Living With a Wolf Minigame

[Pencil]

Basically, survive for as long as possible in the Carter Hydro Dam on a build that is older than version 1.0, and you cannot kill Fluffy. This was originally created by the YouTuber GELtaz. I tried the challenge on Silent Hunter (the oldest version that's not alpha) and Faithful Cartographer (the newest version that still has Fluffy). It was intense. 

 

Silent Hunter Run: 

I created new saves until I spawned in front of the Carter Hydro Dam in Mystery Lake. I ran straight inside and did not pick up anything from outside (there wasn't anything to pick up outside back then anyways, though lol). 

The time is early morning. My least favorite aspect of the Silent Hunter build is the terrible lighting, and it's nearly pitch black inside this early. The light gets better in the afternoon, but not a whole lot. I light a match once inside and start grabbing as much stuff as I can before Fluffy comes upstairs. I ran straight into the room with the workbench and searched the first aid kit and all of the drawers. The first aid kit contained a bandage and antibiotics, which will be very helpful. No antiseptic, though. I got lucky with the workbench and got a flare, and also found the flare that I think is almost guaranteed to spawn. I can hear wolf footsteps below me; she's coming upstairs now. 

There's a special corner in that room that the wolf can't always reach you from, so I duck in there (it's beside one of the computer-box things) and wait. Sure enough, Fluffy strolls by and roams around the top floor for a bit. There's an opportunity for me to run out and sneak downstairs while she's in the front room, but I decide to play it safe and wait for her to go back down. 

While hiding in my corner, I take some time to forage reclaimed wood for about two hours. There is rarely any water in here, so I'll have to boil some downstairs in the fire barrel at some point. Once it sounds like the wolf is downstairs, I quickly scour the large main room. The lantern is on the shelf like normal, so I light that and search the second upstairs room. Only after searching 4 file cabinets, however, Fluffy is already heading upstairs. The hard part is that wolves not only smell, but hear you as well. The moment I walk out of my "safe zone," Fluffy turns around and starts coming back up. 

Again, back into my corner to wait for Fluffy to leave. 

And once again, I head out as soon as I see her back downstairs. I shuffle back and forth a couple more times until I search out the remaining upstairs rooms. The lockers were mostly empty; a couple had clothes, but it's warm enough in here that they won't matter. I did find plenty of rifle rounds, but no food or water; not even a pry bar. Pretty bad luck so far, hopefully there's a rifle downstairs or some food in the safe. 

I'll be taking damage from dehydration very soon; it's time to head downstairs. I'd rather scare Fluffy than Fluffy scare me, so with a flare in hand, I wait in my safe corner for her to come upstairs. It's not long before she notices me and charges into the room. This is where it gets good. 

I toss the flare at her and scare her off. In the heat of the moment, however, I get confused on where she went... It sounded like she ran behind those computers on the other side of the room, so I quickly bounced out. However, she in fact did run outside of the room, and I walked straight into a wolf struggle. No tool, just my bare hands. The weird struggle mechanics throw me off for a second, but I'm able to scare her away with 52% condition. Only losing 48% is actually not bad at all for not having a tool; the struggles were much more fatal back then. Inevitably, I am now bleeding with no antiseptic. I use the bandage and hope that the wound does not become infected later. Anyways, that's a bridge I'll cross later. It's time to chase Fluffy downstairs. 

I'm able to pass through the entire hallway downstairs without being bothered. I quickly do a circle around the entire downstairs to check for the gun and other loot, while Fluffy growls at the flare from behind. No gun, but there is a grape soda. Not much but it will give me a few extra hours to live. I'm hoping to get some food and antiseptic somewhere, but the only useful supplies I come across are some pieces of cedar wood. Literally no food... this run won't last long lol. I continue throwing the flare at Fluffy as she nears, and then continuing to search. 

Well, that's about all I'm going to get as far as supplies go. The only food and water I found in the entire upper dam was a grape soda. I'll need to make some water if I want to maximize my survive time, though. I start a fire in the fire barrel before my flare dies and throw all of my wood on. As night approaches, I boil 10 kilos of water while Fluffy watches from a distance. She eventually runs away from the fire, and later gets stuck on the stairs on the other side of the room. I go ahead and forage every bit of wood I can from the forage mechanic, and keep the fire burning until morning. Once I'm confident that Fluffy is still stuck on the stairs, I use my last flare (just to be safe) and run upstairs. I'm starving and tired at this point, and the infection risk is about 80% now. 37% condition left. I quickly open the safe and find, drum roll please... a stupid pair of boots and a box of rifle ammo. No food?? Welp, it's time to sleep off the rest of the hours I can get. After heading back into my safe zone and sleeping about 4 hours, the wound becomes infected. I can use the antibiotics to stop health loss, But I'm still starving. I sleep until I die at 1 day, 15 hours, and 43 minutes. I managed to survive 4 days in this challenge a few months ago, but that was with an MRE and some other food. This challenge on this version of TLD is too stressful for me to try again lol, we'll see if I can beat 1 day and 15 hours in Faithful Cartographer. 

 

Working on the Faithful Cartographer run right now. At least the lighting is much better and the wolves don't look terrifying, but they run much faster. Rest is a resource in this version, too, so we'll see which one is harder. 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Pencil

[conanjaguar]

Good try .

I think this challenge would be a lot more doable if you were able to go outside of the Dam, but have to spend at least 16 hours a day there or something like that…

[Pencil]

5 minutes ago, conanjaguar said:

Good try .

I think this challenge would be a lot more doable if you were able to go outside of the Dam, but have to spend at least 16 hours a day there or something like that…

Right, there's a lot of luck with whether or not you'll get food. There can be a lot of ways to do the challenge though, like what you mentioned or allowing 24 hours to gear up before entering the dam, etc. You can also do the challenge in Scruffy's cave in Desolation Point, which has deer carcasses. Less luck and more skill there, but super dark...

[ManicManiac]

@Pencil

You could even kind of do that now with Fluffy in the Break Inlet Cannery Workshop... if one were so inclined.
Could also be done in the cave with Scruffy over on Desolation Point.  

[Pencil]

1 minute ago, ManicManiac said:

@Pencil

You could even kind of do that now with Fluffy in the Break Inlet Cannery Workshop... if one were so inclined.
Could also be done in the cave with Scruffy over on Desolation Point.  

Oh right, I completely forgot about the Bleak Inlet Cannery. That one would be really hard... but worth a shot 

[ManicManiac]

@Pencil

It can be done.  I recently finished a mini challenge in my current run.  It was a Weaponless Stealth run of Bleak Inlet.  I'd managed to never get spotted by the Timberwolves (even through the Cannery Rush)... and then to top it off, used a single flare to search the Workshop without either Fluffy or myself coming to harm.  

You're right... it was tough, but it can be done. 

If interested:
...Memory Lane...
[Weaponless Sealth run - Bleak Inlet]
Starts on page 18... concludes on page 21

Edited November 13, 2023 by ManicManiac

[ManicManiac]

@Pencil
To be fair, of course, my mini challenge isn't the same as actually living with Fluffy in the workshop... but being able to occupy the space with her for even a short time means it's at least possible.  I suppose all one would need are many flares and/or torches, and the will to keep the fires burning (so to speak).  This is a wonderful chronicle of what you've achieved so far.

Keep it up.   

Edited November 14, 2023 by ManicManiac

[Pencil]

Faithful Cartographer Run: 

This ended up being a lot easier than Silent Hunter, perhaps unfortunately... the lighting in the dam was much brighter, torches were a thing, and the wolf didn't stalk me near as much as the Silent Hunter one did. But nevertheless, here is how the run went: 

I made it into the dam early in the morning, similar to the silent hunter run. I light a match and make my way to the same safe zone in the corner, although I have no idea if it works in Faithful Cartographer or not. After passing time until it's bright enough to see, I glance out the window to see where the wolf is down below. She's minding her own business down there, so I loot the room with the workbench. There's a lantern, a book, a flare, and the first aid kit has an emergency stim; completely forgot that there was a chance for one of these. Actually, there were two of them in the dam total. I can't believe I forgot to use them, I could have added several more hours to my final time. 

Then back to the window to see if the wolf is still down there. It sounds like she's coming up, so I stay put in my little corner for a minute. First I hear her coming closer from the left, with the sounds slowly shifting to the right of me. She must be coming down the hallway; however, a minute later I can hear her back down in the large lower room. She never came upstairs, which was strange. I take this time to loot more rooms and eventually loot the entire upstairs without seeing Fluffy come up once. 

Well, that was sort of anticlimactic. But I'm getting thirsty and there was no food or water upstairs. Time to check downstairs. I light a flare and sprint through the hallway, hoping Fluffy doesn't come around the corner before I get down there. Fortunately she doesn't. 

First I check up the first set of stairs beside the fire barrel. For some reason, Fluffy doesn't seem to be down here. I can't see her from above the stairs. I managed to find an MRE and tomato soup up here, which is incredible compared to last run. 

Once I was finished grabbing those, I see Fluffy come out of the hallway doorway. Must have gone in there as soon as I came through, that was close haha. I scare her away with the flare and check up the second stairs. 

And woohoo, I found a hatchet! That'll be very helpful since I need to manually forage wood here as opposed to the automatic foraging in Silent Hunter. I grab that and hop down from between the railing and land on the fire barrel. Just to be safe, I like being on top of the fire barrel so I know Fluffy can't reach me. I don't have much to burn right now (just some books and the cedar firewood that's always up the first set of stairs) but I need water. I'm able to boil 4 liters with the firewood I have. 

Night is coming, time to head back upstairs. Fluffy has been in a cycle of growling and running away while I do my cooking. Before the fire dies, I take a torch and make my way back upstairs. Fluffy is unable to follow me up because of the fire barrel still smoldering, so I have plenty of time to open the safe. And what do you know, there's nothing in the safe. One MRE and a can of tomato soup will have to do. Although I could have starved myself one night and ate afterwards to gain some time, I decided to simply eat all of my food and wait out the rest of the run. However, I'll be out of water before then so I'll need another fire. 

After sleeping through the night, it's time to gather wood. Fluffy is still downstairs, and for some reason, she never comes up to bother me. That was a little disappointing but it is what it is. I tear down all of the crates in the main room upstairs with my hatchet and use my last flare to get back downstairs. Then, simply, I boil as much water as possible (I think over 10 liters) and head back upstairs to sleep for the rest of the run. Fluffy is no threat from behind the fire, and this will be the last time I see her. Back upstairs to sleep another 12 hours. 

Rest is not a resource in Silent Hunter, which allows you to sleep for as long as you want regardless of your fatigue. In Faithful Cartographer, you can only sleep when you are tired. So I do have to pass time about 12 hours before starvation kicks in. This eventually limits my fatigue meter, which allows me to sleep for however long I want (since the meter will never be full). So I continually sleep 11 hours, drink water, and repeat. 

5 days, 14 hours. Best run yet, and I probably could have made it to 6 days if I remembered those emergency stims. This one was rather boring though since I never really had to deal with Fluffy at all. Maybe Scruffy's cave will be more challenging... I might do that next. 

[Pencil]

17 hours ago, ManicManiac said:

@Pencil
To be fair, of course, my mini challenge isn't the same as actually living with Fluffy in the workshop... but being able to occupy the space with her for even a short time means it's at least possible.  I suppose all one would need are many flares and/or torches, and the will to keep the fires burning (so to speak).  This is a wonderful chronicle of what you've achieved so far.

Keep it up.   

It sounded like a great challenge! But there seems to be a problem. I tried it out as a test to see if it was possible and I'm not sure if it is. It was very thrilling up until things went wrong, though.

I used the developer console mod to fly into the cannery and get into the door without the code or an aurora, so I start in there with nothing. The wolf is there, but if I try sleeping for any amount of time, the wolf just despawns. It will come back when I reload the save, but it will be gone when I sleep again. I'll try the Scruffy and Sketchy caves to see if they will work or not.

[ManicManiac]

4 minutes ago, Pencil said:

but if I try sleeping for any amount of time, the wolf just despawns.

Oh, I see... I would not have expected that.
That's some good science.

Edited November 14, 2023 by ManicManiac