advice needed for interloper (my best game yet)

[stefoid666]

Where can I find matches.   This has been a weird game, the culmination of lots of games and getting eaten by wolves and losing 5 or 6 days starts.

I just want to experiment with the bow and arrows and finally, I have constructed them.  This games seems to have a sense of irony, because usually I am falling over myself for matches and quality tools, but finally in the game where I manage not to be murdered by wolves for long enough to construct a bow I have found only 2 matchboxes and no tools at all!

Currently at mystery lake cabin with 3 matches left and low on water.  started in PV and moved through Mollys, signal tower and the hydro station to get here.  the matches I found were in Mollys basement and at the FM farmstead with the forge where I made my tools.   There are no matches in the dam or in the good lookout tower in ML.  trust me I searched hard and no magnifying glass either.

My current thought is to go thru FM because of cattails, and head to the mainainence yard in broken railway.  I guess the other option for matches is ravine to coastal highway and hope there are some there somewhere?

cheers for help, I want to experiment with this bow, not dehydrate to death!!!!

 

oh, PS, can the DEVELOPERS make it so the game doesnt offer up my precious birch bark as default tinder when I have 20 cat tail heads?  THANKS!!

 

 

[Jimmy]

The good news is that there's a guaranteed spawn in Mystery Lake for a magnifying lens on Interloper. Check under the bed of the left bunk upstairs in the Camp Office, downstairs behind the shelves across from the crafting table in the Camp Office, or in the Trapper's Homestead. If it's not there, you didn't check the Forestry Lookout thoroughly enough!

However, I'd suggest a trip up to the Summit of Timberwolf Mountain. This will offer a variety of benefits for your Interloper game. First, you have three boxes of matches guaranteed to spawn (Mountaineer's Hut, Three-Way Cave, Tail Section). Second, you have a guaranteed firestriker at the Tail Section too. Third, you will gain a huge amount of clothing along the route, some of which is the best in slot for Interloper.

Try to stretch your three matches by pulling torches out of campfires and carrying your flame as you travel. With a combination of torch chains and a magnifying lens, you should easily be able to reach Timberwolf Mountain from Mystery Lake using your three remaining matches.

Good luck!

[stefoid666]

9 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

The good news is that there's a guaranteed spawn in Mystery Lake for a magnifying lens on Interloper. Check under the bed of the left bunk upstairs in the Camp Office, downstairs behind the shelves across from the crafting table in the Camp Office, or in the Trapper's Homestead. If it's not there, you didn't check the Forestry Lookout thoroughly enough!

However, I'd suggest a trip up to the Summit of Timberwolf Mountain. This will offer a variety of benefits for your Interloper game. First, you have three boxes of matches guaranteed to spawn (Mountaineer's Hut, Three-Way Cave, Tail Section). Second, you have a guaranteed firestriker at the Tail Section too. Third, you will gain a huge amount of clothing along the route, some of which is the best in slot for Interloper.

Try to stretch your three matches by pulling torches out of campfires and carrying your flame as you travel. With a combination of torch chains and a magnifying lens, you should easily be able to reach Timberwolf Mountain from Mystery Lake using your three remaining matches.

Good luck!

guarenteed?  Ive done nothin but dodge wolves and hunt for that fricken magnifying glass for the last 3 days!  Some nice sunny days too!

OK, Ill stay in ML and go looking once again.  

As an aside, is it worth a trip to mountain town? never been before.  I have already nabbed all the cattails and coal from the connecting cave near the trappers cabin, but I have been too obsessed with the bow and arrows to go exploring.  Id love to get some tools because I have about 18 arrows heads and 6 cured birch, but each arrow takes so long

 

thanks!

BTW, this is probably not news to most people, but after making the trip from PV to ML many times through the dam gorge , I finally stopped to explore a bit rather than just sprint through it.  There is a very accessible cave with some rabbits outside in the gorge -- where I found a bedroll and two cans!!!  what a treasure!  Ill definately be stopping there from now on.

 

Edited February 13, 2020 by stefoid666

[Jimmy]

Mountain Town is... well, it's worth looting if you plan to head to Hushed River Valley. The Orca Gas Station has decent loot, and you can get lucky with RNG in Milton too if you need an extra thin wool sweater, wool socks or thermal underwear.

Typically, my strategy on a new Interloper game is to move from my spawn to the closest pack of guaranteed matches, then find a hacksaw and make my way to Timberwolf Mountain Summit. Once I've looted this, I go to the Carter Hydro Dam and drop off a maple sapling, birch saplings, five deer hide, seven rabbit hide, and assorted gut for curing. Then I'll hit Forlorn Muskeg to forge a knife, hatchet and arrowheads, and make for Mountain Town via Trapper's once I return from forging. I can usually get this done within the first ten to twenty days of the game, provided I don't get an unlucky spawn or wolf encounter.

[stefoid666]

  I have never made it out of a HRV start alive - just dont know the route.  Been cheating a bit looking at maps to help with TWM starts.  I have rattled around caves dying in TWM quite a lot until I worked out if you head straight down ASAP to the lake cabin and then to PV its a pretty good start.  How do you make it to the summit of TWM without a hatchet tho?  I was under the impression it was not possible because of scrub barriers

[Jimmy]

Timberwolf Mountain is mercifully free of scrub barriers. Only Hushed River Valley contains those, which is why I go there after forging an improvised hatchet.

As for my route, here's my typical strategy to hit the Summit as early as possible:

if I plan an early Summit to Timberwolf Mountain, there's a fairly linear route to guarantee enough calories that I shouldn't require food, merely a bedroll or enough cloth for two snow shelters plus a hacksaw.

Coming fully rested from Pleasant Valley, I usually grab a half dozen birch barks and two rabbits before hitting the Mountaineer's Hut. Dropping the rabbits at the hut and warming up while I harvest them, I set them to cook for the half hour or so while I bag the two other rabbits down on Crystal Lake. The four should fill my calorie meter, and give me enough time to brew a cup of hot birch bark tea for a warmth boost.

Full and warmed up with a half dozen torches pulled from the fire, I then wander down to the Wing, grab the canned food, tea and coffee, then run down Echo Ravine carrying my fire to ward off the wolf at the Engine and start up a small campfire to scare him off, looting the sweaters, socks and shoes. I slip up to the cave above the engine, set a fire and brew a litre of water in some cans while I warm up a second birch bark tea on the ground. While this boils, I grab the four or five coal from the cave, and check there's no wool ear wraps near the corpse in here, which is a possible spawn.

By the time I'm done looting the cave, the water should be just finished boiling, so I harvest any burnt out torches, feeding them back in the fire if I need more duration to pull back to a half dozen torches, then drink my birch bark tea and climb up to the three-way Cave. I'll use the duration of my warmth to stock up on sticks and bag the three rabbits nearby, then boil another litre of water while I harvest their carcasses for meat, cook them for dinner before I sleep here, and spend the litre of water I made by brewing three coffee and one tea for when I need extra condition recovery while I sleep, remembering to drop one coffee before I rest and feeding the fire up to eight hours duration for a ten hour rest.

In the morning I pick up the coffee, eat whatever leftover rabbit I have, then take a sip of water, pull a torch and make for the Deer Clearing. If the deer carcass is near the base of the rope, I'll start a small fire here, warm up and harvest the venison while I brew water, and heat my coffee again, then drink my coffee, eat the cooked venison to max out my calories, then drop any leftovers and ascend the rope to the deer clearing. If there's no deer carcass I simply drink my hot coffee at the base of the rope to maximize the warmth duration, since I'll be without a torch after ascending.

I usually grab the coal in the cave and whatever other loot is there, then loot the cargo container for tomato soup, cloth and scrap metal before hiking to the rope climb up to the Secluded Shelf, drinking a second coffee before the climb. I typically don't bother with a torch here, paying the price in warmth and condition to save a match like the cheapskate I am.

Once inside the Secluded Shelf, there's coal galore to loot here, plus a possible magnifying lens on one loot table. With a dozen or more coal in my pack, I head out of the cave, grab the rabbit outside and hope for a deer carcass before the summit climb to fill my calorie meter once more. If I've been efficient, I should have just enough energy to make the third climb to the summit without resting by drinking a third coffee, though I may need to drop all my lovely coal and assorted firewood beforehand.

After that, it's just a case of gathering sticks on the summit for a fire inside the Tail Section, resting, looting the place down to the rivets, and then spraining every part of my body returning to the Mountaineer's Hut the fast way. Calories at this point should be sufficient to see me down the mountain even without touching the looted foods from the journey, though returning to Pleasant Valley might cost a few cattails harvested from Crystal Lake without a rabbit hunting detour. If I feel particularly scroogish, I'll save the cattails and head directly for the rabbits at Misty Falls Picnic Area to fill my calories again, though I might also require a second hunt at the rabbit grove near the hunter's blind if I didn't already clear this spot on my trip up.

[DaveMcD]

your closest matches are probably in the cave in the lower rope climb area between Trappers cabin and Milton. So from Trappers go through the long cave, exit out into the Milton side climb down one little rope, stay away from one potential wolf, walk into the cave and check the backpack. But other than that there should definitely be a mag lens either in the Camp Office or the lookout. You need to look very carefully, behind and under things. like bookshelves, crates etc. Dont forget you can start fires with flares. There's also a possible firestriker not far from camp office in the Lake Overlook Cave.

[stefoid666]

Ive been to all of those places, but Ill look again - do I need to physically destroy crates or boxes to find it?  

still got 2 flares left!  - A wolf spotted me and I got so scared I was going to die without using my bow (AGAIN!) that I lit a flare and ran with it most of the way from trappers cabin to an ice hut to go fishing so as not to waste precious fire.  I did catch 7 fish and boiled 2.5 litres, so worth it.    Felt like an olympic torch ceremony with 2 wolves in tow because I picked up another hitchiker on the lake  

[DaveMcD]

2 minutes ago, stefoid666 said:

Ive been to all of those places, but Ill look again - do I need to physically destroy crates or boxes to find it?  

still got 2 flares left!  - A wolf spotted me and I got so scared I was going to die without using my bow (AGAIN!) that I lit a flare and ran with it most of the way from trappers cabin to an ice hut to go fishing so as not to waste precious fire.  I did catch 7 fish and boiled 2.5 litres, so worth it.    Felt like an olympic torch ceremony with 2 wolves in tow because I picked up another hitchiker on the lake  

you shouldn't need to destroy anything but look very carefully and deliberately in corners etc. Well done on using the flare to better your position. In the camp office the mag lens can be behind a bookshelf downstairs or I usually find it next to the desk upstairs behind two small crates. In the lookout I think its under a shelf but I could be wrong.... I think it can also spawn at trappers behind the couch.... all of this is from memory though and I dont go look at loot tables at all.

 

[stefoid666]

cheers all!

[manolitode]

3 hours ago, stefoid666 said:

As an aside, is it worth a trip to mountain town? never been before.  I have already nabbed all the cattails and coal from the connecting cave near the trappers cabin, but I have been too obsessed with the bow and arrows to go exploring.  Id love to get some tools because I have about 18 arrows heads and 6 cured birch, but each arrow takes so long

It's a must for reaching HRV, as mentioned above. Going to MT in early interloper is a pretty good way to die. Unless you know the routes of the many wolf patrols, I recommend you to stay out til you wear clothes with decent protection and wield an improvised hatchet. 

2 hours ago, stefoid666 said:

  I have never made it out of a HRV start alive - just dont know the route. 

Yeah, no buildings makes navigation in HRV tricky til you've gone full-blown nerd 🤓 When you enter the region from ML, turn left and keep walking along the left mountainside. That'll take you through an abundance of cattails and reishi. If you're careful and keep an eye out for the bear and wolves you will eventually find a safe Cave where you can rest if you brought a bedroll. Once rested, keep going forward on the left mountainside til you find a rope, climb it and continue to keep to the left mountainside and explore the lake. Use the same way back and you won't get lost in the wild.

[Makex]

1 hour ago, manolitode said:

Yeah, no buildings makes navigation in HRV tricky til you've gone full-blown nerd 🤓 When you enter the region from ML, turn left and keep walking along the left mountainside. That'll take you through an abundance of cattails and reishi. If you're careful and keep an eye out for the bear and wolves you will eventually find a safe Cave where you can rest if you brought a bedroll. Once rested, keep going forward on the left mountainside til you find a rope, climb it and continue to keep to the left mountainside and explore the lake. Use the same way back and you won't get lost in the wild.

I am always lost when going in to HRV more than couple hundred meters  I think HRV could easily be named WTF.

[stefoid666]

Youll never guess what I found under a shelf in the lake cabin!!!!!!!  :D

DEVS:  the fire starting system needs a little simple attention.  Please make the defaults sensible!!!!!

If Im carrying any other tinder at all, I dont want my first option to be birch bark.

And guess what, If Im carrying a flaming torch, I probably dont want to try to start a fire with a magnifying glass on a cloudy day!!!!

 

[Jimmy]

Yeah, unfortunately the settings default to alphabetical order. So when making a fire, you get the following order below.

• Starter - cardboard matches, firestriker, magnifying lens, torch, wood matches
• Tinder - birch bark, cash, cat tail head, newsprint, newsprint roll, stack of papers, tinder plug
• Fuel - book, cedar firewood, fir firewood, firelog, reclaimed wood, stick, torch

This makes it extremely easy to accidentally use your firestriker in Interloper to burn a piece of birch bark with extremely low chance to start using fir firewood or reclaimed wood, unless you're paying attention. It would be nice to have a firestarting priority menu to adjust these defaults.

On the positive side, at least you won't have to worry about this once you reach Fire Starting 3. That's my third favorite skill rank, behind Cooking 5 and Archery 5.

[Serenity]

Mystery Lake is bad for matches. I don't think there are guaranteed spawns there. You might get lucky with a random spawn, but that's it. But two packs of matches is fine until you get the mag lens. In the early game you'll use a lot more matches then later, but even then you don't have to make fires all the time. With the lens watch out for clear weather and use the opportunity to make water for several days. If you don't have one yet try to combine activities like hunting with making water and rather go for one very long fire instead of several small ones.

Between the Lookout Tower, the Camp Office (either upstairs or downstairs) and Trapper's ML always has a mag lens

Once you're established a bit and move through the world you will find plenty more matches and several fire strikers. Which will sit in a locker somewhere. Here is a list of possible locations: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1524158008You won't always get all of those. For example inside Hibernia in DP there are 3 possible locations, but you'll only get one of those

 

The TWM start is great. I leave the summit for later, but if you immediately go to the three way cave you can find a pack there. Then go down to the cave between the engines to keep you warm and on to the hut. Where there is another pack. Plus a tool (either a hacksaw, heavy hammer or mag lens). And then a third pack in the farm basement.

Edited February 13, 2020 by Serenity

[Dr. S.]

Congrats on your progress. Lots of good advice here from players who are way more experienced than me, but I did want to add a couple things. 
 

First, you don’t really need to know about the guaranteed spawn locations to be successful. I certainly don’t and I do fine. 
 

Second, general map knowledge is vey important. You don’t have time to wander around outside. So I would recommend exploring MT on Voyageur before going there on Interloper. 
 

Lastly, are you looting interiors without a light source? That’s a good way to miss lots of matches and other key gear, which tend to be outside containers on Interloper. 

[stefoid666]

yep, I have been through the dam fairly well with torches and during the day.   This run is very RNG - no prybars, only 1 set of simple tools that are too far to retrieve for now and hardly any matches.  

 

Next is bagging my first deer near ever near the dam, and clearing some wolves and getting started on some critter based clothing

actually clothing has been the plus  - double wool toques, a ski jacket and parka, work gloves and work boots, double thin wool sweaters, combat pants.  I just need more underwear and socks - just like IRL, ha ha

[Serenity]

Two thin wool sweaters and combat pants are great. Those can be hard to find.

To get deer skins just hit the carcasses. There are tons of them around the hydro dam. 1 inside the court yard. 1 at the train unloading area. 1 between Alan's cave and the hunting blind. 2 in the upper area of the Ravine. One at the bottom (where you want to go anyways for the flare pistol). And two more in Winding River.

I also like the one at Lake Overlook. But you just need 5 of them for the pants and boots. You can start with that very early before your forge run even

[Jimmy]

1 hour ago, Serenity said:

Two thin wool sweaters and combat pants are great. Those can be hard to find.

To get deer skins just hit the carcasses. There are tons of them around the hydro dam. 1 inside the court yard. 1 at the train unloading area. 1 between Alan's cave and the hunting blind. 2 in the upper area of the Ravine. One at the bottom (where you want to go anyways for the flare pistol). And two more in Winding River.

I also like the one at Lake Overlook. But you just need 5 of them for the pants and boots. You can start with that very early before your forge run even

Great list! Also, if you are coming from Timberwolf Mountain after hitting the Summit, there's potentially three deer carcasses in Winding River, and another in the cave leading from Pleasant Valley. Usually I grab these hides on my way back from the Summit, drop them in the Winding River cave or the Dam, and grab the final few I might need from the Ravine. If I'm lucky enough to get all four deer in Winding River, those plus the hide from the Tail Section container mean I don't need any more.

There's also seven rabbit hides needed for mitts and gloves. One from the Tail Section, three from Winding River, and three from the Ravine should get everything you need. My strategy is to get these curing before I go forging at Forlorn Muskeg, then I detour to Mountain Town and Hushed River Valley to hit the Signal Fire and ice cave cache for a mackinaw jacket, combat pants and second wool ear wrap before coming back and crafting my deer hide pants, shoes, mitts, gloves, bow and arrows.

Usually I finish this crafting marathon with a small amount of Cabin Fever, so I take my shiny new gear and go loop through Coastal Highway to work it off. I can usually find one or two bears near Fishing Huts, Waterfront Cottages or Quonset Garage, and now I've got a bow I can hunt them to get some bear hides curing for a bearskin coat next week.

[manolitode]

8 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Usually I finish this crafting marathon with a small amount of Cabin Fever, so I take my shiny new gear and go loop through Coastal Highway to work it off. I can usually find one or two bears near Fishing Huts, Waterfront Cottages or Quonset Garage, and now I've got a bow I can hunt them to get some bear hides curing for a bearskin coat next week.

If you're going to CH anyway, why not craft at the outside table by the fishing huts and you won't get cabin fever? Might just take a little longer due to bad weather.

[Jimmy]

1 hour ago, manolitode said:

If you're going to CH anyway, why not craft at the outside table by the fishing huts and you won't get cabin fever? Might just take a little longer due to bad weather.

Usually to save resources. I can get my marathon done in the Dam without nursing a fire, whereas at Coastal Highway an unlucky blizzard blowing from the wrong direction could interrupt my crafting.

On the other hand, if I bag the bear at Fishing Huts, I'll usually quarter him, dump the hide and gut inside, then set up a campfire down in the rocks behind the crafting table where there's lots of wind protection. By the time I'm done cooking him, cabin fever is a distant memory.

[Serenity]

10 hours ago, Jimmy said:

there's potentially three deer carcasses in Winding River, and another in the cave leading from Pleasant Valley. Usually I grab these hides on my way back from the Summit, drop them in the Winding River cave or the Dam, and grab the final few I might need from the Ravine.

Yeah, there are some more there if you include the cave. I usually just dip back into there from the Mystery Lake side and just get the ones on top. The one at the window where you get back into the dam and maybe the one above the patrolling wolf.

I feel no need to hurry that much. Even on Interloper there is plenty of time. Lake Overlook and the bottom of the Ravine for example I visit anyways for other loot. Getting one the carcasses in the Ravine is also a quick walk and can be combined with some stick collecting.

[manolitode]

13 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Usually to save resources. I can get my marathon done in the Dam without nursing a fire, whereas at Coastal Highway an unlucky blizzard blowing from the wrong direction could interrupt my crafting.

True, it's a major test of patience to craft a whole wolf/bear/moose coat there. Especially if mr. cabin inspector bear is still around But the shorter crafting sessions like deer and rabbit clothing are usually fine, at least til you got 2 incoming blizzards per day. 

[Makex]

I like to craft in milton close to "farm house". Plenty of wood around to use barrel behind you, reasonable shelter from weather, no cabin fever from crafting and six burner few hops away. There are 1-3 wolves around to look out for.

I like it that there are so many crafting tables around to choose from.  Everybody choose their "best place" and i think it is never ending debate what is the place to craft.

[Jimmy]

The good part about Paradise Meadows Farm is the deer that hang around the small lake near the hay storage sheds. If you're a decent wolf dancer, you can lure the wolf to the deer and enjoy a free venison dinner. With plentiful rabbits near the farm house, plus more deer and rabbits near the rope climb to Milton Basin, as well as cat tails near the river, you should have all the calories you need to handle extended crafting.

However, since the recent update to wolf behavior, I don't like the farm shed for crafting due to the risk of wolf attack inside. It's also an isolated location, since Mountain Town is more or less just a transition zone to get to Hushed River Valley. I don't see anything offered in Mountain Town that you can't get somewhere better. I personally prefer to just loot the place and be done rather than stick around for an extended stay.