Bearskin Coat

[The Ravages of Time]

I haven’t made a bearskin coat yet and I have read some differing opinions on whether it is worth it/practical, so I thought I’d reach out to this great community and get the consensus. 
 

Bearskin coat. Yay or nay?

[Sherlock Holmes 18]

I use a sleeping bag even if it's hard because I can be like a turtle. 

[starlin]

Depends on the mode. Man made clothes is just universally better, easier to maintain as long as theres cloth, and way lighter. But with Stalker and Interloper, where supplies are more scarce, animal skin clothing is inevitable. I'm playing voyager, and done the math repeated.... its really hard to justify crafted clothes, even from a renewability standpoint.

[The Ravages of Time]

Yeah, I found the same on Voyager. There was enough high level man made clothes, and it didn’t get cold enough to justify the weight and effort. I’m on stalker now, and I’m debating trading out my wolf coat for a bear one. 

2 hours ago, starlin said:

from a renewability standpoint.

Yeah I thought about that too. Are you losing out on the warmth because it is constantly in need of repair, and the effort that goes into getting the materials? 

[starlin]

In theory, animal skins are effectively infinite.  As are guts to make tackle to sew them.  The only big risk is Scrap metal for hooks. 

 

The problem comes down to their weight.  Animal skins offer more armor overall and are warm, but they're like double the weight.  In fact, they have some of the worst warmth to weight ratios in the game.  This is to account for how they are outerwear, and kind of have to compensate for a lack of inner wear in harder difficulties.  Man made clothes stack, are easier to maintain, and lighter for the same amount of warmth; which means you can carry more of the other useful stuff. 

[Serenity]

On later Interloper sometimes. But even there a wolf coat or two will last you a long time.

[ajb1978]

6 hours ago, starlin said:

The only big risk is Scrap metal for hooks. 

Actually even that isn't a risk. You can repair hacksaws, use scrap metal to repair toolkits, and of course use hacksaws to harvest scrap metal from shelves and stuff. With those three you get a feedback loop where it would take you longer than your actual mortal life in the real world to exhaust all the scrap metal in the game world.

[darkscaryforest]

13 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

use scrap metal to repair toolkits

What?! You can repair toolkits? You should put this in the did you know thread

[hozz1235]

I will don it if I know I'm going into a heavily-infested wolf area but just temporarily.

[starlin]

8 hours ago, darkscaryforest said:

What?! You can repair toolkits? You should put this in the did you know thread

its a bit esoteric.   You can make replacement tools out of scrap metal, but you can't make a knife or hatchet out of scrap without melting it in a forge?  You make clothes out of animal skin, and repair it with cured leather... but you can't make cured leather out of cured animal skins?  

[turtle777]

On 3/5/2021 at 9:11 AM, darkscaryforest said:

What?! You can repair toolkits? You should put this in the did you know thread

I think he misspoke. You can crate fishing hooks, and then create fishing tackles to be used in lieu of repair kits.

-t 

[Serenity]

37 minutes ago, turtle777 said:

I think he misspoke. You can crate fishing hooks, and then create fishing tackles to be used in lieu of repair kits.

No. He meant the blue and red tool boxes. You can repair those with each other. It just costs you scrap metal. Which you can get with the hacksaw. That uses up the saw, but it can be repaired with tool boxes and scrap.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Serenity

[turtle777]

On 3/10/2021 at 9:14 AM, Serenity said:

No. He meant the blue and red tool boxes. You can repair those with each other. It just costs you scrap metal. Which you can get with the hacksaw. That uses up the saw, but it can be repaired with tool boxes and scrap.

Ah, ok, I guess I got confused - toolkits in the context of bearskin coats ???

-t

Edited March 13, 2021 by turtle777

[Serenity]

1 minute ago, turtle777 said:

toolkits in the context of bearskin coats ???

The author briefly worried about running out of scrap metal for hooks for fishing tackles to repair clothing

[Stinky socks]

I know a stash of metal shelves.

Let me know. 5 cans of pinnacle peaches. Don't bring ruined ones.

[Willy Pete]

"*Grunt* Too heavy"

In all seriousness, it really depends on the game and I normally don't use it due to stamina reduction more than anything else. I always run with the bearskin bedroll.

My first few Voyageurs when I thought that warmth and wolf fear = everything I was running around with the bearskin coat. Now that I'm more experienced and play Stalker I typically run with either the moose hide for armor or the wolfskin for wolf fear. I did find a bearskin coat in my most recent playthrough and wore it for a bit, but wound up leaving it behind in a stash.

[Glflegolas]

I usually don't use the bearskin coat, but then again, I play mostly Voyageur and Stalker. The moose-hide cloak is lighter, more protective, and more waterproof. So it's my outer garment of choice in the game.