TLD SURVIVAL HACKS

[Thelek]

I know we had a topic like this in thw.wway back when the game was new. Since iwas scroling through old posts and didnt see anything like it, i thought i would start a new one and see what trouble i could stir up and hope someone might post something that i could try to help me along in my own journey.

 

So, i will start things off with a few of my favorites:

 

1) Stay from the dam during auroras. (getting electricuted is not good for the health)

2) always carry a good torch with you. Once you get your first fire started, grab a torch, extinguish it and put it away. From then on, you will only use ONE match to light a fire, even if you fail a half dozen times. Light your torch, use it to light the fire, when the fire is lit, throw the torch into the fire and grab a new one.

3) never use a tool to break down anything that can be broke down by hand. Sure, it may take longer, but your tools have a limited life and you need to extend that life as long as possible. Best way to do that is to not waste them on trivial tasks.

4)  Cairns are a good thing make lots of them. Best place to make a cairn is somplace that has at least 1 small container to put food and other supplies in. Places i can think of are the tunnel and derailment in ML, a fish hut in CH, other places like that. It can be a lifesaver if you get caught in a storm far from your base.

 

Well, that's all i can think of for now. I know i have more, just cant think of them atm.

 

 

 

[Jalos]

"3) never use a tool to break down anything that can be broke down by hand. Sure, it may take longer, but your tools have a limited life and you need to extend that life as long as possible. Best way to do that is to not waste them on trivial tasks."

Except the hammer. The hammer can use a lot, because its repair is very cheap (1 Fir firewood).

And of course sometimes the time is more important than the replace cost!

 

[starlin]

In the interest of fair commentary.....  Most "Life Hack" lists are not hacks.  Generally they are advise that ranges from "not so common knowledge" to "this could kill you if you tried it; and there was no disclaimer".  I was disappointed this wasn't much different.   :(

 

On the matter of 4..... doesn't putting things in a container delete them once they decay all the way down?  So wouldn't putting food in there actually be a liability?

 

And on a final note.... Spray cans are comparatively plentiful... use them to paint arrow trails between useful shelters so you can find them easier in a blizzard. Dropping rocks as a trail also works. 

[Thelek]

Well, keep in mind, it has been a couple years since i have played the game and some mechanics may have changed to make tips i survived with back then not so useful anymore. Back then, it was a lucky thing to even find a hsmmer and repairing it cost 2 scrap metal and 10% of a very rare tool box. Putting items in a container would slow the decay timer by 30 - 40% making stashing supplies a good idea, especially meat. Put raw meat in a container for about 3 days then cook it and it's good for another 3 days.that is part of my reason for starting this thread. 

 

Yes, i have noticed an over abundance of spray cans. My last attempt in ML lasted 5 days and i think i had over 10 cans. But i find their usefulness dubious at best. Only certain tags show on the map and they are hard for my nearly blin ass to see in world. Using the direction tags is pretty much pointless for me as i have to be almost on top of it to see. Best use i have found is to mark cars and stuff as searched and mark cache locations on the map so i can find them a little easier.

 

Any good "hack* is just plain old common sence that may have just escaped the reader. Many people get caught up doing things one way that they never think of any alternatives until they come across something like this post. How many people actually think to use torches to light fires to conserve matches, or consider making sure they are on a hill top to draw a map?  These forums are a community where we all try to help each other out, at least they were in the way back. I am happy to share my knoledge of the game with the coumminity, even if it is outdated, and i had hoped others would fell the same. Was i wrong? Do the players not support each other through the course of the game? If i was in error about this community i do apologize and this thread can be locked. If i am right about this community, then let's keep the tips coming in.

[hozz1235]

 

[RegentRelic]

21 hours ago, Thelek said:

4)  Cairns are a good thing make lots of them. Best place to make a cairn is somplace that has at least 1 small container to put food and other supplies in. Places i can think of are the tunnel and derailment in ML, a fish hut in CH, other places like that. It can be a lifesaver if you get caught in a storm far from your base.

Describe one common situation that this is the best option. After all the if your going to store supplies somewhere with a storage container why not just use the existing one? Not to mention the most useful thing, that being wood. In your proposed situation can just be dropped where ever.

[Thelek]

2 hours ago, RegentRelic said:

Describe one common situation that this is the best option. After all the if your going to store supplies somewhere with a storage container why not just use the existing one? Not to mention the most useful thing, that being wood. In your proposed situation can just be dropped where ever.

Right, just drop the wood. I like to have a container, too so i can store a little food and other supplies. I used to always keep a cairn at the train tunnel because supplies were hard to find in the muskeg and it seemed every time i went back to ML, i would walk into a raging blizzard so i would have to hunker down for night before i could make my way back to the dam.

[odizzido]

I agree with number two, but not three or four. I find cairns to be useless for how I play. For number three I say, especially at the start, use tools all the time. The first little bit of a run is the most dangerous and getting all the help you can will increase your chances of survival. Heck, last game I used a stim just on a road to get out of a blizzard more quickly. Later on in the game when I am geared up I won't need the stim so much so it won't matter, but it sure helped on day one or two.

Of course, everything I said is subject to personal play style and objectives.

[RegentRelic]

On 3/23/2021 at 7:42 PM, Thelek said:

Right, just drop the wood. I like to have a container, too so i can store a little food and other supplies. I used to always keep a cairn at the train tunnel because supplies were hard to find in the muskeg and it seemed every time i went back to ML, i would walk into a raging blizzard so i would have to hunker down for night before i could make my way back to the dam.

you shouldn't have to be needing to go far from the place your living in to get anything after the early game. I also don't know why you need to store food some place either when you should be carrying enough on you for at least a day. In the trip you described even if your starving when you are able to leave the tunnel you can make it to the camp office or trapper's homestead without taking too much damage. Not to mention there are containers at the tunnel and you can drop everything except clothing and meat on the ground without any penalty.

[UpUpAway95]

1 hour ago, RegentRelic said:

Not to mention there are containers at the tunnel and you can drop everything except clothing and meat on the ground without any penalty.

This... it's not like there's anyone else out there who is going to move whatever you drop.  However, isn't meat best dropped outside in the snow where it decays slower than indoors?   Also, once clothing is "processed" by turning it into cloth, it also can be dropped wherever without decaying.

It's also a pain getting 50 stones together to build a cairn just to keep things tidier.

[UpUpAway95]

On 3/23/2021 at 2:49 AM, Jalos said:

"3) never use a tool to break down anything that can be broke down by hand. Sure, it may take longer, but your tools have a limited life and you need to extend that life as long as possible. Best way to do that is to not waste them on trivial tasks."

Except the hammer. The hammer can use a lot, because its repair is very cheap (1 Fir firewood).

And of course sometimes the time is more important than the replace cost!

 

Agree.  Often, using a tool vs. the hand can save your life, particularly when breaking apart crates outdoors when a sudden weather change can kill you before the job is done.

[Thelek]

21 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

This... it's not like there's anyone else out there who is going to move whatever you drop.  However, isn't meat best dropped outside in the snow where it decays slower than indoors?   Also, once clothing is "processed" by turning it into cloth, it also can be dropped wherever without decaying.

It's also a pain getting 50 stones together to build a cairn just to keep things tidier.

I wouldn't bother building an actual cairn, just drop a bunch of fire wood on the ground. As i have said several times, it has been a long time since i have played. When i last played, the decay timer on items stored in coontainers was slowed by up to 75% in some cases. If i remember right, the decay timer for food stored in containers was slowed by about 50%, where as food just dropped in the snow would continue at the same rate as if it was still in your pack.

 

Personally, i see no reason to use tools to break down objects that can be broke down by hand, all you are doing is just wasting what precious life that tool has. And since most items that can bee broke down by hand are indors, you aren't likely to freeze while breacking somethhing down. But as menntioned, everryone has their own play style. So at this point, i am done with this topic and won't be making any further posts in this (and probably any other) thread.

[UpUpAway95]

22 hours ago, Thelek said:

I wouldn't bother building an actual cairn, just drop a bunch of fire wood on the ground. As i have said several times, it has been a long time since i have played. When i last played, the decay timer on items stored in coontainers was slowed by up to 75% in some cases. If i remember right, the decay timer for food stored in containers was slowed by about 50%, where as food just dropped in the snow would continue at the same rate as if it was still in your pack.

 

Personally, i see no reason to use tools to break down objects that can be broke down by hand, all you are doing is just wasting what precious life that tool has. And since most items that can bee broke down by hand are indors, you aren't likely to freeze while breacking somethhing down. But as menntioned, everryone has their own play style. So at this point, i am done with this topic and won't be making any further posts in this (and probably any other) thread.

https://thelongdark.fandom.com/wiki/Decay

Then, the Wiki needs a serious update.

Agree... everyone has their own play style.  If you want to break things down by hand, you're certainly able to do that.  My play style is to weigh the circumstances I'm in at that moment.  If I need wood from a crate nearby (say, at the Cannery while waiting for an aurora outside)... I'll use that heavy hammer I picked up on the way there so I don't freeze to death while breaking it down.  I don't play using tenets that include words like "always" and "never."

Edited March 28, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[Bean]

On 3/23/2021 at 2:02 AM, starlin said:

On the matter of 4..... doesn't putting things in a container delete them once they decay all the way down?  So wouldn't putting food in there actually be a liability?

I just looted some containers in TWM that I know usually contain cans of food.  It was day 129 and the were empty once cut and searched. 

[Thelek]

I would guess that it is safe to say that the entire decay system has undergone a complete overhaul. If you store items in an outside container, do they decay at container rate, outside rate, or somewhere in between? I ask because i am not comfortable with just dropping food on the ground where wolves, bears, and zombie rabbits can get to is.

[Bean]

1 hour ago, Thelek said:

just dropping food on the ground where wolves, bears, and zombie rabbits can get to is.

That never happens.  In fact, since they nerfed the wolf baiting system, animals no longer pick up meat or guts at all off the ground.

[MrWolf]

7 hours ago, Thelek said:

I would guess that it is safe to say that the entire decay system has undergone a complete overhaul. If you store items in an outside container, do they decay at container rate, outside rate, or somewhere in between? I ask because i am not comfortable with just dropping food on the ground where wolves, bears, and zombie rabbits can get to is.

There are two decay rates: Indoor and outdoor.  Outside, it doesn't matter if you store food in a container, backpack, trunk, corpse, or drop food anywhere on the ground.  Anywhere outside (and some inside places like two-temperature caves or the farmstead house porch in PV) have the same "outdoor" decay rate for food.  Animals will only take food dropped on the ground if something is dropped while a wolf or bear is "locked on" and following you.  Otherwise, the animals do not know the food is there.

 

6 hours ago, Bean said:

That never happens.  In fact, since they nerfed the wolf baiting system, animals no longer pick up meat or guts at all off the ground.

Decoys work, but you need to back away.  If you drop a decoy and stay close, a wolf will walk back and forth and not take the decoy.  If you drop it and keep moving, when you get a certain distance away, the wolf will take it.

Edited March 29, 2021 by MrWolf

[Bean]

6 hours ago, MrWolf said:

If you drop a decoy and stay close, a wolf will walk back and forth and not take the decoy.  If you drop it and keep moving, when you get a certain distance away, the wolf will take it.

When did you last play.  Wolves haven’t picked up the decoys for over a year.  Best you can get them to do now is lose interest and bugger off.  And yes, that’s when you leave the area.  
 

my POINT was that leaving meat out on the ground is perfectly safe as nothing will disturb it with current game mechanics. 

[MrWolf]

29 minutes ago, Bean said:

When did you last play.  Wolves haven’t picked up the decoys for over a year.  Best you can get them to do now is lose interest and bugger off.  And yes, that’s when you leave the area.  
 

my POINT was that leaving meat out on the ground is perfectly safe as nothing will disturb it with current game mechanics. 

Sorry if I missed your point about leaving meat on the ground.  As for decoys, I dropped some and wolves took them just a few days ago.  It changed a year or so ago so that wolves wouldn't walk right up to a decoy at your feet, but they certainly do still take the decoys if you're not too close.

[Stinky socks]

+1 on decoys! Whenever a wolf begins to growl and walk towards me, I can drop a decoy and walk back. He will take it and forget me.

If course, I can shoot a wolf or keep walking away, but if I want to lose one for good without much effort or wasting ammo, drop decoy(meat or gut) and to him, you are no longer a concern.