No runes challenge completed, and a few tips to help!

[Smellyfries]

Greetings!

As of today, I was able to complete the "Escape The Darkwalker" challenge without using any runes (besides the final, "banishment" rune).

It is an extremely stressful challenge, and I wish to share my hardships, as well as give any tips to those who wish to complete this challenge themselves.

 

First of all, the challenge is simple: Complete the "Escape the Darkwalker" challenge without using the "Lure," "Ward," or "Dispel Fog," runes. You can still use the green campfires of course, as you didn't place or make them. This means that, whenever you aren't at a campfire, the Darkwalker is going to be chasing you down, making every decision you make, and time spent traveling to the next campfire extremely important.

Here are some small tidbits that I learned whilst playing, and some tips to help!

-Run as little as possible, you have a finite amount of Energy, as you can only sleep for about 4 hours at each campfire, if you don't make water or food. Be sure to make as much coffee as possible, and use the stims and energy drinks you have sparingly. I recommend saving your stims for late in the challenge, when you have little to no energy left, and need to rope climb to access Milton, climb out of Hush River Valley, and access Timberwolf mountain.

-Never overburden yourself, you don't want to spend extra energy when walking. This will also keep your walking speed rather quick, and start climbing rope quickly. Keeping yourself from being overburdened also helps in the next tidbit I learned.

-Even after you collect all 10 journal pages, the Darkwalker is still slower than your walking speed, even whilst exhausted (if your not overburdened.) 

Likely, the thing to end your run will be obtaining the rope to climb down the Ravine Falls and reach Bleak Inlet, as in all of my challenge runs, that rope was missing, and I needed to find one to attach to it. 

Other than that, that's all I got. This challenge gets extremely stressful once you need to get through Broken railroad and Hush River Valley, and I wish for everyone who attempts this challenge: Good Luck! It is possible!

(The map display's my route, that I poorly drew arrows upon. )

 

[hozz1235]

Congrats!

[Smellyfries]

Thank you!

[JohnLovesCoffee]

@Smellyfries

Mate, I just remembered that I found this thread months ago when I was looking for a twist to this challenge, long before actually joining the forums, and I thought "Hell, no. Too much" but ended up giving it a try and, after MANY deaths, I finally did it.

What I couldn't manage is your route, haha! Entering Bleak Inlet from the Ravine with the need of an extra rope and the DW so close... Or going up the ropes in Milton Basin after a close encounter at BR and just before the nightmare of going in and out HRV... Impossible for me. I actually did the opposite, doing HRV early on and going down to the basin, Bleak Inlet in and out from FM after BR, and the eastern regions just before going up to PV and TWM. I guess we have different black spots on the maps.

Anyway, thanks for the idea and the extra anxiety!

Cheers!

 

[Smellyfries]

On 7/26/2023 at 7:13 AM, JohnLovesCoffee said:

Anyway, thanks for the idea and the extra anxiety!

Cheers!

Awesome job! Sorry for the extra anxiety and stress this challenge brings. I really like your route, it eliminates the need for that darn rope in the transition zone, and not needing to get out of HRV super late into the Darkwalker's aggression sounds way nicer. Congrats!