Recommend Story or Survival for new to the game


BurritoSpecial

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The Long Dark survival mode has no tutorial, no in-game help files, no in-game map, and no "helpful" advice.  It also tends to be unforgiving to the unwary, ignorant, and careless.  Knowledge is life. Be aware that survival mode, if you did not know this already, was formed from the game survival mechanic sandbox, which proved to be unexpectedly popular, so would not be as full or complete a "survival" game as a purpose-built survival game.  It was intended to support  Story mode.

That said, if you know nothing about the game mechanics, it might be worthwhile to go through the first two episodes of story mode with Will Mackenzie.  A tutorial was explicitly incorporated into them on the assumption that new players to TLD would know nothing about how the game worked.   Since you can save the game at points, aside from automatic saves, death in Story mode as you learned how to do things would not be so painful as the perma-death of survival mode. 

Be sure to ask in the forums if there is something you don't understand.  Everyone has been through similar experiences in TLD.  Just try to be as precise as you can about what the problem seems to be to minimize confusion on our part. 

Good luck, whatever path you choose.

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There's two schools of thought, and they both have weight.

1: Start with Story mode, as it serves as a sort of tutorial that introduces gameplay elements slowly, and so far only uses 5 maps.  That way you can master one thing before trying something new, so you're never truly overwhelmed.  Also it has save and load functionality so you can feel more free to take risks.

2: Start with Survivor mode, as it has all crafting templates unlocked from the start, all maps available, and availability of all weapons (sans firearms on Interloper). This, coupled with Pilgrim, can allow you to figure things out for yourself without being in serious danger. That said, it does have permadeath, so you can't get complacent.

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Yeah, both survival and story mode have adjustable difficulty, so you should find your footing first and see which difficulty you are most comfortable with. 

But honestly, I'd say just play survival and try the different difficulty modes. Pick the one that kills you every single time you're starting to have fun. If you like survival games, Pilgrim is not for you and Voyager is also way too educational. Start with Stalker which is reasonably difficult and has every single lootable item available, Interloper is more balanced mechanics wise and more fun to play IMO, but it cuts a huge chunk of the items in the game so it would deprive you of guns, high level clothing, good tools and so on. 

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I'm new to this as well. I got it on Switch when it ported over. Never heard of the game before, and it's not my typical game, but I enjoy this one sooo much.  I started with story mode and it took some time to figure things out. I died like 3 times in the beginning and then I created a No Stress no Threat survival mode to learn about each region in a more calm setting.  I find both to be very good for learning the game. But I guess it depends what works for you.

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