DarkWalker guide and playing tips [SPOILERS]

[Gun Tech.]

DarkWalker playing tips by Gun Tech.

(Twitter: @realGunTech)

1. Where do I start?

Because the information before release was different to the release and you can go back (if the fog timer hasn't run out), this changes everything so that you can take any route that includes all the green campfire Pages, and the same is true if you want to maximize hours survived at the end. If the green campfire loot is fixed per region in any run, the best start region is BI, see below.

[MAP!] Use the map to find your position and the position of the green campfire, the Fog % left, and to not get lost in Fog. (See also 7)

 

2. Regions

Big regions are easy, small regions and transition regions are harder, and transition mines are extremely dangerous. It's not always possible, but if you have Fog time left over and you're not returning, consider going away from the exit (straight out from the exit) at least 200m and place an extra Lure before going into small regions and transition mines. Do not sleep immediately before a transition mine, unless you don't hear the foot stomps at all.

Do not climb a rope or go into a transition mine, if the DarkWalker is at your heels. This will end your run unless you are very skillful, fast, and calm.

The 3 worst places are Ravine (if you have to attach the rope and climb down), DP exit mine, and HRV exit mine. You can create a good distance to the DarkWalker in ML, before going through the Dam(!)

[MINES!] some transition mines are part of the region you're leaving, meaning the Fog Timer is still counting down. Two nasty ones are BI -> FM and MT -> ML.

 

3. Gear

The Satchel and Bearskin Bedroll will give you many advantages: No need to keep Well-Fed, so no need to find and carry lots of food; a great speed boost; no need for great clothing to sleep anywhere on the ground without a fire.

This leaves you free to pick up a wolf struggle tool and a Revolver or Flare Gun, and cook up all the coffee you can carry as soon as you can, and not much more. Stims and Go Juice are obviously helpful.

6-8 bandages, 1 Disinfectant, and 1 Antibiotics should always be carried for sprains, the more aggressive wolves, and a (rare) chance of food poisoning.

You will not need much firewood and tinder, since you want to avoid stopping and making fires at all cost. Do pick up all the Accelerant and Flares you find - a Jerry Can should be used for this, there's no need to carry the Storm Lantern, although you can pick up the first one you find and use it up and toss it.

 

4. Route

It's good to deal with the 3 worst places (above) as early as you can, while you're still able to keep the DarkWalker away. An HRV or DP start is therefore quite OK. But because you can now go back (see 1), you can get all the end regions without much trouble. DP and HRV can be tricky late game, but TWM and BR are fine. You can finish in an end region or not; it's up to you.

[ROPES!] Avoiding as many rope climbs as possible in your route will help you greatly. Almost all down-ropes can be billy-goated past, and this will help you greatly. The DarkWalker will quickly catch up with you when you climb a rope, and if you get Fear you will die before you are down in most cases. If this happens, you can place a Ward Glyph on a ledge, pass a short amount of time to recharge your handgrip, and climb down, then immediately run to increase your distance.

I got the 10 pages in 4h6m from an HRV start, but if I would do it again I would start in BI because of gear (see 2).

 

5. Route suggestion

BI -> FM -> BR -> FM -> MT -> HRV -> MT -> ML -> WR -> PV -> TWM -> PV -> CH -> DP 

This gets you great starting gear, few if any Timberwolf packs while not being chased by the DarkWalker, all regions, transition regions, and transition mines available, avoids attaching the rope in the Ravine, lets you deal with HRV early, and avoids going twice through the DP transition mine.

 

6. The DarkWalker ("it")

After its arrival, when you enter a region it can spawn semi-randomly and quite close to you, even if you created some space between it and you before exiting the previous. If not, you can place a Lure immediately upon entering and sleep. Sleeping and passing time more than 1h will spend the Lure, but you will be woken up if it is near, allowing you to place a Ward, a Lure, and leave.

You can place Lures when you are completely ready to leave a spot. After a few regions, you may find yourself placing Lures like breadcrumbs where you go. This will still slow it down, but only very few seconds. If you can, try to sidetrack the creature upon entering the region, leading it away from the route you want to take and then go around it to there. You might get close, but he will continue going to the Lure, buying you a lot more time and distance. You can hear it destroy the Lure, making it give away its position. You can then immediately cook all coffees you have, or make water and sleep.

 

7. Glitches

• Lures can expire and then be 100% again, making the DarkWalker seemingly teleport. It can teleport to close to the exit. You can then sleep 2h to expire the glitched Lure, place a Lure a bit away from the exit, and bypass it.
• Fog timer can temporarily turn to 0 when you click a door, but it will be restored when outdoors again. This is not detrimental.
• Sometimes, the Fog % is not displayed on the map. This can be detrimental if you have to go back through the current region.
• If it's your first run, your position might not be marked on the map. Consider starting a short test run and make your second run the proper one, so you can see your position.
• The Ward time meter will end prematurely, when there's more than 1/10 left on it. Avoid time-passing actions during Ward altogether. Cooking 2 cups of coffee is OK.
• The DarkWalker sometimes spawns in at the exit of the region in front of you, even though you left it behind in the previous. Especially WR is problematic, since it's a small, narrow corridor. This is detrimental. If the behavior is bound to regions, you can work around this glitch by doing the opposite of what is recommended - hanging out right outside the entrance to the region and Lure it there, giving you a greater chance of bypassing it.

I hope this helps someone. Cheers! //Gun Tech.

Edited October 31, 2020 by Gun Tech.
typography

[Jolan]

Awesome!

 

[Kranium]

Just tagging along here to post the route I took. 5 1/2 hours, with no "killing time" at all.

If you want to squeeze out more time for "bragging rights" then you can camp out near each region exit until the fog timer hits zero, before moving on. I bet one could exceed 10 hours if done smartly & with some luck.

Anyway, this was essentially a speed run. I'd say that I got lucky with finding a TON of coffee, stims, energy drinks, and paint...

 

 

[Gun Tech.]

I also think ~10h possible Kranium!

[Sherri]

On 10/31/2020 at 11:42 AM, Gun Tech. said:

 

• If it's your first run, your position might not be marked on the map. Consider starting a short test run and make your second run the proper one, so you can see your position.

Is the map revealed or the compass visible in this game mode? In my first attempt I was too busy running & didn't even look at the map tab.

[Sherri]

I think I've been using the ward glyph wrong. I was putting it at entrances to things like caves, thinking it would stop it from entering & following me as I rushed through.

But if the Darkwalker can pass through walls, then the ward glyph is only useful if I'm staying next to it. Ie to sleep or something.

[TiffTastic]

4 hours ago, Sherri said:

Is the map revealed or the compass visible in this game mode? In my first attempt I was too busy running & didn't even look at the map tab.

The map is fully revealed. Your location is always marked as are the exits and the campfire. Nothing else is tho. Your view always starts centered in the middle of the map tho, so it threw me off a few times when I was at the borders. 

[Sherri]

8 hours ago, TiffTastic said:

The map is fully revealed. Your location is always marked as are the exits and the campfire. Nothing else is tho. Your view always starts centered in the middle of the map tho, so it threw me off a few times when I was at the borders. 

Oh man, would have been much easier had I known this!

[UTC-10]

The lure lasts about 1.5 game hours. 

If you go inside a dwelling (so the outside technically 'despawns') and remain inside and sleep for 2 hours or more (presumably you could spend 2 or more hours of 'real' game time but I don't think most anyone would) when you exit the dwelling, the lure will be once again at full bar and will not expire. 

I suspect that similar to the "healing bear effect, if one spends longer than the lure would last in the 'other world' inside a dwelling (an interior cave should do as well), when the character comes out, the outside world is respawned and, by some glitch, the lure is respawned like new and the lure expiration timer status was not applied (so it spawns like new) and will not be applied (will not expire).  If one sleeps only one hour the lure respawns in its existing state meaning the expiration timer still applies.  

I expect that will be addressed at some time but probably not during the current event.  It is not as if the Deathwalker won't eventually get to it and destroy it, or that the character won't be driven from the region in 30 real-time minutes or so. 

[ajb1978]

On 11/4/2020 at 6:20 PM, Sherri said:

I think I've been using the ward glyph wrong. I was putting it at entrances to things like caves, thinking it would stop it from entering & following me as I rushed through.

But if the Darkwalker can pass through walls, then the ward glyph is only useful if I'm staying next to it. Ie to sleep or something.

Using a ward before you sleep is actually a waste of paint, as they burn out in game-time.  The Darkwalker moves in real time, so once you go to sleep the ward would only prevent him from getting close for a couple real-time seconds tops.  The best use of a ward is if he gets close to you, put a ward on the ground at your feet, then move away from it.  It'll buy you some time to get some distance from it.

A good trick to cover tremendous distances at once is to drop a ward to stall the Darkwalker, sprint away until your stamina is depleted, then pass time and esc-cancel almost immediately.  Your stamina is now full.  Sprint again.  Repeat until you're as far away as you can get without taking a detour, sleep to recover your Fatigue, then drop a lure and you've got tons of time to piddle around the map looting or looking for bunkers while the Darkwalker heads to the lure.

[UTC-10]

It is important to not be in contact (be beyond 200 meters) with the Darkwalker when a character transitions to another zone or region.  It appears (no way to really know) that the DW, in this case, would spawn in the center/middle of the next zone or region.  Then it has to start heading towards the character which can take a while. 

If the DW is in contact (less than 200 meters, there is that counter that shows the range to it) when the character transitions, then it will ?immediately? spawn in the next zone or region at the same distance to the character. 

This suggests that a character make use of lures intelligently but as often as practical.  Using it only when the DW gets close is worthwhile but one has already tended to sacrifice the advantage of making the DW go someplace, making it waste time to do so, where the character has left a long time ago. 

[Even Dark]

i dont know there is no challenge with the cold. you get really quick a + degree gear so bearskin bedroll is a waste the normal one is enough. you can sleep the first hours inside. the "allways" cabain fever starts later. once you have the gear ready and you can full repair all stuff, you can sleep outside where you want.

start location for me

a long run i start in TWM

a short and fast without using glyphs run i start in HRV you can leave HRV in this 15 minutes before he spawns. in HRV he comes allways close to you because of the map so easy to skip that with the start location HRV. 

Route: HRV, Milton, BR, BI, FM, ML all campfires are on the way and done with 6 pages and this need around 1 hour play. I go first BI and then get me the FM Campfire so you can use the light as waypoint in the fog (you are 3 times inside the map so after BI it is fog there).

you can after ML (6Pages) expand this to 10 pages with the normal Hopless rescue run way PV,TWM,CH,DP

loaded this run up to yt without using a single glyph.

part [1] 6 pages in 1:11

part [2] go for all 10 in 2:11

for me this is not really a speedrun challenge you can skip the time to get quick stamina back, and do this over and over and over  

Edited November 8, 2020 by Even Dark

[ajb1978]

On 11/6/2020 at 7:56 PM, UTC-10 said:

It is important to not be in contact (be beyond 200 meters) with the Darkwalker when a character transitions to another zone or region.  It appears (no way to really know) that the DW, in this case, would spawn in the center/middle of the next zone or region.

I tested this a little bit and it appears that the DW spawns that many meters away from the player regardless of how far away they were in the previous region.  They also don't spawn in the center of the map.  I used my grace period to get to the FM/ML transition, then wait until the 15 minutes were up.  I then crossed through to ML and stood there in the rail tunnel on the ML side.  After letting the DW get close, I could hear it coming up from different directions on different attempts. Using the same save (outdoor area transitions don't trigger a save so I reloaded the same start as a control group) I went to ML again and waited until the DW got close two additional times.  The first time it was approaching from my right, indicating it probably came from the lake cabin area. The second test it was coming at me from behind indicating that it spawned in off the map past the rail tunnel.  And the third time it was coming at me from the left, as if it spawned in closer to Trappers.

Three tests isn't much of a sample size, but it's enough to confirm the DW isn't starting from the map center.  I think the game just rolls a 360 sided die and the DW spawns in at that bearing, however far away from you it was when you left the previous region.