Tips for new survivors in The Long Dark

[MrWolf]

7 hours ago, Stinky socks said:

That would actually turn the rabbit into a decoy and attract wildlife. You only want to drop the rabbit from inventory. Don't drop as a decoy if you don't want to attract predators.

It doesn't matter.  Dropping a decoy will not attract predators - it does not do anything unless a predator is "locked on" to you.  And in that case, you can use the "drop decoy" key, or if you have time, open your inventory and select a piece of meat, uncured gut, etc. to drop.  Both work the same way as far as the wolf or bear is concerned.  The "drop decoy" key is just a shortcut to drop a stinky item from your inventory.

You can test it by having something smelly on you and get to a point where you see a wolf or bear heading toward you, but far enough away that it has not "locked on".  Press the decoy key repeatedly until you have no more smelly things and you will see the wolf or bear lose interest and turn away.  Same thing if you open your inventory and drop all smelly things.

You can also use that scenario to your advantage.  When you pick the smelly item(s) up and the wolf or bear turns back toward you, it will come to the spot where you picked up the item(s) as long as you don't get close enough to aggro it.  You can move in another direction to keep distance and the wolf or bear will continue to that spot where it detected you, then start following you from there if it still detects a scent.

Edited July 16, 2021 by MrWolf

[Stinky socks]

Thank you, I did not realize it works that way. I stand corrected. 

[Mentatt76]

Another tip for beginners : eat all stuff you need to eat before fulfilling your thirst. Most items increase thirst when you eat so I usually eat when my thirst bar is zero (red) and then drink water to fill It back. 

If you fulfill your thirst first, it will lower it when you eat again. So hunger first, thirst second. 

[Hoomba]

Just want to thank all who contribute to this tips thread.  Reading through this while waiting for download made the learning curve far less steep once I began playing.  

[AdamvR]

if you have a couple places you frequently travel between (e.g. your favorite fishing hut/stick-gathering clearing/hunting blind and your base) you can mark the trail on a sunny day by dropping various items every 5-10 steps all the way through. I usually drop tinder, as that is lightweight and limitless (and easy to craft in bulk while waiting for your water to boil), but charcoal, stones, cattail could also work. This "Hansel & Gretel" tactic can easily save your life in case fog, blizzard or night falls on you while doing your chores outside. You can even develop it into a whole network of paths between multiple POIs, so you rarely need to worry about getting lost. Also works in caves marking the shorter route through (tinder is better there than stones though).

[FluffyComeHome]

On 8/17/2021 at 12:54 PM, AdamvR said:

if you have a couple places you frequently travel between (e.g. your favorite fishing hut/stick-gathering clearing/hunting blind and your base) you can mark the trail on a sunny day by dropping various items every 5-10 steps all the way through. I usually drop tinder, as that is lightweight and limitless (and easy to craft in bulk while waiting for your water to boil), but charcoal, stones, cattail could also work. This "Hansel & Gretel" tactic can easily save your life in case fog, blizzard or night falls on you while doing your chores outside. You can even develop it into a whole network of paths between multiple POIs, so you rarely need to worry about getting lost. Also works in caves marking the shorter route through (tinder is better there than stones though).

 

I also do this. I sometimes do it by lighting campfires if I have enough wood because the burned out sites are easy to see in a blizzard and the initial fire will discourage the wolves in some areas. The downfall is that once you leave the map, those fire sites disappear. The sticks, rocks, and cat tails heads seem to stay put. This method is also handy if you are in a unfamiliar cave. You can even arrange sticks to form arrows and mark a trail. I actually prefer this to the spray paint because I dont have to take on more weight, just gather a few resources from the surrounding area or use sticks that I am carrying anyway.

[stratvox]

Are you sure about that? All of my fire sites have been immortal, and only recently have they been able to be removed with the "break down campfire" option, they certainly have never disappeared of their own volition whenever I've played...

[Semple Fi]

On 5/2/2021 at 12:54 PM, UpUpAway95 said:

Be cognizant of how close your meat supply (raw or cooked or in quarters) is being placed next to a place where you make a fire.  For example, if you're harvesting bags from quartering next to a fire, be sure to place the unharvested bags well away from the fire and likewise, drop the harvested pieces of meat well away from the fire.  Also move any cooked pieces of meat that you do not eat right away well away from the fire.  The rise in the air temperature around the fire will cause the meat to spoil/decay more quickly.

I’ve also noticed that storing meat outside in the snow slows decay considerably compared to storing in a house/chest/etc.  
And then, even when close to spoiled, it can be cooked and safely eaten.  Generally…

[Pencil]

(Sorry if somebody else has already said this but...) Use rocks to maneuver around wolves. Throwing a rock will distract wolves. The wolf (or wolves) will start walking towards wherever the rock landed, so you can lure them another direction in order to get around them without being noticed. 

Don't land the rock in between you and the wolf! This will lead the wolf towards you. Throw the rock where you want the wolf to go. 

[MrWolf]

12 hours ago, Pencil said:

Use rocks to maneuver around wolves. Throwing a rock will distract wolves. The wolf (or wolves) will start walking towards wherever the rock landed, so you can lure them another direction in order to get around them without being noticed. 

This also works with bears.  Decoys can also be used with bears the same as with wolves, but the bear will run off (instead of casually walking away) after taking the decoy.

[UTC-10]

A thought when using a forge.  (This was in Pilgrim so YMMV but something to keep in mind)

The most efficient, uses least amount of coal, to fire the furnace to forge operating temperature of 150 C would be ten sticks followed by seven coal.  At level 5 fire starting ten sticks would be almost two hours of fire duration (about 1:50)  and +10 C and seven coal would be 10.5 hours (7 x 1.5 hours) and +140 C.  Total +150 C and you can forge. 

Note that:

1) the maximum fire duration is 12 hours so you might have to wait a while - make a can of potable water - before that last coal can be put in the fire, and

2) if for any reason, while the furnace is at +150 C, you decide to pull a torch from the furnace, taking that torch REDUCES TEMPERATURE BY 1 C so now your furnace is at +149 C and you can no longer at forging temperature.  Because the maximum temperature with wood is +80 C, you will have to add another coal to the fire. 

Naturally if you end up with the furnace temperature much greater than 150 C to begin with it won't be a problem. 

Good luck and happy forging.

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

One of the things that makes this game so wonderful is that there are so many little tips and tricks to optimize your play style.

 

Here's one that took me hundreds of hours of play time to discover:

Meat and fish cook more quickly if you put them in a pot instead of slapping it right on the burner.  Soup maybe?  I don't know.  The difference can be ten minutes or more, so it can really be a factor in the higher difficulty levels.

[PiterZ]

Do not touch the deer carcass that you find if you do not intend to collect it - because then you start the timer for its degradation - and then nothing will be left of it.

[ajb1978]

10 hours ago, PiterZ said:

Do not touch the deer carcass that you find if you do not intend to collect it - because then you start the timer for its degradation - and then nothing will be left of it.

To clarify this applies to the preplaced carcasses. If you shoot an animal and it dies, that timer starts immediately the moment it topples to the ground. In 96 hours the meat decays to 0% and the carcass despawns. A good rule of thumb is a carcass decays at 1% per hour until you either harvest everything, or completely miss out and it despawns.

Those preplace carcasses though, the timer only starts when you click on it to inspect it. Even if you don't take anything, simply examining how much meat/gut it has starts the timer. Leave the carcass alone, it'll be the same condition on day 1000 as it was on day 1.

Edited December 3, 2021 by ajb1978

[stratvox]

3 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

Those preplace carcasses though, the timer only starts when you click on it to inspect it.

At the moment it appears that the timer on them starts when you enter a region for the first time; I've seen how all the ravaged carcasses are gone after a few days in; I've got a guy in HRV and all the carcasses went away a few days after entering the region. I'm pretty sure this is a bug and I believe Hinterland officially knows about it.

[PiterZ]

17 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

Those preplace carcasses though, the timer only starts when you click on it to inspect it. Even if you don't take anything, simply examining how much meat/gut it has starts the timer. Leave the carcass alone, it'll be the same condition on day 1000 as it was on day 1.

That's exactly what I meant. Thank you for clarifying my speech and best regards 😁

[Bearimpaler101]

don't waste your stims! I know it's boring walking when something annoying happens halfway across a region to shelter but don't stim  it use them when a wolf almost kills you or when your stuck on the summit of twm and have to get down (though you can scale down the front.Witch is much easier) or when your stuck on the top of a rope climb with a broken rib or when your dying of cold 

In short 

 

Don't 

Waste 

Your 

Stims!

[Bearimpaler101]

Also don't shoot a bear thinking I can scare it off with a rifle I mean if I can't with a revolver it's one thing but with a rifle 15 seconds later 

 "That big devil!"

Edited April 5, 2022 by Bearimpaler101
Dumb stupid annoying aggravating autocorrect

[conanjaguar]

When harvesting stuff from a central base, especially in regions prone to unsavory weather, leave in ONE direction. Keep going in that direction, and do not stray from that direction. DO NOT be tempted by that patch of cattails or that lucrative stick-gathering area. Keep going, and then when it is time to go back, drop a stick and head the opposite direction from where it is pointing. 180 degrees, no more, no less. 

Then, when you get back to base, warm up, go back out, and turn 90 degrees. Repeat until the compass is fully checked off.

[Glacia]

Remember that fires last longer when it's cold outside

Most players love six stoves spots (Like PV farm) and any good indoors cooking spots, but you can actually improve your resources management and cooking efficiency using outdoor fires.

A fire placed in an outdoor cold last a lot compared to an standar indoor fire, you can even keep your fire going 2 or 3 times longer with outdoors fires.

But always keep them shielded from the wind! , there are several shielded spots near every common and not common base in the game; for a example, you can use the jackrabbit island porch to shield several fires.

With this, you can have an '8 or even 10 stoves' in any region, as long as you have enough materials (Always use matches just one time, then start the another fires using a torch from the first one).

You can use this to improve:

- Fishing: The small stoves in the cabins are considered outdoors, they last a lot longer.

- Fast leveling firestarting: Keep using sticks and one torch to lit short duration fires (5 or 6 is a good number). 

- Efficiently cooking in places without six stoves or good cooking spots.

Also, you should always store your meat (Cooked or not) outdoors (Don't decay outdoors); so cooking outdoors is almost always a good idea, because you can save a lot of time.

 

Using outdoor fires is core in places when you don't have a proper cooking spot!

Common places:

- Jackrabbit and misanthropes porches.

- Timberwolf mountain little porch at the cabin.

- Almost any place near your base, fully shielded from the wind (Like the stable near trapper cabin).

 

[ajb1978]

3 hours ago, Glacia said:

Remember that fires last longer when it's cold outside

Sort of. It's based on your ambient temperature, wherever you are. While this is most noticeable inside a house vs. outside a house, it also applies to places like the Mountaineer Hut or Forestry Lookouts, where you can have an indoor heat vs. outdoor heat without changing environments.

For instance, if you dump 11 hours and 59 minutes worth of fuel into the fireplace at the Mountaineer Hut, that exact same fire will last longer if you're outside the hut than inside. Because your personal temperature is lower outside the hut, the fire lasts longer.

[Sgt Socks]

"Pro" tip.

Don't camp at Bear Campground in Coastal Highway.

Just. Don't.

[Iriskl]

Maybe a weird one... But if you're lost and you need to find a path, follow the grass. Most of the time this is a route to a bigger path. Beware of cliffs though! 

[conanjaguar]

@Iriskl

Hey there! Haven’t seen you on the Forum in a while.

[Iriskl]

@conanjaguar Hi! Have been away for a while indeed, had a cold were I got extreme motion sickness from the game, like fifteen minutes send me swirling all around the place. Luckily I am feeling better now, lowered the controlls for it, so also a lower chance. Have been lurking around for a little while again, and am now also playing again. Thanks for noticing!