What will kill you on a very long run ?

[Le_Survivant]

Elloco999 is right. Now the lack of metal supply wont kill you, but being unable to start a fire will kill you with the food poisoning, since there is a way to live off the land with fish and rabbits. The lighter cannot be repair so no more fire once it broked. I just wonder about the flint ? How many fire could we start with ? Can we repair it ? It may be like the firestriker.

Maybe eating good quality raw food is an option ? If so, life can last very long... Only the lack of water will be a real issue, but anticipation is the key.

[ridankrad]

One can feasibly live forever, although it won't be easy. As Elloco mentioned, torches allow a player to scare wolves away from deers they kill. A fire can be used to prevent the carcass from freezing and from attack by wolves while harvesting meat. As long as the carcass isn't frozen, meat may be harvested by hand. Finally, fire is renewable using renewable sticks that can be gathered in abundance in areas like the Trapper's Homestead and the magnifying glass which never deteriorates.

So using the above, one has a renewable source of both potable water and high calorie food. The biggest weakness, long term, is that eventually the only source of fire is the magnifying glass which relies on clear days to make a fire. It can be difficult at times to find a deer brought down by a wolf at the same time that one may also create a fire with the magnifying glass. However, I have found that Trapper's is well suited for this strategy because one wolf and one deer regularly spawn close by Trapper's, which allows the player to easily harvest meat and immediately retreat indoors (and, as I mentioned above, it's also next to a lot of safe spawning points for sticks so that fire making materials are always in abundance). There is also an area to trap rabbits nearby which can supplement the food supply as needed (guts are also renewable from both deer and rabbits themselves, and just require an ample stockpile to allow for occasional repairs to ruined traps).

Besides fire, the other weakness long term is that there is no renewable means to repair clothing. If one stockpiles scrap metal it can be used with guts to create fishing line which can repair clothing, but the metal will of course eventually run out, at which point it is just a matter of time before the clothing all degrades and the player is thereafter forced to go outside completely naked which makes cold a greater concern. I think this can still be mitigated using fire and a base like Trapper's which is very close to the source of food, but it certainly does represent an additional pressure to be able to reliably create fires.

In sum, I think a player could potentially last indefinitely but after clothing wears out, the player wouldn't even be able to effectively explore anymore and would be basically stuck taking scraps from wolf kills or trapping rabbits and sleeping/making water/cooking meat/collecting sticks/contemplating life the remainder of the time. An indefinite, but not very fun existence. So I'd say at this point boredom would kill you.

[signal]

I don't understand your strategy signal. Do you really eat 1 piece of meat everyday ? With the hibernation system it is possible to live about 3 days with a single piece of meat, so you could do it way better if your goal were only to go with the leader board ?

I'm not playing the "hibernation" system to exploit it. I play the way I believe is realistic given the end game we have. 800 calories is plenty if I am in bed 23 hours a day. If I plan to go out hunting I will also eat breakfast (so I don't go out while starving). My schedule is 5 days of sleep, 1 day of hunting / gathering, 1 day of cooking.

My calculations show that the ammo should last at least 3000 days (I am on day 520 right now). My matches ran out a while ago and I switched to the magnifying glass. You can start the fire outside, grab a torch, and use that to light the indoor stove.

Regarding metal:

Do you guys think it's worth it to keep repairing the knife, or save the metal bits for fishing hooks (to repair clothing)? Each scrap metal repairs knife by 35%, and each 8kg deer wears the knife out by 2%, so 1 scrap meta = 140kg = 140 days. There are maybe 5 knives that you can find, plus crowbars and lanterns that you can harvest, so I think there may be about 40 pieces of metal total. I'm definitely going to ditch the ax when it breaks, but a knife makes harvesting meat so much faster.

For clothing, I think if you just keep 2 or 3 pieces of clothing, the sewing kits and fishing hooks you find lying around will last for many years. The crafted coat and boots are really sturdy. But then again I stay naked as much as possible. For efficiency!

[trev186]

Been reading this thread and it is very interesting.

Thought I would pose a suggestion no one else has mentioned:

Cat Tail Plants...they never spoil, are very light, provide tinder, and can be eaten

Like sticks and branches they respawn. Walking around the rivers and lakes in PV, ML and the ML/PV transition dam/cave area.

If you setup a route with several bases at various way points in these areas you could follow the respawns every few days and harvest the plants for food. In the meanwhile you could also harvest or kill any game you find.

Not sure if the plants alone could provide all the cals needed but in theory if the right route was found u could survive without the need to eat anything else then u would only need to worry about water.

pair that with gathering other editable herbs such as rose hips and mushrooms in the same trip and u could survive vegan for quite some time as the medicinal beverages also provide cals.

[signal]

I'm pretty sure the plants never respawn. Did they change this?

[jesterdesu]

You need to kill the occasional wolf if you want to repair your coat. With no metal/ saplings left for arrows the only way to do that is to wrestle him a couple of times... Obviously works best near home. You should also be naked to avoid clothing damage.

Naked wolf wrestling... Alpha games are fun!

[jesterdesu]

You need to kill the occasional wolf if you want to repair your coat. With no metal/ saplings left for arrows the only way to do that is to wrestle him a couple of times... Obviously works best near home. You should also be naked to avoid clothing damage.

Naked wolf wrestling... Alpha games are fun!

[jesterdesu]

You need to kill the occasional wolf if you want to repair your coat. With no metal/ saplings left for arrows the only way to do that is to wrestle him a couple of times... Obviously works best near home. You should also be naked to avoid clothing damage.

Naked wolf wrestling... Alpha games are fun!

[jesterdesu]

You need to kill the occasional wolf if you want to repair your coat. With no metal/ saplings left for arrows the only way to do that is to wrestle him a couple of times... Obviously works best near home. You should also be naked to avoid clothing damage.

Naked wolf wrestling... Alpha games are fun!

[jesterdesu]

You need to kill the occasional wolf if you want to repair your coat. With no metal/ saplings left for arrows the only way to do that is to wrestle him a couple of times... Obviously works best near home. You should also be naked to avoid clothing damage.

Naked wolf wrestling... Alpha games are fun!

[jesterdesu]

You need to kill the occasional wolf if you want to repair your coat. With no metal/ saplings left for arrows the only way to do that is to wrestle him a couple of times... Obviously works best near home. You should also be naked to avoid clothing damage.

Naked wolf wrestling... Alpha games are fun!

[jesterdesu]

Wow please remove those duplicate posts... Phone appeared to have a mishap.

[selfless]

Plants do not respawn. Sometimes new plants have appeared when maps were updated.

This is not intentional.

[bethany]

I'm pretty sure the plants never respawn. Did they change this?

No, plant life still does not respawn.

[jesterdesu]

Which seems fair when considered of it would grow annually. That said an annual cycle could work in this game.

[FrozenLiquidity]

Which seems fair when considered of it would grow annually. That said an annual cycle could work in this game.

Not sure that there will be much growing of anything with the conditions we see in game, that said if things did "grow back" once a year that seems like it would be reasonable.

[SteveP]

we are seeing games that last well over 100 days so conceivably some things could become available. The map is finite; the real wilderness is huge. In real life, you'd have more opportunity to scavenge new areas.

[Thurman Merman]

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. Recently took an ill-advised shot at a bear and ended my 113 day run. So, I started over with the plan to go as long as possible. I started in DP, crafted the clothes and about 30 arrowheads. Moved EVERYTHING on that map to the basement in Crumbling Highway. Then went through Coastal Highway without touching any loot (but, I did kill a few wolves, deer and rabbits and left their hides and guts, as well as a hatchet, 2xsaw, knife, 3xcrowbar, rifle with 10 rounds, all my scrap metal, bow makings, and several arrows, 10l of H2O and about 24 pieces of wood in the Quonset) before heading to PV. Now, I'm working on just surviving here as long as possible. I'm on day 60 or so. Figure I can easily do another 250 here (or even double that if I'm careful).

I'm slowly moving all the non degrading loot up to Rural Crossroads (closest structure to the CH mine transition). When I get down to about 10 matches left (not going to touch my striker), I'm gonna decamp for ML. Figure I can live there for at least 250-500 as well. Once I run out of matches there, I'm gonna head over to Coastal HW, retrieve my cloth, scrap and other non-perishables from PV's Rural Crossroads, then grind it out in CH's Quonset. By then, I should be well north of 750 days - and won't have touched any of the loot in CH (which seems to have the most). You can usually gather wood nearby and get a wolf+deer combo on the lake only a few steps away; also it has reasonable weather there, so I can use the magnifying lens with regularity.

My initial concerns were arrows and ammo (but I now have around 35 arrow heads, about 30 shafts, another 6-8 birch saplings, and around 35 rifle rounds), cloth (have about 100 in Rural Crossroads now), scrap metal (left about 20 in the Quonset and have another 25 or so in PV - and haven't started cutting things up yet) and, of course, matches (there are at least 100 laying around PV untouched, not to mention ML and CH, and of course, I have a magnifying glass). Will be interested to see how it goes; don't think I can see myself grinding on past 1000 days - boredom will probably get me.

It does seem that scrap is gonna be my limiting factor. Once that last hatchet goes, things are gonna get rough. Hopefully, my strategy of staying clear of CH until the endgame will help cover any wasteful errors I make early on - there's a lot of matches and metal on that map.

[DoctorKajita]

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. Recently took an ill-advised shot at a bear and ended my 113 day run. So, I started over with the plan to go as long as possible. I started in DP, crafted the clothes and about 30 arrowheads. Moved EVERYTHING on that map to the basement in Crumbling Highway. Then went through Coastal Highway without touching any loot (but, I did kill a few wolves, deer and rabbits and left their hides and guts, as well as a hatchet, 2xsaw, knife, 3xcrowbar, rifle with 10 rounds, all my scrap metal, bow makings, and several arrows, 10l of H2O and about 24 pieces of wood in the Quonset) before heading to PV. Now, I'm working on just surviving here as long as possible. I'm on day 60 or so. Figure I can easily do another 250 here (or even double that if I'm careful).

I'm slowly moving all the non degrading loot up to Rural Crossroads (closest structure to the CH mine transition). When I get down to about 10 matches left (not going to touch my striker), I'm gonna decamp for ML. Figure I can live there for at least 250-500 as well. Once I run out of matches there, I'm gonna head over to Coastal HW, retrieve my cloth, scrap and other non-perishables from PV's Rural Crossroads, then grind it out in CH's Quonset. By then, I should be well north of 750 days - and won't have touched any of the loot in CH (which seems to have the most). You can usually gather wood nearby and get a wolf+deer combo on the lake only a few steps away; also it has reasonable weather there, so I can use the magnifying lens with regularity.

My initial concerns were arrows and ammo (but I now have around 35 arrow heads, about 30 shafts, another 6-8 birch saplings, and around 35 rifle rounds), cloth (have about 100 in Rural Crossroads now), scrap metal (left about 20 in the Quonset and have another 25 or so in PV - and haven't started cutting things up yet) and, of course, matches (there are at least 100 laying around PV untouched, not to mention ML and CH, and of course, I have a magnifying glass). Will be interested to see how it goes; don't think I can see myself grinding on past 1000 days - boredom will probably get me.

It does seem that scrap is gonna be my limiting factor. Once that last hatchet goes, things are gonna get rough. Hopefully, my strategy of staying clear of CH until the endgame will help cover any wasteful errors I make early on - there's a lot of matches and metal on that map.

May the Force be with you. :geek:

[London]

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. Recently took an ill-advised shot at a bear and ended my 113 day run. So, I started over with the plan to go as long as possible. I started in DP, crafted the clothes and about 30 arrowheads. Moved EVERYTHING on that map to the basement in Crumbling Highway. Then went through Coastal Highway without touching any loot (but, I did kill a few wolves, deer and rabbits and left their hides and guts, as well as a hatchet, 2xsaw, knife, 3xcrowbar, rifle with 10 rounds, all my scrap metal, bow makings, and several arrows, 10l of H2O and about 24 pieces of wood in the Quonset) before heading to PV. Now, I'm working on just surviving here as long as possible. I'm on day 60 or so. Figure I can easily do another 250 here (or even double that if I'm careful).

I'm slowly moving all the non degrading loot up to Rural Crossroads (closest structure to the CH mine transition). When I get down to about 10 matches left (not going to touch my striker), I'm gonna decamp for ML. Figure I can live there for at least 250-500 as well. Once I run out of matches there, I'm gonna head over to Coastal HW, retrieve my cloth, scrap and other non-perishables from PV's Rural Crossroads, then grind it out in CH's Quonset. By then, I should be well north of 750 days - and won't have touched any of the loot in CH (which seems to have the most). You can usually gather wood nearby and get a wolf+deer combo on the lake only a few steps away; also it has reasonable weather there, so I can use the magnifying lens with regularity.

My initial concerns were arrows and ammo (but I now have around 35 arrow heads, about 30 shafts, another 6-8 birch saplings, and around 35 rifle rounds), cloth (have about 100 in Rural Crossroads now), scrap metal (left about 20 in the Quonset and have another 25 or so in PV - and haven't started cutting things up yet) and, of course, matches (there are at least 100 laying around PV untouched, not to mention ML and CH, and of course, I have a magnifying glass). Will be interested to see how it goes; don't think I can see myself grinding on past 1000 days - boredom will probably get me.

It does seem that scrap is gonna be my limiting factor. Once that last hatchet goes, things are gonna get rough. Hopefully, my strategy of staying clear of CH until the endgame will help cover any wasteful errors I make early on - there's a lot of matches and metal on that map.

Godspeed to you. I hope everything pans out with your plan.

Usually feeling like I'm doing well kills me. I get sloppy and run out of something get tough and decide to punch a bear with one bullet.

[elloco999]

It does seem that scrap is gonna be my limiting factor. Once that last hatchet goes, things are gonna get rough. Hopefully, my strategy of staying clear of CH until the endgame will help cover any wasteful errors I make early on - there's a lot of matches and metal on that map.

You don't need a hatchet at all. Just pick up sticks instead of cutting up limbs.

You can also get a huge amount of scrap metal using the hacksaw. Just the Dam will give you a good amount.

The thing most likely to kill you has always been the lack of ways to get a fire started after all consumable fire starting methods have run out, if you're not lucky enough to find the magnifying glass. Now that it is possible to harvest cloth and scrap metal from the environment, this is even more true.

[ungoliant]

Thought I'd add in this thread whats going on with the current meta. Take it from me, THE limiting factor of the most advanced runs currently is Antibiotics, full stop.

Scrap metal is unbelievably abundant with the hacksaw, arrowheads are self-replenishing. If there is a limiting factor for ammo, it is birch saplings. This shouldn't even be a problem either if you follow this simple tip: when you are making your hunting runs, go for the wolf/deer combo, but miss the wolf on purpose with an arrow to scare it off. missed shots use up ~2-5% arrow durability with a 0% chance of the animal running off with your arrow. Thus, 1 arrow = 20 ammo in the worst case scenario, up to 50. With the new food poisoning mechanics in place, a single harvested deer should last until you need to throw out the rest due to foodpoisoning risk (25% durability-ish). almost all your 5000 scrap metal you find/harvest can be applied to hatchet/knife, a couple into rifle maybe.

For 500+ day runs you should already have a set of daily routines laid out to cycle through, and none of those routines should involve going to areas where you might end up tanking wolves with your body, unless you are on a matchbook expedition, and those should be few and far between. Antiseptic/OMB should never run out unless you are playing poorly.

Cloth: you will never run out unless you are doing something wrong. seriously. chairs, bedrolls, curtains, various clothing articles. You can collect hundreds. you'd never be able to use all of these.

edit: do not repair cloth based items, except for maybe a heavy wool sweater or something. keep 1 or 2 high value cloth items tops, and junk the rest when they run out of durability.

In regards to fire, matchbooks in the world do not lose durability if you don't touch them or find them in containers. do not loot containers if you have an active book of matches. As an example of this in action, my current 850 day stalker run I have not yet left PV at all, and there are still 2 matchbooks left to pickup in PV, all containers looted. Now factor in matchbooks in all other zones yet to find. More matches than you will ever need. Also, if you still screw it up, there should be a guaranteed Mag Glass spawn in DP, possibly others.

So, about those antibiotics. I've seen food poisoning at meat durability up to something like 70% condition. So getting food poisoning from time to time is completely unavoidable. Mushrooms found in PV zone are something in the neighborhood of 40-50, yielding something less than 16 cups of tea. new bottles of antibiotics yield 6 uses. You must risk foodpoisoning a minimum of once every ~4 days. Using a 1000 day run as example, you will encounter a bare minimum 250 foodpoisoning dicerolls, likely higher than that by a fair margin. your food will not be at 100% condition every time you eat.

My personal best practice when contracting food poisoning right now is once you get it, eat all your other food below 25% durability up to 2500 calories BEFORE treating the foodpoisoning. After all, you can't get double foodpoisoning now can you? in this fashion you can get at least SOME value from low durability foods with 0% risk of more foodpoisoning, and it will speed your recovery back to 100% condition after the required 10 hours of sleep as well. foodpoisoning requires a lot of food to recover from, so you might as well tank all that garbage meat once you contract it.

I tend to throw away foodproducts once they are below 25% unless to keep it around to eat after contracting food poisoning.

edit: if you use all your resources adequately you should still have enough of everything to last 6000+ days at a bare minimum, including antibiotics. probably more if you shift to fishing instead of hunting when antibiotics start running lowish. So the real limiting factor to how long you can last is boredom. I'd love to make an attempt at this right now, but I've been informed that its very likely that all savegame data will be wiped once story mode is released, so whats the point of even making the attempt right now?

[London]

It does seem that scrap is gonna be my limiting factor. Once that last hatchet goes, things are gonna get rough. Hopefully, my strategy of staying clear of CH until the endgame will help cover any wasteful errors I make early on - there's a lot of matches and metal on that map.

You don't need a hatchet at all. Just pick up sticks instead of cutting up limbs.

You can also get a huge amount of scrap metal using the hacksaw. Just the Dam will give you a good amount.

The thing most likely to kill you has always been the lack of ways to get a fire started after all consumable fire starting methods have run out, if you're not lucky enough to find the magnifying glass. Now that it is possible to harvest cloth and scrap metal from the environment, this is even more true.

I don't know, I'd say a hatchet could become a necessity. I don't want to carry around 500 sticks just to keep my fire going for a reasonable amount of time. Plus there's always the possibility that you don't have to go outside in a blizzard for sticks if you have a hatchet to break down a crate or chair.

[elloco999]

Thought I'd add in this thread whats going on with the current meta. Take it from me, THE limiting factor of the most advanced runs currently is Antibiotics, full stop.

You can heal food poisoning with rest only, it will just take a lot more time. So you don't need antibiotics but they do make life much easier.

When I'm going for a really long run I don't use antibiotics to cure food poisoning when I have enough food and water to last me till it cures by itself. Having to go out to find food while you have food poisoning is not a good idea as your condition will drop to 15% (or was it 10) so any encounter with a wolf would probably be the end of you.

In regards to fire, matchbooks in the world do not lose durability if you don't touch them or find them in containers.

Items start to degrade when you find them in a container even if you put them back. Items that you find lying on a table or something like that will not start degrading until you click on them. But it's true, there are a lot of matches and if you don't loot containers when you don't have to and don't pick up any matches you don't need they will last you a long time.

So the real limiting factor to how long you can last is boredom.

I have to agree with you on that.

But the original question was:

I just would like to know what would or will kill you on a very long run if you are not killed by your own mistakes or stupidity

And quiting or killing yourself out of boredom (or becoming reckless out of boredom) would qualify as your own mistakes or stupidity in my humble opinion.

I don't know, I'd say a hatchet could become a necessity. I don't want to carry around 500 sticks just to keep my fire going for a reasonable amount of time. Plus there's always the possibility that you don't have to go outside in a blizzard for sticks if you have a hatchet to break down a crate or chair.

Well, 58 hours (=500 sticks) is by no means a reasonable amount of time if you ask me I'm not saying a hatchet would not make things easier but you can live without one. Not having a hatchet would not kill you.

Last time I checked I was on day 135 of my current stalker run and I have burned 10 cedar logs max and no fir logs at all. So it's certainly possible to survive without logs to burn. For the first 115 days or so I was based at Trapper's before I left for CH. When I left I had around 1500 sticks, mostly piled in 100 stick piles outside. (I plan to go back there ) Whenever I'm outside, I pick up every stick I find (as long as it's safe to do so) and I use those for my fires. Are logs more convenient? Yes they are and carrying a log or 2 for starting an emergency fire is a smart thing to do. But you can easily do without them.

[ungoliant]

You can heal food poisoning with rest only, it will just take a lot more time. So you don't need antibiotics but they do make life much easier.

didn't know that. might have to experiment. water should never be an issue, just food supply, and of course food poisoning is most likely when food supply is at its lowest. also sleeping 12 hours with 720 calories in you will get you up to 30%-35% even with food poisoning, but that may have been influenced by taking meds and getting a bonus from the last 2 hours of the 12 hour sleep session with calories inside me.

Items start to degrade when you find them in a container even if you put them back. Items that you find lying on a table or something like that will not start degrading until you click on them. But it's true, there are a lot of matches and if you don't loot containers when you don't have to and don't pick up any matches you don't need they will last you a long time.

yea, thats exactly what i was saying. sorry if i didn't state that clearly.