, the clothing damage has been very negligible. Previously, I've lost jackets and pants from a single wolf attack, not an issue so far. Temp bonus is +34, wind is +14, but protection is 39%. IDK, but I'm liking it so far. I stay well fed, (which as aside I love THANK YOU HINTERLAND that +11 pounds extra is worth not starving for!!!) and leave with about 50 pounds total for the day. Bow, x 5 arrows, knife, hatchet, crowbar (to break ice with if I want to fish). 

Tbone, if you can avoid the wildlife struggles, then I think your setup totally works. I'm still trying to get much better with the bow, I was rifle reliant for a loooonnnnngggg time, so where I'm at I feel the extra protection helps, at least mentally.

[Tbone555]

On 6/30/2019 at 9:41 AM, ajb1978 said:

If RNG cooperates, two expedition parkas, two cowichan sweaters, gauntlets, wool toque, balaclava, moosehide satchel, wool ear wrap, two snow pants, two wool longjohns, two climbing socks, insulated boots.  I prioritize warmth first, windproof second.  Defense and waterproofing aren't real big concerns for me, since I can ditch wolves no problem, and double-tapping C to keep an eye on my clothing is easy.

I typically don't bother crafting clothing, as the weight isn't worth it.  But if I'm looking for a cool paper doll, I like the cloth toque, wolfskin coat, deerskin pants, driving gloves, and mukluks.

I'm curious, what's your clothing stats at with this setup? I crafted my bear skin coat yesterday, and I do love it simply because it's badass and it has a high chance to scare wolves away. But besides that I'm not sure if it's practical, as far as the stats to weight ratio goes. I'm sitting at 34f with 14f windproof bonus. Which really doesn't seem worth it since I had to lose a bunch of extra layers to make up for the weight of the coat itself.

[hozz1235]

Really depends, but my "typical" apparel is:

• Head:  Balaclava, Rabbit hat, Wool Toque, satchel
• Pants:  Combat, Deerskin, 2 wool longjohns
• Torso:  2x Cowichan, Expedition & Urban Parka
• Feet: Mukluks
• Hands:  Wool Mittens
• Socks:  2x Climbing socks

Edited July 2, 2019 by hozz1235

[Rashad82]

RNG informs this, but my current setup:

wool touque, rabbit hat

Wolf coat, expedition parka

light sweater, wool shirt

rabbit gloves

deerskin pants

2x wool long johns

2x climbing sox

deerskin boots

I could run with 2x fisherman sweaters or expedition parkas, but I feel the durability of the crafted gear is more important than saving a few pounds.

 

[UTC-10]

I play Pilgrim.

I tend to wear the best clothing I can find. I do tend to craft the boots, pants, hat, and mittens when materials become available (or too much on hand). The heaviest of the animal hide clothing that I would craft would be the wolfskin jacket. I don't consider the bear skin coat (though I did craft one before the save game apocalypse) or the moose hide coat to be worthwhile (but Pilgrim lets me make that choice easily). 

I do tend to make, and my sandboxes have gone long enough, the boots, pants, hat, and mittens at my various bases since, if nothing else, they can be mended using materials I can collect indefinitely. They also provide a back-up in case of need, say I need to swap soaked/frozen gear (after trying to join the polar bear club on Coastal Highway, for instance) for dry stuff.  It is part of my thing to leave crafted clothing in my bases on the "just in case" idea.

[Jolan]

I prefer baklava and rabbit hat on head, moose coat and mackinow (unless I'm schleping stuff), the best wool sweaters I can find, I'll go with 2 cowichan if I can find them, guantlets, ear wrap and moose bag, deer skin pants and usually work pants, though in some scenarios I like the military pants, two wool long underwear, two climbing socks and mukluks if I can find them, deer skin if I can't.  So if I have to decide protection, waterproof and warmth for outer layers, warmth and protection for inner layers.  Because, you know, wolves

 

[stratvox]

My long run guy is basically a tank. Balaclava, Rabbit Hat, Moose Satchel, ear wrap, Moose Hide Cloak, Bear Coat, Two Cowichan sweaters, Snow Pants inside Deer Pants, two woolen long johns, two climbing socks, Deer Boots.

When fully repaired even blizzards become manageable. Not that you want to stay outside, but you've got a lot more time to find shelter, that's for sure.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Completely from an Interloper standpoint here:

I'm also on the tanky side. I absolutely prefer being passively safe over active avoidance - simply because eventually you will fail to avoid, and then having a thick hide is better than knowing you should have run. I also prefer clothing I can (almost) infinitely sustain.

So that makes:

Head: One Rabbit Hat and a Maple Leaf Toque, plus another Rabbit Hat as a backup

Accessoirs: The no-brainer combo of Ear Wraps and the Satchel. You hardly ever find a second set of Ear Wraps anyways.

Outer Torso: Moose Hide Cloak and Wolfskin Coat underneath to have the scare effect. I usually keep a Windbreaker around to make loothauls across paths I can reasonably assume to be safe. I hardly ever find myself in the position to have too many bear hides to afford a Bearskin Coat, and even then usually having an excessive amount of wolf hides plus paying two kilograms and 5% more encuberance for two more °C is hardly ever worth it.

Inner Torso: Thin Wool Sweaters if I have them (you usually get at least one on TWM), whatever else if I don't. It really doesn't matter a lot. The Hoodie is a bad choice to keep since it repairs more expensively than the other alternatives. 

Hands: Rabbit Skin Mitts. Nobrainer for me. I always keep a pair of Fleece Mittens around to make runs and as a backup. They are clunky but have good protection and can take a beating.

Legs: Deerskin Pants and Jeans as the inner layer. If I get some Combat Pants I won't say no, but there's a one in four chance (iirc) at Grey Mother's, and the only other spawn I know of is HRV. So I might never even get some.

Underwear: Finding a second pair of Thermal Underwear is rare enough to celebrate when I do, often I do not. Nothing else to get here.

Socks: 2 pairs of Wool Socks. Plus another one as a backup.

Shoes: Deerskin Boots. Combat Boots are a good alternative as they are the only thing (in my build) I can use leather for, but they aren't guaranteed, and losing 1+1 °C makes them definitely inferior despite the higher protection.

Much of this is stuff that is inaccessible in the early game, however. Good easy-to-acquire alternatives are

Head: The Maple Leaf Toque is common enough to find. But even the Improvised Head Wrap is a good alternative if you fail to score at least two Wool Scarfs and/or Cotton Toques. Luckily Rabbits are easy to stack up early and you can craft the Rabbit Hat without a knife in just a few hours inside your first week.

Accessoirs: Hard to come by. The Ear Wraps are excessively rare, and the Satchel requires to kill a Moose. There are guaranteed Ear Wraps on the Summit on TWM, but getting there early is no small feat, and even if you start on TWM it needs to be done correctly to not cripple you. Getting to the Satchel on HRV without a hatchet is only possible in half of the games, and can be considered pretty dangerous even if possible.

Outer Torso: The Ski Jacket has multiple spawn points, one guaranteed on the TWM Summit, but there are many other possible spawns in central locations. The Mackinaw Jacket is too rare to look for it. If you get it fine, if not: deal with it. Same goes for Windbreakers and Light Shells: relatively and excessively rare, respectively. The Simple Parka is considerably easier to find. Getting yourself a Ski Jacket or a Simple Parka and a Down Vest is the best you can realistically "plan" for. Sadly better options are locked behind getting a knife and successfully hunting dangerous prey. Of those options the Wolfskin Coat is the by far easiest to get. If you can do that by day 20 you are fast, by day 30 you are still more than just on track.

There is a way to shortcut this but be advised that this will very likely get you killed in some way or another:

 If you start in Mystery Lake or Coastal Highway it is conceivable to get a heavy hammer (3 in 4 chance in Coastal Highway, the other case it's in the Ravine, and every game has a Hammer in Mystery Lake) and the flare gun in the Ravine. Then choose your poison if you either want to down two bears in Mystery Lake and head to the forge in FM, or down two bears in Coastal Highway and beeline to the forge in DP. At both locations you find enough scrap metal to craft a knife, and with that you can craft your own Bearskin Coat at around day 15 if you are really fast.

Inner Torso: Anything, really. Thin Wool Sweaters are excessively rare, everything else is relatively abundantly available and has no real advantages or disadvantages.

Hands: Work Gloves can be found relatively easy, but simple Fleece Mittens will do, while Driving Gloves usually eat leather to repair that is often time consuming to come by in the first place, and which you will want to invest in your boots. Same as with the Rabbit Head you can acquire Rabbit Skin Mitts relatively easily within your first week - and you should.

Legs: If you start around Milton looking up Grey Mother's for Combat Pants is worth a shot. Other than that two layers of Jeans will have to do. Your first three Deer Hides you can acquire from carcasses should go into Deerskin Pants. If you do not find Combat Pants making a second pair of Deerskin Pants might actually be worth it until your overall clothing situation improves.

Underwear: Yeah, not much to be done. If you find a second set hooray, if not there might be nothing to be done about this all game.

Socks: Wool Socks are easy to come by.

Shoes: Work Boots are relatively easy to find and they are good enough until you can craft Deerskin Boots. Combat Boots are pretty rare, but if you find some those will do as well. Other than that keep harvesting those carcasses for Deer Hide number four and five to get your Deerskin Boots as early as you can.

[stratvox]

Yeah, my long run is not interloper. On the gripping hand he just had his second long dark birthday (i.e. made it to day 730); the reason he's got all that is because he's basically been /everywhere/. 

Interloper is more fun than stalker just because it doesn't have as many wolves. I think worrying stalker will turn into an FPS with wolves is kinda like bolting that barn door.

[devamadhu]

On 6/30/2019 at 7:41 AM, ajb1978 said:

If RNG cooperates, two expedition parkas, two cowichan sweaters, gauntlets, wool toque, balaclava, moosehide satchel, wool ear wrap, two snow pants, two wool longjohns, two climbing socks, insulated boots.  I prioritize warmth first, windproof second.  Defense and waterproofing aren't real big concerns for me, since I can ditch wolves no problem, and double-tapping C to keep an eye on my clothing is easy.

I typically don't bother crafting clothing, as the weight isn't worth it.  But if I'm looking for a cool paper doll, I like the cloth toque, wolfskin coat, deerskin pants, driving gloves, and mukluks.

Seconding this, except I will typically craft the rabbitskin hat, deerskin boots, and rabbitskin mittens. It's easy enough to get a stash of rabbit/deer skins and guts, and they're basically infinite resources. The boots are on par with mukluks (which are very rare), and I can save my leather pieces for repairing the satchel.

Even prioritizing warmth like this, my sprint meter is still at 75%. Not too bad since I'm protected from most weather, and it's still fun for me to seek out the rare clothing items.

[odizzido]

I wear all crafted gear since my settings don’t allow me to find good items like snow pants or parkas. I wish they were just super rare instead but oh well. So yup, rabbit skin hat and gloves, wolf or bear jackets, deer pants, and then whatever I happen to find. If I am lucky that will be two thermal underwear, a wool hat, and a couple thin sweaters. The non-crafted loot on the lowest setting is pretty bad and makes looking around for clothing fairly pointless.

 

slightly off topic, but do prepper caches not spawn on the lowest settings? I’ve never seen one and I’ve resorted to looking up maps and checking out all the spawn locations but so far I’ve never seen one.

Edited July 28, 2019 by odizzido

[Swales]

I play on lower difficulty settings (Voyageur or a custom setting with Voyageur-level wolves but Stalker/Loper loot) so I confess I sometimes trade warmth for style. Purely based on looks, my favorite combo is:

Head: Rabbit Hat + Wool Scarf (not too warm but gotta have that pop of color!)
Outer torso: Mariner's Pea Coat + Down Vest (Mariner's coat to be replaced with Wolfskin Coat if I happen to wind up with four pelts)
Inner torso: Fisherman's Sweater + Wool Shirt
Outer Legs: Jeans or Cargo + Deerskin Pants on the outside
Inner Legs: Not picky, wool longjohns are great but rare
Feet: Trail Boots for early game, then Mukluks if I find any, Deerskin Boots if not
Hands: Wool Mittens at first, then Rabbit mitts

Not at all the most practical setup but it keeps me warm enough and doesn't slow me down too much while mountain climbing.

[Willy Pete]

I go for armor and warmth. I can get myself down to around 50-60lbs with some of the heaviest clothing and with well fed and a moose satchel that gives me more than enough leeway for most of my endeavors. I only recently found my first pair of Expedition Parkas and that squeaky sound it makes when you walk around with it drove me insane. Screw the windproof bonus, I went back to my bearskin and moose-hide for a more rustic look.

Specifically, my current Voyager loadout is as follows:

Head: Balaclava and Rabbit hat (I had the cowl in place of the balaclava for the look, but looks aren't everything in Pleasant Valley)

Outer Chest: Moose hide and Bearskin

Inner Chest: Cowichan sweaters

Hands: Rabbit mitts (though I'll probably switch to gauntlets if I ever find any)

Outer Legs: Snow pants

Inner Legs: Woolen long johns

Socks: Climbing

Feet: Mukluks

Other: Moose satchel and earmuffs

[Jolan]

Thank for the suggestion @jeffpeng!

[Serenity]

On 7/7/2019 at 1:41 PM, jeffpeng said:

Inner Torso: Thin Wool Sweaters if I have them (you usually get at least one on TWM)

 

The one in Echo Ravine seems to be fixed. Always found it so far unless it has rotted away maybe

Legs: Deerskin Pants and Jeans as the inner layer.

I just realized that wearing two deer skin pants has a really bad weight/warmth ratio. You get just one degree more for a lot more weight. And I had already torn up my jeans. Thankfully I found a second pair on the summit.

Getting to the Satchel on HRV without a hatchet is only possible in half of the games, and can be considered pretty dangerous even if possible.

And the satchel doesn't spawn on Interloper I think

[Guest jeffpeng]

On 9/2/2019 at 3:46 PM, Serenity said:

And the satchel doesn't spawn on Interloper I think

Fluke on my part. Of course you are correct.

[Serenity]

Some observations from my current game:

1.) The bear skin coat is so good. Very heavy, but it allows me to be completely warm outside on some days (with Cold Fusion). And that's on Day 90. Or only have one arrow down, which is huge. Well worth the weight. I used to think it's too heavy and the weather too cold to be worth it, but I changed my mind. I put it underneath my wolfskin coat to protect it.

2.) I have four thin wool sweaters  I think at least two of them were completely random though

3.) There were combat pants inside a crate at the plane crash site in Milton. No idea if they are guaranteed. Switched out my inner jeans for them as they offer 1° more for only minimally more weight

[Jimmy]

I can also confirm a random Interloper spawn of combat pants under the bunks at Signal Hill. Between this spawn and an amazingly lucky Mackinaw Jacket RNG spawn from the lockers in the barn, I had an awesome kit within five days of starting.

[LoneWolf5841]

I just wear everything with the highest warmth value 🤣🤣 probably not efficient for traveling and is definitely the reason why I have little to no space for carrying anything but hey freezing is the fastest way to die (other than by animal attacks) so I tend to prioritize warmth no matter how heavy the clothing item is. 

[devamadhu]

I've returned to my longest running game recently, and I decided to make a trip back up to the TWM Summit. This is also one of my earliest saves, so my experience level has changed significantly since my first visit to TWM. I assumed I had looted everything worthwhile there long ago when I first summited, but I wanted to double check just in case.

Since I prefer to play on Pilgrim, things can get pretty boring at nearly 500 days without little side missions like these. Plus, even though it's almost 500 game days, it's been over a year of regular play, and it's fun to see what the hell I was thinking on my first ever summit run.

I had somehow missed even bothering to open several of the crates on TWM, and neglected to grab the second Expedition Parka and second pair of Snow Pants, plus 2 wool long johns which were much more rare than I expected so early on. There's something that's still so enjoyable about bringing rare items back to my base in the Camp Office at Mystery Lake.

[rakshasa]

On Interloper, Warmth uber alles. Satchel + well fed means plenty of extra carry weight, and I rarely sprint long anyway. So, on my current run, rabbit hat + wool toque, ear wrap + satchel, 2x bear coats, thin wool sweater + plaid shirt, 2x deer pants, 1x thermal undies (never found a second pair of underwear), 2x wool socks, rabbit mittens and deer boots.

On this run I've 100% looted every region except HRV and Milton, and have not been especially lucky with clothing RNG.

Fully repaired I get +28c without cold fusion, I don't recall the wind resistance off the top of my head but it's decent. Enough to wander around ML on day 120 at dawn with only one cold arrow down, and actively warming up the rest of the time. Most of the time in TWM or FM I'm at 2 arrows down unless it's late afternoon / evening, even that gives you a ton of daylight to get stuff done.

It is amazing to have the flexibility to explore for fun, harvest carcasses without needing a fire or even (gasp) harvest cedar or fir limbs every now and then.

Edited September 18, 2019 by rakshasa