The Lonely Canyon

[Shi-an]

Hello friends, this is my little chronicle of a specific challenge that I thought up for myself.

 

Challenge: I have 20 days to gather what I can and get to Ash Canyon. Once the in-game journal hits Day 21, I must be in the lower area where Angler’s Den is. I am not allowed to climb any ropes or leave Ash Canyon, which means I will be confined to the area around Angler’s Den, the lower area with the fishing hut, and the ravines connecting the two.

Difficulty: Interloper

Perks: Snow walker and Cold Fusion

Starting Area: I’ve chosen Forlorn Muskeg

Other restrictions: I won’t do any fishing until I run out of other food, but will be using somewhat “cheesy” strats like harvesting meat in small portions to accelerate the levelling up of my cooking. All in the name of efficiency, of course.

 

Why this challenge: There are two main parts to this challenge. The first 20 days is a rush to gather everything and make it to Ash Canyon in time. This is one of my favourite things to do in Survival games--challenging myself to find new and inventive ways to be as fast and efficient as possible. It’s essentially speedrunning, but unlike other game genres, there’s an element of randomness which makes every run a little different.

The second part is seeing how long I can last with only minimal time to set up. I think it’s fairly evident that on Interloper you can live pretty much indefinitely if you can traverse the whole map, but what about if you’re restricted to a small area? I am curious to see how long I can last, and again being as efficient as possible comes into play here.

Once I’m set up, this also gives me a nice little save that I can play to wind down after a long day.

 

Why Ash Canyon?: I’ve actually tried this challenge many times, but starting in Ash Canyon and ending up in Mystery Lake. However in the last run I did, I realised that there was way too much cloth, wood and food (especially with fishing) in the area, and furthermore Mystery Lake is so common to base in, it didn’t feel like a proper challenge.

I was just starting to realise this, when The Far Territory was announced, along with the non-compatibility of previous saves. I therefore decided that once the DLC is released, I will start a new save with plans of restricting myself to a different area.

After some consideration, I decided that I would reverse the route I had practised many times, and end up in Ash Canyon as my final destination. Angler’s Den has a special place in my heart, because I’ve spent so much time in it in my numerous practice runs, and I am very well acquainted with the area around it.

As I will be going through Pleasant Valley and Timberwolf mountain, that also means I have to climb a rope and that limits me to 35kg. This adds another layer to the challenge because I have to think really hard about what I will bring.

 

Spawning: As this is Interloper I can’t choose my spawn, however I can exit and keep starting a new game until I get the spawn I want.

Before the DLC if I spawned near the mushrooms at Forlorn Muskeg and headed straight to Spence’s Homestead and the Bunkers, I could find matches and a Hacksaw (which meant that I had the loot table I wanted) or restart if I didn’t get the Hacksaw.

With the DLC the loot tables changed and that was no longer an option. After some test runs I decided I’d just have to take either of the Forlorn Muskeg options and head to Mystery Lake hoping for the best. Honestly it was quite fun to have my strategy thwarted, and need to try and figure things out under the new loot tables.

I also wanted to start as early in the day as possible, because the day ticks over in the journal at 12AM. This means if I start the game at 6PM I only have 6 hours before Day 2, while if I start at 6AM I have 18 hours. This is quite important when I only have until Day 21 to get set up.

 

 

[Shi-an]

Day 1 - The Beginning

 

I spawn around the centre of Forlorn Muskeg, not too far from Poacher’s Camp. I won’t be able to make the trip to Spence’s Homestead with this spawn, but in turn I’m much closer to Mystery Lake. It’s about 1AM, couldn’t ask for a better start time, although it is freezing. Let’s just hope I can find something to make a fire soon.

 

+3c warmth, which is nice as sometimes you start with +2. I make my way to Poacher’s, picking up a couple of cattails and sticks along the way. I take the coal and the flare I find and head to the Mystery Lake Camp Office.

 

I take some cold damage but it’s not too bad. It’s still night so I sleep 3 hours until morning comes.

 

I’ve found my fire source! If only it wasn’t cloudy outside... I take some time to harvest the crates and a chair, and sleep some more in the hopes that the sky clears.

 

The sky doesn’t clear, but I can’t afford to sleep any more as thirst is at 0. I could head to Trapper’s/Abandoned Lookout, but I want to travel Mystery Lake counter-clockwise to be as efficient as possible. I head out to the Lake Cabins to see if I can find some matches and something to drink. I find a decent Parka and Wool Toque--not bad at all.

 

Thanks to the clothing I found I am now gaining warmth even when outside. This is just one of the benefits of starting the world at 1AM--there’s no decrease in the world’s temperature for the first day.

 

Unfortunately the wind picks up and I am now hungry, thirsty and cold, and I haven’t found matches or a drink. I decide that I’m going to have to use a flare at the Camp Office to start my first fire.

 

After using the flare and boiling some water, it’s about 6PM. With the weather settled down, I head off for the trailers near the dam. I find some birch saplings at the grove where the rabbits spawn. I will need to come back for them later.

 

I find a bedroll at the hunter’s blind, although I don’t really need it. I make a fire and kill the nearby rabbit to cook for dinner. On the way to the trailers there are some birch saplings and a couple of wolves. I have a torch, but manage to avoid the wolves and take refuge in the trailers.

 

Huzzah! My first matches! These ones spawned in the trailer closest to the car. I finish looting, prepare some mushrooms then eat and go to sleep.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Shi-an

[Shi-an]

Day 2 - A Close Call, Heavy Hammer and Hacksaw

It’s the morning of Day 2 but I’ve already had a full day’s worth of looting and exploring. Next step is to explore the dam. I find a lot of things like food and books but nothing of immense value.

Once the dam is looted I head to the logging camps. A wolf starts tracking me straight out of the dam, but I have enough distance so believe I’ll be okay. However, as I’m nearing the camps he starts running towards me! I start sprinting, but I know he will catch up before I reach the camps. Luckily I have enough distance and stamina to light a torch while running, then turn around and use it scare him off. A very close call, and with no weapon to defend myself with!

 

I find another set of matches at the log cabins, and use the torch I lit to set up a fire and burn up some of the books I found during my looting (every fire I start increases my fire-starting skill, and books have a 80% chance of success).

I make my way to the Forestry Lookout, and find a heavy hammer. I do need it for forging, but my no.1 priority right now is a hacksaw. I also find a key, which looks like it might be for a locked case I found in the dam... I will need to remember to try it when I go there again.

 

Finally found the hacksaw! It was at the blind at the Unnamed Pond. It’s almost night and I’m out of torches so I head back to the Cabin near the potential moose spawn to sleep.

 

Day 3 - Stoning Rabbits

Day 3 begins and I’m back to pretty much full condition. I head over to Trapper’s, stoning down 4 rabbits along the way.

 

I spend some time harvesting the meat from the rabbits, then set up a fire with the mag lens because the sky clears up. I also nab the two rabbits near the potential bear spawn (luckily no bear). I harvest the meat piecemeal to increase my cooking level quickly. 

Unfortunately over the time that it takes to harvest and cook, a blizzard begins brewing. I could stay the night at Trapper’s, but I want to get back to the Camp Office and also harvest some Birch Saplings for curing. 

I pick up what I’ve gathered and head into the heavy wind at about 1PM. On the way back to the Office it becomes a full blizzard, but luckily I have some warmed teas so don’t take too much damage. 

Once I get there I spend the rest of daylight harvesting some wood and organising my items, then head out to the rabbit grove to gather those birch saplings I saw earlier. By now it's well into night, and it's time to sleep. Tomorrow I head out to the forge.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Shi-an

[Shi-an]

Day 4 - To the Forge

Day 4, and I forgot to drop the birch sapling for curing! Doh! Well, nothing can be done about it now.

 

With the Heavy Hammer and some fuel, I am ready to go to the forge for my first and only forging session. The goal is to make 2 knives and at least 12 arrowheads. My only concern is that because I got the hacksaw at Unnamed Pond, I was only able to get scrap metal from the cabin near the moose spawn, the light on the Office table, plus one I looted. I am banking on finding some metal near Spence’s Homestead, and also breaking down the metal shelf there for 4 pieces. Hopefully that will total 12 scraps.

I set up a fire to heat some teas, and advance to Firestarter level 2! I head off to Forlorn Muskeg a bit before noon.

 

The sky clears up on my way there. I also find a maple sapling, which is always nice.

 

 

I decide that since the sky is clear and the weather fine, I am going to heat up my last drink next to this deer carcass, drink it and then let the fire go out while I harvest the meat. This will give me some time to find sticks, prepare mushrooms and loot without using up valuable wood on keeping a fire going (I need to make sure the forge fire lasts long enough to craft stuff and let me sleep). If the sky is still clear I can then use the mag lens to start a fire again.

My opinion on preserving matches: When you first start playing TLD I know it feels like you should preserve matches as much as possible, but I actually think in the early-game (especially on Interloper) this is a bit of a trap.

I’m sure we’ve all had a situation where we’ve dumped all our wood onto a single fire, or wasted a whole day waiting for clear skies to use the mag lens, or something else like that, all in the name of preserving a match.

But most players end up with a surplus of matches by the mid-game, and in Interloper the world gets colder by 0.5 degrees every day, so I think that of course you shouldn’t waste matches, but you shouldn’t sacrifice time/efficiency for the sake of saving one either.

 

And after having said all that, just as I finish harvesting the meat the sky gets cloudy... Still, I was well aware that this might happen and decided to risk it anyway. Now I can spend the next hour or two doing things without having to burn any wood.

 

 

I go around to the bunkhouses, gathering sticks and finding another maple branch. Back at the Homestead there’s a Ski Jacket! Other finds include a Storm Lantern, 12 more matches (found in the backpack next to the bed) and a prybar. I put on the Ski Jacket and prepare some mushrooms.

 

I light up the forge so it can heat me up while I break down the metal shelf. I probably won’t freeze with all my clothing on, but I start the fire just in case. I now have 12 metal scraps, which is enough to forge what I need (I later find one more scrap).

 

This will be my first and last ever forging session. I will need to forge for 12 straight hours to make 2 knives and 12 arrowheads, plus I need 5-6 hours to sleep before departing, for a total of 18 hours. This is why I sacrificed a match for the sake of letting the fire burn out--the two extra hours I gained could be the difference between the fire lasting or going out.

 

Since Arrowheads take 1 hour, I can boil some water while I do it, and it will be ready when I’m done. There’s only 5-7 minutes left until it boils over though. While forging, an aurora shows up! Very pretty. The Day 5 comes around while I’m forging.

 

I want to sleep 6 hours, but I’m afraid that the weather could take a turn for the worse.  I am also going to start going for Well Fed, as I will be leaving Mystery Lake by Day 9-10, never to return again. I've stopped the starvation tactic from 4PM on Day 5, so I should have Well Fed by 4PM on Day 8.

 

After sleeping 5 hours, the weather doesn’t look too bad, so I end up forging the last 2 arrowheads and sleeping another hour. This was stupid of me, I should have forged first and then slept 6 hours so I would start with my fatigue meter as full as possible. I was indecisive and this cost me some efficiency, but it’s not the end of the run or anything--just an opportunity to reflect on what I could do better.

 

With my teas and torches ready, I set off to depart Forlorn Muskeg, never to return. I managed to get 2 knives and 14 arrowheads. There should also be two arrowheads which spawn at Angler’s Den, for a total of 16 arrowheads for the rest of the run.

I should explain here that the route I take to Ash Canyon through Pleasant Valley and Timberwolf Mountain requires several rope climbs, therefore what I can take from all other regions into Ash Canyon is essentially limited to 35kg. Obviously there are ways around this but for the sake of this challenge I like limiting myself to this number because it really makes me think about what I need to survive over the long run.

For this reason I’ve determined that while the hatchet is useful, a hacksaw and knife are more so when you consider weight, utility and what's needed to repair them. By giving up on the hatchet I’m saving on 1.75kg of weight which I can use for carrying something else. Furthermore, one of the knives will be used for carving, harvesting, opening cans etc. up until the rope climb, then I will throw it away and bring just the one with 100% durability with me to Ash Canyon.

 

I pick up sticks and cattails along the way to Mystery Lake, but I just feel so sluggish and slow. I decide that I will just drop the Heavy Hammer. I won’t ever be forging again in this world, so it’s just not worth the 2kg of weight.

I lay the hammer to rest on the edge of the ice somewhere in the Muskeg plains. Thank you and so long!

 

I find a Hacksaw by the Hunter’s Blind on the way back to Mystery Lake. I swap it for my old one, as it has higher durability.

 

Back at the office, and it’s almost midnight! I drop off my loot and decide to head to the Forestry Lookout. It’s not that cold despite it being the dead of night, so I decide I may as well take the opportunity now.

 

There wasn’t much to see up there. Literally. It was too dark and cloudy. I managed to stone 3 rabbits on the way back, and I’ll be harvesting their meat tomorrow.

 

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by Shi-an

[Admin]

Thank you for sharing!

[conanjaguar]

@Shi-an

Nice run so far . And welcome to the Forum.

[conanjaguar]

Actually, now that I think of it, your challenge kind of reminds me of the sort of thing the great and powerful @Drifter Man would attempt. I wish you luck.

[Shi-an]

23 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

@Shi-an

Nice run so far . And welcome to the Forum.

Thank you! I've actually already made it to Ash Canyon, taking screenshots and notes along the way.

Then I ran into a problem that the collision around the place where I put my main campfire in my test-run has been changed, but there's no visual indicator of this (basically the nearby tree has twice the collision size of its visual counterpart).

I think this is a bug, and thanks to it a wolf ran past my campfire (actually he couldn't see it because of the weird collision) and killed me.

I have a backup because (as we know) there have been quite a few bugs with the new DLC release. However, I'm not sure of this is the sort of bug that warrants using it. I've reported the bug to TLD and am waiting on what they say, but depending on this I may decide to start a new run. So I can't provide any updates now in case I decide to start fresh.

 

 

 

[Shi-an]

I've decided that it doesn't feel right to continue this run--although the death was technically due to a bug, it was something that was avoidable, unlike if my mag lens disappeared or there was a save corruption.

Starting anew also gives me an opportunity to improve my strategy for the first 20 days (I made quite a few horrid mistakes).

I'm already a little way into the new run and will be looking at creating a new topic for it. In the meantime here's a screenshot from the old run, of a bear who decided to greet me as soon as I opened the door at the Pleasant Valley plane. Luckily he was too fat to get inside.