ajb1978

I mean you can just walk away from wolves, so it's a similar concept. Just that if you don't notice them first, they can be on you before you have chance to react. If you do spot them first, you can just walk away from them too. With the added requirement that you have to periodically look back to remind them that you know they're there. Otherwise they'll eventually go into a silent attack charge from behind.

I liked that one Forest Talker who refused to meet with you face to face in story mode episode 2. You conduct your deal through a closed door. I wouldn't mind a survivor mode NPC of that ilk. Someone you can trade and barter with, but you never actually meet face to face. He or she would task you with bringing them certain supplies, and 24 hours later the agreed upon payment is left outside. It would be a nice way to provide a plausible means to renew any resource, even things like MREs or emergency stims or whatever. Stuff that doesn't show up via beachcombing.

Using a ward before you sleep is actually a waste of paint, as they burn out in game-time. The Darkwalker moves in real time, so once you go to sleep the ward would only prevent him from getting close for a couple real-time seconds tops. The best use of a ward is if he gets close to you, put a ward on the ground at your feet, then move away from it. It'll buy you some time to get some distance from it. A good trick to cover tremendous distances at once is to drop a ward to stall the Darkwalker, sprint away until your stamina is depleted, then pass time and esc-cancel almost immediately. Your stamina is now full. Sprint again. Repeat until you're as far away as you can get without taking a detour, sleep to recover your Fatigue, then drop a lure and you've got tons of time to piddle around the map looting or looking for bunkers while the Darkwalker heads to the lure.

I wouldn't mind a mountain lion, and the behavior I would suggest is similar to the weeping angels in doctor who. They stalk you silently with no warning, and while your back is turned they advance slightly faster than your unencumbered walk speed. If they get close enough (wolf attack distance) without you noticing, they attack from behind. This initiates a penalized struggle, in which you have only your bare hands. If you happen to see one however, you can turn and face them. As long as you're looking at them, they freeze in place. This allows you to back away, and if you get far enough without looking, they disengage. But once you first notice them, if you turn away to see where you're heading, they sprint towards you at breakneck speed. When you turn back to face them, they freeze in their new position. If you charge a mountain lion, there is a strong chance they will flee. But if the dice don't roll in your favor, you'll face a struggle similar to a regular wolf struggle. You pick your weapon, etc. Aiming a weapon causes the mountain lion to flee 100% of the time. Basically they're an ambush predator. If they get the drop on you, you're effed. But if you're vigilant, you can keep them at bay with minimal effort.

Running each region until the fog had already appeared, and in several cases remaining on the deadly side of an area transition until I was nearly dead (to buy a little bit of extra time), then crossing over to safe territory and sleeping off the damage. The trick there is knowing what transition zones are linked to. For instance, the cave linking Crumbling Highway to Desolation Point counts as part of Crumbling Highway. So if you run the DP clock to zero, the moment you enter that cave you're no longer in toxic fog. Similarly, Cinder Hills Coal Mine is part of Coastal Highway, so if you're in PV you can hang out outside the mine entrance until the fog arrives and have clean air simply by entering the mine. Another thing you have to plan on is your food being destroyed. Cross into safe territory, drop all your food, then cross back before you wait out the clock. Of course, you also have to plan your trips so that you avoid the Darkwalker while waiting just outside the entrance. It requires a very strong knowledge of the maps as you have to lure the darkwalker away from the area transition when there's only minutes to spare, and the fog is at its thickest. My first attempt I gathered all 10 pages and only lasted about 5 hours, but I learned a lot. My second attempt I deliberately waited until the fog appeared to see if it was an insta-kill, or if I had time. Turns out, I had time, and I exploited the crap out of that fact. (Also interesting fact, the basement of the Abandoned Harris Home in Crumbling Highway shares a timer with Coastal Highway, not Crumbling Highway. A clever survivor can exploit this.)

The funny part is that line used to pop up even if you picked up a stick off the ground. And I immediately imagined some half naked, crazed lunatic comes bounding over a nearby hill, yelling "That's my stick! MY STICK!! YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY STICK!"

8:14 is my best time. Not sure if I can do better because that's a heck of a time commitment and I don't see myself doing that again.

You're not wrong. Initially this isn't viable, but once you're established you can absolutely survive on fishing and trapping alone. Supplementing that with cloth and metal sourced from beachcombing, you can be set literally forever. I've done the math, and it is literally impossible to run out of resources, provided you manage them properly and take advantage of the renewable options.

Starvation. Seriously, dying from starvation is easily the single most preventable cause of death ever. There are entire survival strategies that revolve around starvation as an exploit. So if you die from starvation, you REALLY messed up.

You guys should set up a gofundme for a liquor cabinet. I've worked help desk/tech support/apologizing for things that aren't your problem, and aren't even a problem at all. Y'all need a stiff drink.

It's not a bad idea to have a revolver plus ammo for wolf maintenance. Even if all you use it for is a noisemaker to scare them away. A flare gun is a viable alternative, but the ammo is significantly heavier. I advise a loaded revolver plus at least a couple dozen backup rounds, and a flare pistol with no more than 3 backup flare shells for emergency bear/moose management. It's doubtful you'll encounter more than 3 bears/moose during the DW event. (In my 8.25 hour run I needed to use the flare gun 3 times, and I was playing very aggressively, so I figure 3+1 in the chamber is good for all situations.)

Ahh, well that's defendable but I wouldn't call that a hamburger. I like to buy ground chicken from the grocery store, form a patty with that plus crumbled cooked bacon, and fry that up. Then serve on sourdough with lettuce, onion, tomato, and ranch dressing. I call it the CBR burger. (chicken/bacon/ranch) So yeah, it's a "burger". But not a "hamburger"!

...seriously? I mean I haven't ate at a KFC in like 5 years but that seems far-fetched.

I'm not sure you understand what TLD is all about. Complaining about a lack of multiplayer in TLD is like complaining that KFC doesn't sell hamburgers.

Gave this one my all. Even toughed out the toxic fog until I was nearly dead on several occasions, just to squeeze another minute or two out.

So...anyone else notice that the basement at Crumbling Highway shares a toxic fog percentage with Coastal Highway?

I think it's perfect. The Darkwalker is pretty easy to avoid normally, and giving it an edge in enclosed spaces kind of makes up for it. Really all it does is prevent you from camping in one place for too long, which was where 4DON fell short. You could use the first day to stock up, then just ride out the last 3 with no effort. So people who missed Day 1 were playing at a handicap.

The Darkwalker doesn't teleport, and there aren't more than one. It can clip through walls, ignores differences in elevation, and always moves towards you in a straight line. So if you're zig-zagging, taking corners, climbing up and down, etc. it's just coming at you straight the whole time, relentlessly closing the distance. Once you're out in the open you can outrun it very easily, but it has the advantage when your movement is restricted by terrain. So things like caves, while you have to follow the contours of the cave, it can come straight at you ignoring walls and climbing spots. That can make it seem like there's more than one, because you can be getting closer to it no matter which direction you're going. But that doesn't necessarily mean you're heading directly towards it. You can also drop a lure to get it to start moving to that spot, while you keep going.

Well the Darkwalker is immune to weapons fire. Kind of saw that coming though, so next time around I won't bother lugging that rifle with me. I decided not to give it the satisfaction of getting me though, so I returned to Mountain Town. I got a nice warm fire going at the church, ate and drank my last meal, then painted a ward and sat back to wait for the end. Unfortunately the "game over" screen still says I was devoured. It was interesting the way all the food I had on me instantly dropped to Ruined when the final 60 seconds were ticking down. Sure glad I didn't push my luck earlier in the game. I think I'll hit this one more time, and use what I've learned to try for the maximum possible time survived. I managed 5 hours 33 minutes this time.

BAM! Ended my world tour in Hushed River Valley. I never used the fog glyph either, but if I'm interpreting this correctly it will dispel the fog and clear things up. So my plan is to lure the Darkwalker up to Monolith Lake, dispel the fog, then have a showdown. Rifle, revolver, and flare gun. If none of that does the trick, oh well. Can't say I didn't try.

Nope--single play-through. I just unlocked it and the feat it grants says "You've collected 6 Escape the Darkwalker Diary Pages in a single game." Edit: Incidentally, I think the quality of the rewards you find at the campsite goes up depending on how many you've found. The one I just found had a large trunk next to it containing a bearskin bedroll. The one before it had a moosehide satchel. I have 3 more regions to go before I've nailed the entire world in one pass, so it'll be interesting to see what's in those.

Prevents you from sleeping or passing time (including to cook food) while in effect. It also causes you to get a sort of tunnel vision, and start muttering things like "this is like something out of a horror movie".

So, fun fact, simply being NEAR the Darkwalker (within 50m) causes your health to drain insanely fast. I had to pull some fancy parkour in the upper dam since he was blocking the hall leading the staircase up. I was at 105% entering the lower dam, and left at about 15%. The entire scene lasted maybe a minute tops. Think I'm gonna have to make a trip to the Clearcut and drop a lure to get him out of my hair while I do a quick circuit of ML. Then backtrack to the Ravine, then on to BI. I think collecting every note in one run IS possible, and I'm committed to making it happen.

I really like the atmosphere of this whole thing. The Darkwalker getting close and that anxiety affliction were pretty interesting to see. Now that I've gotten a feel for the rules of the event, I think I will have no trouble covering most, if not all of the world. So far I've got DP, CrH, and CH in the bag. Didn't loot everything, and skipped the coastal townsite entirely, but I'm well kitted out just the same. Just entered Cinder Hills on my way to PV. So far so good, haven't died yet! I found out that time accelerated actions are allowed, so I think Thompsons Crossing will be a pit stop to rip up some curtains, fix some gear, and get this revolver in fighting shape. Not sure if I'll have time to get to TWM and back before heading to ML... Might have to burn my fog glyph on that one. Certainly not the summit, but maybe find the campsite and get the note at least. It'd be kind of an accomplishment to obtain every note in the event in one pass, and on my first attempt. My plan, when I finally get to the end of the road and death is inevitable, I'm gonna unload on the Darkwalker. Who knows, maybe it's possible to kill the thing. Edit: Woo within 30 seconds of posting this and getting back to the game, the first badge popped! Edit 2: It appears fog only progresses while you're actually in the region. Upon my return to PV, the fog was still at 29%. This is good intel if I decide to attempt a second run. Anyway, third campsite visited, still not dead.

It's in a bright orange case towards the end of the tail that looks out over the lake.