Optimal interloper bases, setups, and early game routes.

[Gravos]

I just started playing the game again after a long break and thought I'd type this up as a fun exercise to generate discussion and maybe learn some new things. This will be for achieving a very long run. It might get long winded...If you don't want things spoiled read no further! 

Best start and route: for me personally a FM start with a hammer in BR is best. You get immediate access to guaranteed matches and a good clothing piece. You can pick up some coal and scrap metal on the way to the maintenance shed. For me BR is an extremely dangerous map with sometimes not much payoff, but it might have an elusive thermal or thin wool sweater. You can forge on day 1 and get the map out of the way. From here I make my way to ML, clear it, and go through the dam to PV. I hit the major loot hubs and check the downed plane before going to TWM. By now you should have a hacksaw and bedroll. I get some birch tea ready and loot the summit. Now I go to the town near thomson's crossing and to CH, then DP at some point. After building up at CH I loot the remaining maps. 

 

Best base: there are many viable loper bases. In my experience the major problem in late game loper is cabin fever above other things. CH garage (or nearby house) for me is the second best base. It has absolutely everything you need besides a cave to fight cabin fever (it has cars). Incredible amounts of coal nearby, close fishing huts, lots of hunting, workbench, bear/moose spawn very close. The garage is a great place to build up for the absolute end game. Craft your clothes, gather lots of wolf/bear/moose skins, level skills. With the right technique you can always avoid wolves there. 

Camp office is number one for me because with the warmest clothes and a bear bedroll you can fight cabin fever in a nearby cave without using matches. With how often blizzards hit in loper there's a decent chance cabin fever will hit during one. With good indoor/outdoor management it's a bit of a wash as to which is better. Probably CH with the abundance of coal. 

Best clothes: it depends what you're doing. Always have a wolf coat for the scare effect. The cause of death in late games is usually wolf attack so I wear a moose cloak with it. I know it's heavy as hell but it has great waterproof stat and defense. So.. 

Wool toque x 2, wolf coat, moose cloak, thin wool sweater x2, rabbit gloves, combat pants, deer pants on outside, thermals x2, wool socks (some don't wear socks on long runs), work boots. The mackinaw jacket is great, but I've never found one. 

Best wolf struggle tool: hammer. It's always my goal to survive the attack. 

Any thoughts? 

[sonics01]

I'm not sure if this can be called optimal, but I prefer HRV start to look for hacksaw, match, some cloths. You don't need to explore entire HRV to loot some items, but there are some famous spots in Ice cave and elsewhere in HRV. It wouldn't take too much time, just hit and run start tactic. 

After that, move to MT to get hammer. If hammer is not found in MT, then head to ML fast. Once get hammer, I prefer to go to Riken because of affluent source of coals in vicinity. Yeah, wolves are also issue there especially in CH (on the way to DP) but well, I think it would still better than other furnace locations in terms of weather and wolves. 

But PV/TWM is good start too. Climbing up to the peak of Mt. Timberwolf is easier than HRV, IMO. Well, in interloper, tail section will never give you "affluent items", but if you visit early, at least food and match issues will be gone for a while. So, even when I start from HRV, I usually try to climb up the peak and loot all containers at least within a month, if possible. But usually the problem for me is time cost for crafted coats. 

Idea of permanent base location differs by style IMO. In terms of very very long term survival (if you somehow get out of boredom and keep continue after 1 yr in game), I think BI is good idea too. Once you kill enough number of Timberwolves, they won't respawn that much due to wildlife population reduction. Milling machine can repair anything with a cost of one metal piece, so you need to visit there anyway if you run out of whetstone. BI offers two fishing huts, beach combing spot, and 6 slot cooking site. Well, it is cold place, but in interloper, any place is cold in late game, isn't it? 

As far as I know and from what I've read, very very late game will become beach combing game. So, people typically rotate DP, CH, and BI to search for any items along the frozen coastline. If you get bored, then you can try faithful cartographer from interloper, I guess it should worth it

 

Edited July 9, 2020 by sonics01