Foray into Interloper

[darkscaryforest]

Interloper spawn point SPOILERS

I've tried about a dozen games in Interloper for the first time the past couple days. I'm feeling a bit discouraged, but still have hope I can figure things out. Not sure why I'm making a post, just feels like it would help to talk about it lol. Is there a support group? 😅

I'm not familiar with Hushed River Valley so those always end quick 😬, but I'm slowly learning areas. I finally made it out of a DP start to Coastal Highway, albeit with frostbite. Still don't know of any 100% match spawn points in DP, but usually find something between Hibernia plant and the lighthouse. I'm also usually lost on timberwolf mountain starts, but one time I made it down to the mountaineer's hut.

I like spawning in Forlorn Muskeg the most. Twice, I've booked it to Spence's and found matches! Also twice, I've found the mag lens at ML's camp office. Now if only I knew of other ML matches so I can skip Spence on that route.  This has resulted in my longest yet save of 3.5 days, but I don't see a way to sustain myself long term unless I figure out hammer spawns..which I suppose would call for way more traveling and risk of death. I'm making the rabbit population go extinct.

The thing that gets me is I take too much damage from the cold running from spot to spot and don't recover enough from sleeping one night. On the next day, I feel pressure to find more stuff since I only have so much food so I go out and make it worse. Many times I technically have enough food to do nothing all day, but it seems like that's a bad move. Most food I do have (found loot) is horribly degraded, so I don't want to eat it and get food poisoning unless I HAVE to.

To add, my character is rarely tired. This is because I don't wander outside, it doesn't take long to loot where I am, and I find myself sleeping a 1 hour interval when I get indoors to get myself warm. I guess I should start passing time to get tired so I can recover, but again it feels like I shouldn't be doing that.

What I really need to figure out is how to travel efficiently with the cold that doesn't wear me down. I could find enough food and matches, then try to recover to 100% before resuming.. or I could sacrifice a lot of matches to get warm along the way, hoping I get more.  I'll post again if I can figure out what works for me.

Anyways, thanks for reading. I'm interested in your own Interloper learning experiences if ya got em. Cheers

EDIT

So a weird idea just came to me writing this. If weather is favorable, I could start a fire, pull a torch from it, travel a while with the lit torch and start another one when cold meter gets low enough. That might save me some condition on a trip or two at the cost of just one match.

Edited August 6, 2020 by darkscaryforest

[gotmilkanot]

I recently got into Interloper too after playing a Voyager run exclusively for too long until I find myself almost impossible to die in that mode unless I choose to.

My take on Interloper is you are expected to lose condition during the day from freezing damage while travelling. You can always recover your lost condition through sleep during the night but you can only recover 32% condition max per night so try not to get below 50% condition. Coal and crafted teas are your best friend on Interloper as they can help you withstand the cold a lot more. Birch bark teas are pretty useful too since they can restore a tiny bit of condition passively after consumption.

Also, you might want to get the best non-animal clothing as soon as possible before they get ruined. I would even forgo Well Fed buff to allow myself to travel from region to region more freely to find rare clothing, reason being you can always get Well Fed buff again but you'll be permanently missing out on the extra 1°C from the second pair of thermal underwear if it gets ruined by the time you find it.

[darkscaryforest]

5 hours ago, gotmilkanot said:

I recently got into Interloper too after playing a Voyager run exclusively for too long

Oh cool, didn't care to do a stalker run?  As brutal as interloper is, I somehow still find it more chill than stalker.

5 hours ago, gotmilkanot said:

You can always recover your lost condition through sleep during the night but you can only recover 32% condition max per night

Ah so thanks to the wiki, I recently discovered the important math behind sleeping. The last 3 hours of a 10 hour sleep in interloper is half that amount! I had been sleeping in 6 hour bouts regaining like 15% condition, so definitely better to wait until tired enough.

5 hours ago, gotmilkanot said:

permanently missing out on the extra 1°C from the second pair of thermal underwear if it gets ruined by the time you find it

Yikes this is a great point, there's no craft-able under garments. I haven't run into much clothing, so hoping to find some soon.

 

I've realized a few other things that are starting to really help:

-It is way warmer in the afternoon for traveling

-Sleep in 10 hour bouts

-Hoard cattails

-Most food I've been finding is in terrible condition(25%-65%), but are the types of food that don't give you food poisoning until under 20% (chips, soup, beans, peaches, beef jerky) so they are completely safe to eat.

[Serenity]

HRV can lead to some fantastic loot early on. Aside from that TWM and PV are the best starts. TWM gets you two packs of matches (if you take the best route) and a tool and after that you're in PV again.

FM is usually easy to get out of, but ML has no guaranteed matches. So Spence's farm is a pretty much a must. It's not too bad since it has some decent loot too. And it allows you go by the Bunkhouses and the High Blind during the outward trip, which can have a hacksaw (which you want for cutting saplings). You can also stay the night there if it's late, but you use up a lot of the fuel that's useful for forging later. 

Quote

and I find myself sleeping a 1 hour interval when I get indoors to get myself warm. I guess I should start passing time to get tired so I can recover, but again it feels like I shouldn't be doing that.

If you have to warm up definitely pass time and don't sleep. You shouldn't do it all the time, but here and there it can be useful. Especially when you run from location to location early on.

Quote

 If weather is favorable, I could start a fire, pull a torch from it, travel a while with the lit torch and start another one when cold meter gets low enough

It's certainly possible, but usually not necessary. If you have herbal tea and you get to sleep 10 hours use that. Losing a lot of condition in the early game is perfectly normal. Later it's less of an issue unless you make really long trips

Edited August 7, 2020 by Serenity

[peteloud]

It is good to hear of the difficulties that people have with Interloper.  It is much better than hearing someone claiming that they have had 50 games of over 1,000 days in Interloper.

 

[Mistral]

16 hours ago, gotmilkanot said:

I would even forgo Well Fed buff to allow myself to travel from region to region more freely to find rare clothing, reason being you can always get Well Fed buff again but you'll be permanently missing out on the extra 1°C from the second pair of thermal underwear if it gets ruined by the time you find it.

Well fed on Interloper is always kind of waste of food anyway. In most of cases you can easily take food damage during day and heal it overnight by bringing your calories to the limit prior sleeping.

Well fed, I'm not sure when I'd ever need it, unless I was like carrying excess cargo from Summit to Mystery lake or something and I didn't have moose satchel. But even then I'd probably drop off stuff to PV farmhouse etc and come get it some time later. 

(The freezing damage can be compensated by torch travelling and drinking loads of hot reishis, rose hips and birch barks. Usually much more reasonable than passing time indoors - which some of the maps lack anyway)

Edited August 7, 2020 by Mistral

[gotmilkanot]

30 minutes ago, Mistral said:

Well fed on Interloper is always kind of waste of food anyway. In most of cases you can easily take food damage during day and heal it overnight by bringing your calories to the limit prior sleeping.

Well fed, I'm not sure when I'd ever need it, unless I was like carrying excess cargo from Summit to Mystery lake or something and I didn't have moose satchel. But even then I'd probably drop off stuff to PV farmhouse etc and come get it some time later. 

(The freezing damage can be compensated by torch travelling and drinking loads of hot reishis, rose hips and birch barks. Usually much more reasonable than passing time indoors - which some of the maps lack anyway)

True, I'm on day 105 and still using the starvation technique. I just don't see a need to eat during the day on Interloper since passive healing only applies when all 4 needs are met and most of the time I'll be freezing even with animal clothing so the healing potential from the food is being wasted.

With the moose satchel, 35kg carry capacity is plenty of space on Interloper and I don't think I've ever needed more than that unless I'm hauling coal from the mines to my bases.

[Serenity]

Well Fed isn't that hard to maintain. It gives you an excuse to go out and hunt stuff, which makes the game a lot more interesting. Otherwise it isn't necessary that often in the first hundred days or so. There is still tons of food around.

[Dan_]

Interloper is the game mode I feel is the most balanced loot and cold wise If I'm honest, so that's what I play exclusively because it's fun, I'm sure many would beg to differ though.

Here's a couple tips, without spoiling too much:

Freezing is inevitable, how fast you start freezing your bacon is very much relevant. Tip: Temperatures are at their lowest in the early mornings and start to warm up towards the late afternoon. Avoid travelling early morning unless you have a quick stop for a warming break, preferably an indoor location. A blizzard might come out and spoil the warm afternoon climate, but oftentimes you'll get most of your travelling done without losing too much if you do it after noon and towards dusk. 

Map knowledge is king, it's okay to die quite often at the start it always was very much a part of the fun to me at the beginning! Tip: Knowing the directions for the major indoor locations of the maps or best looting spots is key. If you get lost in a blizzard and doesn't know how to get to your destination you're toast. This is pretty hard with the current extent of the game maps, HRV and PV are huge, sprawling maps which take time to know even superficially. The tip is to just play and survive, you'll learn in due time. Also, try to memorize possible spawns for deer carcasses ( listen to the crows ) for food and deer hides and try to cure rabbit pelts and guts as well. Crafted clothing is king and deer and bunny gear can be crafted with sewing kits. 

If travelling and looting a lot are not your cup of tea, ration your food. Yes, you get that sweet well fed bonus if you eat your calories for the day but if you find that food is particularly hard to procure ( cattails man, tons of food in them ) ration and only eat enough for a cool 9-10 hours of sleep. Starving takes little of your condition away. Also, abuse birch bark tea, if gives you crazy condition recovery and you can stack multiple teas for absurd recovery in a single night of sleep. 

Hope these help!

Happy exploring!

[Valuable Hunting Knife]

I've always struggled with Interloper, first time I really got comfortable was by using Ravine/Upper Dam as an extended base.  Plenty of chilled hunting opportunities in ravine, plus caves to keep cabin fever at bay and limitless birch tea, then trailers at the dam if it's too cold to sleep out, plenty of metal and wood that can be harvested indoors and a crafting table/ fire barrel. 

If you can negotiate the wolves and do an early run to the Riken and back to get a tool and a few arrow heads, you should be in a pretty good position to gradually harvest pre=set deer carcasses and bunnies, and then eventually take out the odd lone wolf like the one outside the lower dam.  If you're really lucky there can be a moose spawn just past the dam cabins in ML.

Two game changing things for me on interloper- lighting fires from torches to save matches, and harvesting small amounts of meat- increases your skill at a higher rate, and you can then ration more easily if you are using the starvation technique.

[Serenity]

42 minutes ago, Valuable Hunting Knife said:

If you can negotiate the wolves and do an early run to the Riken and back to get a tool and a few arrow heads, you should be in a pretty good position to gradually harvest pre=set deer carcasses and bunnies

You don't need forged tools for that. You can use a hacksaw instead of the knife. Or  your hands if you thaw it out completely. I start harvesting deer carcasses before that. The area around the dam is indeed great for that and has more than the 5 you need (for the pants and boots). ML has some other nicely placed carcasses that are easy to get too, like the one at Lake Overlook.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Serenity

[Mistral]

17 hours ago, Serenity said:

You don't need forged tools for that. You can use a hacksaw instead of the knife. Or  your hands if you thaw it out completely. I start harvesting deer carcasses before that. The area around the dam is indeed great for that and has more than the 5 you need (for the pants and boots). ML has some other nicely placed carcasses that are easy to get too, like the one at Lake Overlook.

Yeah, on my current run I already had carcass harvesting 4 (almost 5) prior to even forging. Dam area, including Winding River and Ravine make for excellent early game hide harvesting spots with bare hands are fire on. Because of the wolfs, it's not as safe for carrying cuts as Camp office is, but one can usually work around it

Edited August 8, 2020 by Mistral

[Guest jeffpeng]

If you want to ease into the Interloper experience without being discouraged because it is hard - and yes, it is hard, and I have played 2 or 3 runs on Interloper *coughs politely* - you can go a custom game with interloper as the basis, and adjust weather and things like thirst, freezing or predator agressiveness. Keep hunger and the loot as it is, so you have a chance to learn the loot tables, and also what trips will require what preparations. You can also play with choosing your starting position. Some starts require a very well thought out plan off the get go, and might even then fail (one of the two TWM starts is a good example, both starts in HRV too, but even Milton can be a harsh at the plane....)

Aside from that I have a few things that worked well for me becoming a full time Interloper, and some things that are general good advice for games until you're settled in a game.

- Don't try to play for 1000 days. Play for ten. Then play for 20. If you reach 30 reliably start playing for objectives (like an early bow, early knife, early TWM/HRV runs, etc). But even then don't play for 1000 days. Use what you must, conserve what you can. There is no sense running around with a sprained ankle all day just to save some cloth. You will almost certainly die before you run out of stuff if you apply normal conservation (like not using matches as a light source, for instance).
- Avoid completionism until you are firmly in the game. Gather what you need and if it's on your way to your current objective. An hour spend tearing down cloth you don't need is an hour wasted.
- Stay light and mobile (10 kg over capacity as absolute max) Leave stuff you don't need. Keep notes about where and - if important loot - what.
- Don't waste any time unless you must. Craft tea when waiting for water, harvest meat while you already cook some, etc. Be efficient above all else.
- Torches are your friend. Chain them and you can keep a fire alive for a full day or even longer.
- Coal is your friend. Make frequent stops to warm up. Better spend one hour at a fire warming up and restocking on water and tea than spend an hour freezing. Whatever time you think you made you will lose later - with interest.
- Use your tools. If you have a hacksaw use it to harvest meat. If you have an early knife: even better.
- Travel not before 12 p.m. unless you must. Don't travel in the dark unless you must. Make the time between 16 p.m. and 8 p.m. count.

In general Interloper is basically "just" how to play TLD with very little resources and a heavily reduced margin for error. But you can get used to that and, yes, play very long games if that's your cup of tea. But also: for some people Interloper is just not fun. Stalker is much more action packed, and lets you play more of the game and faster without being really easier but actually just very different. There is some masochistic element to playing Interloper you have to embrace before it becomes really fun.

[darkscaryforest]

Thanks for your responses, it's given me a lot to pull from. I've become more comfortable with the early game in Interloper. My day 13 frost bitten Desolation Point starter has a hacksaw, hammer, and now mag lens I found in the lookout in Mystery Lake (although it was a bummer moment when to first see it absent in the camp office this time).  Going to try a forge run at spence's. I feel like I can manage my time better. Now though, I'm having some serious problems with cabin fever. Basing at trapper's cabin, I haven't found an elegant solution as I get cold way too fast to be outside unless I need to and there's no warm caves nearby.  Just barely keeping it in check, going to try a snow shelter soon.

 

On 8/6/2020 at 8:26 PM, Serenity said:

ML has no guaranteed matches. So Spence's farm is a pretty much a must

Thanks for pointing that out, I would have spent forever looking for a ML guaranteed match spot. Sometimes items are really tucked away so it is hard to feel confident that I didn't miss anything.

 

On 8/7/2020 at 11:19 AM, Dan_ said:

try to memorize possible spawns for deer carcasses

This is an excellent point, I never have noticed that there are many deer carcasses just there for the taking, and their locations seem mostly consistent across games. I also just realized that the pelts don't increase your smell-o-meter like the guts do, so I can carry that on the move.

 

On 8/7/2020 at 2:50 PM, Valuable Hunting Knife said:

Plenty of chilled hunting opportunities in ravine, plus caves to keep cabin fever at bay and limitless birch tea, then trailers at the dam if it's too cold to sleep out

I'm considering packing up to move here to fight cabin fever better. Only thing that gave me pause is that I had a lot of trouble with a wolf just by the dam trailers in a prior stalker game. Not sure if that guy is there on Interloper.

 

On 8/9/2020 at 2:44 AM, jeffpeng said:

you can go a custom game with interloper as the basis, and adjust weather and things like thirst, freezing or predator agressiveness

This is a great idea and I'd really just like the option to choose where I start. I'm interested in learning the hushed river valley and Timberwolf mountain starts so those aren't guaranteed deaths 😅.
 

Edited August 10, 2020 by darkscaryforest

[Serenity]

45 minutes ago, darkscaryforest said:

Now though, I'm having some serious problems with cabin fever. Basing at trapper's cabin
 

The Ravine cave is fantastic for that. The wolf in front of the hydro dam is manageable - especially once you have a bow. And it's not there at all hours or even every day.

The alternative is the Camp Office and sleep in the Lake Overlook cave. But the hydro dam has the Ravine for hunting and stick collecting. Lots of deer carcasses. And a potential moose spawn

Cabin Fever shouldn't be an issue just yet though. If you just spend more time outside (for example for cooking) the risk should only kick in during the crafting marathon after the forge. And that can be avoided by sleeping in a cave every night. Unless you forge on the Riken, in which case you may get CF there already.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Serenity

[sonics01]

Others already nicely described and explained a lot of tips for loper game, so I would not need to repeat those... 

One thing, personally I think HRV starting is the best option at current version. HRV starting is basically high risk high return. I won't spoil any details, but you don't need to stay there more than 2 days. The core of HRV starting of mine is hit-and-run tactic. HRV is really cold even from day 1 of interloper, and wolves and bears are on patrol for some important routes. So I only stop by some important points only, and rush to Milton as soon as possible. The early stage (up to day 50) of interloper is fight against the time anyway, so it is important not to stay too long in HRV if you start from HRV. I don't know how others play HRV starting, but at least this is my HRV starting tactic: just pick important loots, and expel from HRV from at least day 2, definitely not longer than day 3. 

I invested some time and effort for this tactic. Using my stalker character who is fully equipped and well prepared, I wander around HRV a lot, tried to learn about the geometry of HRV. I tried to memorize the map. And then I tried HRV starting interloper games. I'm not denying that a lot of loper characters has been died during my HRV trials, but I also learned a lot. Even now, HRV starting needs some luck to safely finish. As I practice I feel I'm getting better at it, but still I experience the one of 2~3 trials goes bad and the character dies during HRV starting games. 

[darkscaryforest]

Haven't gotten a ton of time to play, but I'm still alive at day 35.

I made a trip to the FM forge that mostly went well. I crafted 12 arrow heads and a knife. I didn't do the hatchet since I had a hacksaw and limited fuel.  I spent 12 miserable days at trapper's (before and after spence) barely scraping by in terms of fighting cabin fever, eating food that wasn't cattails, and even just getting enough water. I tried everywhere I could to start a windproof fire, but alas it was always blown out before I was done.

Any who, I did this waiting for a maple and guts to finish curing. When I finally had the bow, I tried to murder the bear near the cabin. I'm ... *cough* not a risk-taker, so my method was to shoot it on the hill of the cabin, then duck inside when it charges. I did this 3 times until I got it through my skull that it probably won't bleed out if I go inside right after hitting it. So I said screw it, and made my way to the Ravine. My luck changed when I found a firestriker at 89% at the overlook cave on the way. When I got to the ravine and saw all the sticks and birch bark, I literally thought "this is heaven."

On 8/10/2020 at 7:47 PM, Serenity said:

The Ravine cave is fantastic for that. The wolf in front of the hydro dam is manageable - especially once you have a bow. And it's not there at all hours or even every day.

I didn't know about the closer of the 2 caves to ML. I went back and forth over that dumb tree trunk to the farther one until I finally discovered it.  Took a while to figure out a technique, but I hunted down 3 deer in the region (1 in ML never bled out I guess since I went inside). I've only seen the wolf at the dam 1 time out of like 12 days. On stalker, he was there all the time so good to know the difference. Having a windproof fire at the cave is amazing for CF control and boiling/cooking a surplus.  I have enough food and water for maybe 2 weeks. In clothes, I have rabbit mitts & hat and almost 2 deer pants and 1 boots.

I'm considering trying for the bear again....or maybe trying to kill a wolf. I haven't had a struggle yet so I don't know just how risky it would be. I carry the hammer with me everywhere. Might try to practice killing wolves near a fire. Either way I know the world is getting colder and not having a crafted coat could make things hard going forward.

On 8/10/2020 at 9:41 PM, sonics01 said:

One thing, personally I think HRV starting is the best option at current version. HRV starting is basically high risk high return. I won't spoil any details, but you don't need to stay there more than 2 days. The core of HRV starting of mine is hit-and-run tactic. HRV is really cold even from day 1 of interloper, and wolves and bears are on patrol for some important routes. So I only stop by some important points only, and rush to Milton as soon as possible. The early stage (up to day 50) of interloper is fight against the time anyway, so it is important not to stay too long in HRV if you start from HRV. I don't know how others play HRV starting, but at least this is my HRV starting tactic: just pick important loots, and expel from HRV from at least day 2, definitely not longer than day 3. 

I invested some time and effort for this tactic. Using my stalker character who is fully equipped and well prepared, I wander around HRV a lot, tried to learn about the geometry of HRV. I tried to memorize the map. And then I tried HRV starting interloper games. I'm not denying that a lot of loper characters has been died during my HRV trials, but I also learned a lot. Even now, HRV starting needs some luck to safely finish. As I practice I feel I'm getting better at it, but still I experience the one of 2~3 trials goes bad and the character dies during HRV starting games. 

That's really cool! I'm tempted to pause my other game and just try a million times in custom interloper to get a start off the ground there.

[Serenity]

A wolf coat or two is fine for the first two months. Bear + wolf coat is very nice, but it's not immediately necessary. And wolves are much easier to kill than bears

Edited August 22, 2020 by Serenity

[Dr. S.]

5 hours ago, darkscaryforest said:

Any who, I did this waiting for a maple and guts to finish curing. When I finally had the bow, I tried to murder the bear near the cabin. I'm ... *cough* not a risk-taker, so my method was to shoot it on the hill of the cabin, then duck inside when it charges. I did this 3 times until I got it through my skull that it probably won't bleed out if I go inside right after hitting it.

Do you know that you can safely get onto (and off of) the roof of the barn by Trappers?

[darkscaryforest]

1 hour ago, Dr. S. said:

Do you know that you can safely get onto (and off of) the roof of the barn by Trappers?

I had no idea. You made me investigate.

Nice!

[Serenity]

Also fallen trees in general are your friend for hunting predators

[bobsmyuncle]

6 hours ago, Dr. S. said:

Do you know that you can safely get onto (and off of) the roof of the barn by Trappers?

me, learning something new after 1600 hours played:  😲

edit: be careful, I got stuck on some snow up there and had to quit and reload

Edited August 23, 2020 by bobsmyuncle

[SirSharper]

it took me about 10 runs before i made it past day 10. i feel im pretty knowledgeable with the maps and terrain, but not so much the spawns. 

on my current run, i am at day 17. i have a knife, hatchet and arrows made. waiting on the bow. 

i struggled with the cold at first, but that is the most important. ive spent entire days just collecting sticks and firewood ao i can have a full sleep fire outdoors. 

once you can safely get established (without frostbite) i heard it gets a bit easier to plan out strategies. 

 

im hoping to get my bow soon, and start a long journey of interloper. 

[gotmilkanot]

If you can survive past day 50 on Interloper, you've pretty much beat the difficulty. The world doesn't get any colder than that and it'd be just a matter of time before you get careless/unlucky and get killed by a random wolf.

[Serenity]

9 hours ago, SirSharper said:

ive spent entire days just collecting sticks and firewood ao i can have a full sleep fire outdoors. 

Always picking up sticks is a good idea, but you rarely need to sleep outside with a fire all going on all the time. Even early on caves are warm enough for much of the night. It may get too cold when it gets morning, but before that you don't need a fire. So unless you really need the condition recovery you can sleep in 2 or 3 hour shifts to monitor the temperature drop. Some caves (Ravine and Lake Overlook again) are close to shelter, so you can just leave then instead of making a fire.

An exception to that would be somewhere like CH where there aren't any warm  caves. In CH I've spent the night in fishing huts or the truck at Quonset. For that you need a fire. Or Spence's farm when you're forging