Midgame / supplies help?

[Dancewithknives]

Hi, sorry of this is in the wrong place, but I want to ask a few questions or get a few opinions on Survival mode.

 

i’m in the middle of my first major survival run (died before in the first weeks, but this is my first successful run. 90 days) and i want to ask if there is an optimal way to keep supplies and food/ what the optimal way to play the game is. 
 

To sort of describe how I am doing, i am well armed and equipped with good clothing, but my biggest concern is my manufactured food. The trip that I am on is to clean out PV, and ive already salvaged food from the plane with the intent on moving supplies back to the camp office in ML. I went to TM and AC, got their stuff and when i got back to my base in PV, i noticed all of my airline food was gone. At this point, I didn’t know that food degraded over time in containers.
 

Did i do something “wrong” or is there a better way to use my supplies? Also, is it fruitless to move all of your supplies to one in the world? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Serenity]

The difference is between outside and inside. Most things should be left outside. Especially meat. Airplane food though supposedly lasts a long time either way: https://thelongdark.fandom.com/wiki/Decay#Food_and_drink

According to that side some of the canned food lasts longer inside, but in practice it doesn't really matter too much. Even at maximum decay they'll last a while .

Also don't put things that are close to ruin inside containers. They just disappear when they reach 0%. If you leave stuff out of containers it stays and can still be eaten with level 5 cooking. You can place cans of foods on shelves for example.

 Also, is it fruitless to move all of your supplies to one in the world?

Yes. There is far too much stuff even on Stalker. It's more practical to have several bases and move between them. And more interesting gameplay wise

There is also no need to conserve all manufactured food. Most of it can be eaten when found. It's not bad to stockpile some for emergencies and to have something when you newly arrive at a safe house. But otherwise you can easily live off hunted animals or fish

 

[Dancewithknives]

17 minutes ago, Serenity said:

There is also no need to conserve all manufactured food. Most of it can be eaten when found. It's not bad to stockpile some for emergencies and to have something when you newly arrive at a safe house. But otherwise you can easily live off hunted animals or fish

Follow up: so... out of the stuff in the game (i think im playing on.... owl?) what should i take with me out of the following: ammunition, medicine, flares, crafting materials, energy bars, soda pop, and saltines?

as for safehouses, would it be a good idea to stock tools, medicine, firewood and matches at each base?

 

[starlin]

6 hours ago, Dancewithknives said:

Follow up: so... out of the stuff in the game (i think im playing on.... owl?) what should i take with me out of the following: ammunition, medicine, flares, crafting materials, energy bars, soda pop, and saltines?

as for safehouses, would it be a good idea to stock tools, medicine, firewood and matches at each base?

 

There is not single strategy here, because it depends on how much supplies you have access to, how often you move around, what region you're dealing with, and how you manage your time. 

If you're the type that moves around a lot, traveling light is useful.  If you're a hoarder, its even more important to start light as you go raiding, so you can carry more stuff back with you.  In terms of weight, unless weather is really dodgy (like Pleasant Valley), its often faster to make 2 trips light then it is to make one trip heavy.  Over time you get smarter and figure out how maximize logistics with your worst habits, so you stop making costly mistakes like having to walk back 2 regions over, because you forgot something and can't find a replacement. (I went 40 days without a bed roll, most of it in pleasant valley)

For barebones, you take what you need to survive a snow storm.  Fire Starting + plus a few sticks, a weapon, 2-4 bandages, Enough meds to cover 2 of any given treatment, a spare cloth (6 for places that warrant snow shelters), fishing tackle, knife and 1 or 2 rocks. 

Everything else is more situational.  Hacksaw is a good versatile tool, because it does more stuff, and is easier to maintain over the Hatchet, despite being slower. Lantern, while heavy, is good for if you frequently bum indoors at night.  Prybar for breaking locks, flares for caves with predators (as an emergency tool), some food if you're not sure about hunting where you're going.  But the one thing you don't need to lug around is Water.... unless you have no reliable means of fire.  1l is usually enough to last you an outting, and you can melt snow anywhere you can start a fire. Hatchets are very time efficient for a lot of stuff, but their a huge pain to maintain because of the rarity of whetstones (which you use to sharpen them).  whestones are better used on the hunting knife, since that gets more use for fast harvesting of meat (unless frozen). Once they run out..... well.... hope you found a hammer, because option 2 is Timber Wolves. 

Ideally you find shelter spots and gather wood there during nicer days, so you can bee line there if a snow storm hits.  And if cooking there, you can use left over fire time to make spare water for the camp site. 

[acada]

For the food decay, there is table: https://thelongdark.fandom.com/wiki/Decay I dont know how accurate it is. I usually store food outside container. This way it does not disappear when reaches 0 condition.

My strategy is to aim to cooking level 5 as early as I can. Then you can forget food poisoning and intestinal parasites. My way is to get bear or moose. Carve it to 100grams - 250grams pieces by cancelling carving. Then you have lot of small pieces and cooking can be improved quickly. Some calls it exploit. But I think of it that when you are inexperienced cook, you dont start with 1 kilo steaks, you do smaller.