Czhilli

@tulkawen That spot in Broken Railroad is where my 385 day Voyager survivor met their end. I should have turned back like you did, but I’d survived so many scrapes at that point I’d become somewhat complacent. Knowing when to turn back is a key survival skill.

Wow! Day two and, you have an expedition parker and have made a improvised hatchet and arrowheads. Love reading these updates. Reminds me of my first adventures. Keep it up!

The first night of many! Thirst is dangerous. It killed my first survivor. Always stay hydrated. I don’t want to give away too much, because it’s fun reading about a newbie making the same mistakes that I did. But I will offer this advice: Pay close attention to all the options you get when highlighting items in the world or in your inventory. Also take some time to look at the different pages in the survival menu (status, clothing, inventory, journal and map), although don’t worry much about journal or map for now. Highlight stuff, check the options, read descriptions and experiment. Take your time and don’t panic!

Many years ago I read about Nicholas Alkemade a British WW2 airman who fell 18,000 ft and survived with only a sprained ankle when his fall was cushioned by pine trees and snow. So I imagine that something similar happened to my survivor.

HUD stands for Heads-Up Display. It just means all the icons, meters etc. that get displayed in a game over the top of the image. The term comes from the system they use in aircraft so that pilots can read certain instruments while still looking through the cockpit canopy. The recycled cans that you pick up do have a use! Look more closely. But it’s easy to acquire lots of them, at which point they do become junk. Hunting already? Good stuff!

I enjoyed reading this. I’m new to this forum but not the game. Though I have no where near the experience of many of the regulars here. Your tale reminds me of my very first attempt. Like you I went straight into a Voyager sandbox without looking up any hints. I really enjoyed discovering things and learning how to play the game myself. There were a few frustrations where I had to look things up. My first go I managed to die of thirst because I couldn’t work out how to get water, so I did look that up afterwards. It looks like you are happy to learn by trial and error. The only advice I will give you is about a the user interface, some of which is not explained or intuitive. The HUD has various status indicators and will remain hidden most of the time, but you can get it to show by pressing Tab or either Select or Start on a controller (I forget which but it is labled Quick Stats in the bindings). The HUD is mostly pretty easy to understand, but there are two indicators that appear at the top of the screen which I needed to look up to understand what they meant: One icon looks like a shield with a curl on it and indicates that you are sheltered from the wind. The shield icon will display continuously while sheltered whether the rest of the HUD is showing or not. The other icon looks like three flames and is your scent meter that shows how smelly you are. The scent meter will not show continuously but acts like the rest of the HUD so you can check it with the Quick Stats key. I’ll leave it to you to work out the ramifications of either of these icons being displayed. Enjoy your discovery of this amazing game. I look forward to reading your next adventures!

Thank you for the welcome. My first bear hunt, over a year ago now, failed due to the bear despawning after I went inside to sleep. I’ve just returned to the game and started a new Stalker run. Wasn’t sure if the bug had been fixed, so I was reluctant to halt my tracking and go inside, but I was forced to. On waking and not seeing a confirmed kill in the stats I was initially annoyed and started searching bear bleed out times and bugged kills, which brought me to this thread. Thanks to @ajb1978 for alerting me to the idea of leaving the cabin. Is the bug fixed for good? I actually quite like the game play of tracking the bear while it bleeds out. But, having to avoid going indoors because it might bug out does rankle. While tracking this last bear I wanted to pop into the cabin to get extra painkillers and even though the bear was in sight I was worried it might bug out and loose me my kill. I love that this game can make you think twice about the simplest action but I don’t want to do it because I’m worried about a bug.

Just to confirm this exact behaviour. Shot a bear near Trapper’s Homestead. Then tracked it for what seemed hours waiting for it to drop. Blood trail confirmed that it was a good hit and the bear was bleeding. In the end fatigue and bad weather meant I had to return to the cabin to sleep. In the morning I checked my stats and my bear kill count was still at zero. Got really annoyed so checked this forum to find out why I didn’t have a kill, and then read this post. Returned to game, exited the cabin, checked my stats and the bear kill count had increased by one. Found it dead in it’s cave near Max’s Last Stand.