Should I Stay Or Should I go....

[Ahatch]

On day 15 or so of my current interloper run I decided it was time to go to Desolation Point and forge. So I made the journey safely to the Rikan and scrounged enough food to get me by until I had myself a bow and arrows. Well that was 50 days ago and I'm still on Desolation Point. After bagging a bear and a moose I have stayed put and have some decent cloths including Moose vest and Deer pants and boots but it's so darn cold here and I'm sitting with 10 matches and 1 fire striker. My health is still kind of low as I have been trying to avoid the cabin fever so taking cold damage a lot. So  have more than enough food (mainly due to snaring rabbits) and I spent a day boiling water so enough water for 20 days perhaps but is it really worth it or is my best action is to pack up and leave this region anyway. If I had the magnifying glass it would be easy to stay a bit longer and be very conservative with the matches / striker. What loot restrictions do you find that cause you to uproot what is a relatively safe situation.? 

[Jimmy]

You guessed it, it's time to go!

I'd take my clothes, knife and hacksaw, plus two tin cans and firestriker, along with a bow and three arrows, plus an optional three shafts for crafting.

Desolation Point is a rough spot for long term Interloper play, since the only real place for staving off cabin fever is Stone Church, and it's mighty cold past day 50. The entire map is more of a 'one and done' location to sweep for loot. Since the temperature steadily drops from day 10 to day 50, you're facing the worst situation possible trying to cross the maps, but there's still hope!

Make sure you always carry a torch, chaining them to save your matches and carry your fire with you, plus enjoy that temperature boost too. Grab the coal from the transition mine as you warm up moving through, slip down to the upper cave and drop a campfire in the windbreak of the cave near the deer carcass in Crumbling Highway. Drop a coal in the campfire and ten sticks, bop the bunnies, carve the carcasses, and enjoy some barbecue. And if Mr Wolf comes sniffing around, pull out your bow and invite him for dinner!

With a full belly and warm fingers, you can pull torches and head for Quonset, especially if you also brew a tea here from the nearby reishi patches. Basically, you can just nomad travel across the map, stopping at any rabbit patches or deer carcasses to warm up with ten sticks and a coal to get you toasty again while you cook what you've caught. With the survival bow, wolves are just meals on legs for you.

Don't worry too much about using up your firestriker. There's always three per game, and it's useless weight if you're not prepared to spend it for fire. Instead, consider it this way: am I willing to trade 10% of my firestriker's condition in exchange for a magnifying lens? That should probably be all it will take you if you're starting one fire per day and carrying the fire by torch across the map.

Beyond moving out of Desolation Point, set a goal. Is getting a magnifying lens your current priority? Head for Mystery Lake. One will always spawn somewhere on this map. Do you need better clothing? Go for the Summit on Timberwolf Mountain if you've not already visited this game, or loop through Coastal Highway and Pleasant Valley to check the houses on each, then hike up to Mountain Town and loot Milton as well.

Interloper is all about constant, steady movement and planning. With a bow in hand, food is abundant. Don't stress over leaving your stockpile. Just make sure you carry plenty of coal for your campfires!

[peteloud]

I have recently returned to Milton Basin in an old Voyager game and found it a very easy place to survive, providing you have the basic equipment.  There lots of deer, rabbits, cat-tails, wood, few wolves, a warm cave and the weather is not too bad.  I wonder what it is like in a straight Interloper game?  It might be a great place for relatively easy survival.

 

[Jimmy]

The Milton Basin/Marsh Ridge duo are a great holiday location, but they lack convenient access to a crafting bench for making fresh arrows or new rabbit snares. Eventually you'll face a long walk to make new equipment.

Most agree endgame that it's a coin-toss between the Ravine/Carter Hydro Dam for safe living, or Fishing Camp/Jackrabbit Island for beachcombing.

[jhickie]

17 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Desolation Point is a rough spot for long term Interloper play, since the only real place for staving off cabin fever is Stone Church, and it's mighty cold past day 50. The entire map is more of a 'one and done' location to sweep for loot. Since the temperature steadily drops from day 10 to day 50, you're facing the worst situation possible trying to cross the maps, but there's still hope!

I love DP, it's one of my favorite regions. I have three good options in DP for burning cabin fever, and none include the Church. The Church is very cold at night, and not safe anymore with the new wolf AI and pathing. I will use the bear cave near Hibernia (after he's dead, of course), sleep in the pilot house of the Riken (need a fire), or make a snowshelter between the rocks on Little Island (need a fire). Depending on the weather, you can always make a fire and sleep in a vehicle too.

18 hours ago, Jimmy said:

With the survival bow, wolves are just meals on legs for you.

So true! But, without cooking L5, you're playing with fire. IP is no joke on Loper.

18 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Don't worry too much about using up your firestriker. There's always three per game

Really? I always thought there was only 2. I've been giving up looking for more after the second one, son of a biscuit! Thanks for the heads up, @Jimmy

 

17 hours ago, peteloud said:

I have recently returned to Milton Basin in an old Voyager game and found it a very easy place to survive, providing you have the basic equipment.  There lots of deer, rabbits, cat-tails, wood, few wolves, a warm cave and the weather is not too bad.  I wonder what it is like in a straight Interloper game?  It might be a great place for relatively easy survival.

The MT Basin / FM Marsh Ridge combo is probably my favorite area in the whole game. I love that place. The Basin has lots of tea makings, saplings, and cats.. so many cats. All the game to hunt including a moose spawn, great spots to loot like Rocky Refuge and Hermit's Cabin, and one of the best caves in the game. Right nextdoor is Marsh Ridge, so much wood and birch bark, the cave to loot, a deer carcass in the cave and another near the cliff, coal in the cave, and a great spot for the CF beating snowshelter. I stayed over 100 days once just bouncing between these two regions.

Consider me the president of the Basin & Marsh Ridge Fan Club!  

[wizard03]

Yeah, DP isn't a good place to hang out at. its nice to visit, maybe keep you going to get a nice fat haul out of the forge, but beyond that, your actually doing much better than I ever have. Typically I get 20 arrowheads, 3 knives, and a hatchet, then lock up trying to get out of there. "Im overweight, but I need food, so I got to quarter up this deer and slowly walk back to the church. welp there is 5 wolves, a blizzard, and Im screwed..."

Ill learn to pack light sooner or later. >.>

[Ahatch]

Well I made a decision last night and that was to pull up stakes, I did however haul most of my loot with me out of there kind of tough though leaving all that food behind though but I did not want to risk the Crumbling Highway with too much scent on me.  I had not checked the pick up truck on crumbling highway before and wouldn't you know it a box of matches was in there LOL . No matter I need to find the magnifying glass anyway I just got a small reprieve. I am currently at Jack Rabbit Island but the food situation is pretty dire. Snared a couple rabbits though so going to try to regroup a bit but my goal is to return to the Hydro Dam and make a small loot run to Pleasant Valley as I have not been there yet. I do think I perhaps overburdened myself but I had the well fed bonus and I elected to haul the rope to use at the ravine. I did use the bear cave somewhat to ward off cabin fever on DP but the rabbits there were bringing the wolves that way a bit much so I was spooked by it . I never used the church rather the captains cabin of the Rikan as well the Church seemed wolfy . The other loot restriction I had was cloth as I used up most of the cloth on DP so I couldn't consider the wolf coat which I so badly needed. I may make a short return trip to get some of my hides etc that were curing. 

[Jimmy]

6 hours ago, jhickie said:

Really? I always thought there was only 2. I've been giving up looking for more after the second one, son of a biscuit! Thanks for the heads up, @Jimmy

 

You're welcome! Though you should thank the kindly folk that took the time to examine the game for static spawn locations and compile that information.

There's always one at a static location on Timberwolf Mountain, always one in Broken Railroad at one of four locations, and the last one is either in one of two locations in Mystery Lake, in Coastal Highway, or in Desolation Point.

[jhickie]

11 hours ago, Jimmy said:

You're welcome! Though you should thank the kindly folk that took the time to examine the game for static spawn locations and compile that information.

There's always one at a static location on Timberwolf Mountain, always one in Broken Railroad at one of four locations, and the last one is either in one of two locations in Mystery Lake, in Coastal Highway, or in Desolation Point.

Ahhh I see.. I always get the one at the summit, and the other one I find is the one that spawns in ML/CH/DP. I'm sure I've found the one in BR before, but probably attributed it to one of the two I thought the world was limited to on a run where i didn't find the non-summit striker. Good to know it's guaranteed, and the 1/4 spawn point is very helpful. I think I know where 2 of them are. Thanks again!  

Edited February 12, 2020 by jhickie

[Ahatch]

Still kicking and found the Magnifying glass back at Trappers Cabin , I got pretty beat up health wise though on the journey I went into the red a couple times due to cold/ starvation managed to get some snares going on Jack Rabbit and bagged a wolf there as well so was able to get the well fed bonus back then I went to the ravine packing that mountaineers rope all the way from DP LOL. I went down the ravine found the flair gun and loaded up on birch bark and deer meat. Then I stopped over at the boxcar and there was a rope in there so I guess I can visit Bleak Inlet someday. I have a nice trail of food along the way so a return journey to Jackrabbit is on my mind as I left a bear skin there and some saplings. Plan is to loot Milton next.... 

[Ahatch]

This run is still going and I've decided that since I toughed it out 50 plus days on Desolation Point I would attempt to spend 50 days straight all all regions. After 49 days of Mystery Lake / Ravine  I am 9 days into my stay at Pleasent Valley . Weather sucks here but shot the bear at the cave below the signal tower so have a good supply of meat. Just using the little barn near the farmhouse as kinda of a base. Going to do some small loot runs around the map nothing too risky. See how it goes if I can conserve enough matches . This is a real tough map as not many days I can use the magnifying glass. 

[Gun Tech.]

I used to favor long stays and get everything because I can stretch resources well. But now I've changed and 50 feels like overstaying. 10-15 days is about right, and it will let resources drop again if you have to backtrack. This is all early game of course; late game you can settle down and have plenty of harvested resources worked up. DP, CH, and BI are a little better though, because they have beach combing and it seems to drop decent stuff quite a bit more often now.