manolitode

I'd say it takes quite a while to fully understand a map. Sure, you get the important locations fast but the details are very well elaborated in my opinion and understanding deep game take a long time. After years I still find a new goaty shortcut every now and then, perhaps even an unknown sapling location. After years you can find a matchbox where you haven't before because out of routine never lit that particular room with a lantern, or suddenly you understand where the hacksaw must be when it's not in the PV farmhouse basement. But it's not the same. Loot, animal location and weather vary depending on settings, whether you're in an early or late game etc. If you know everything to stay alive forever, I get that it doesn't feel challenging anymore. I agree that the details are sparse on some parts of maps but if you look at any video from a few years ago you see this is something that has been greatly developed. That said, I'm not against the idea of randomly seeded map if it's one region on great bear that is excluded from the story but can be manipulated and therefore add an element of exploration and surprise for the seasoned players. But personally, the game is well sufficient in its current state.

Agree, perhaps we didn't pass the test of Gideon's army of 300, Judges 7:5-7, and simply aren't good enough for God.

So I decided to give the real reishi tea experience a shot. Unfortunately we don't have reishi in my part of the world so I decided to get some freeze-dried capsules with reishi extract. Quite a lot of reviews claimed that reishi tastes pretty bad but I wanted to try for myself. Can you believe it... it tasted like mushroom. Not strong all but with a very gentle taste of mushroom, like a bland mushroom soup. I wouldn't drink it again just for the taste but will keep it at hand if I get food poisoned As for the science, some studies have shown some positive results, I'm sure there are negative effects too. Would love to hear opinions on eg fresh reishi and reishi tea. (See the jar below, drew over brand/logo since it's HL:s forum and this is not a brand/supplement recommendation.)

For sure, they love to tease us with an early game moose 😄 Yes, two cons but I suppose you can skip the underlayer jacket slot and it's not too bad. Gotta try the bearskin jacket and bedroll sometime soon, been to long, just to count how many wolves they scare away, but I'm sure someone here has the numbers.

That's neat, only the moosy stuff to go then How many days depend on the current strategy. Right now I'm trying to loot thoroughly around 95% or so in each region so it takes longer, as that's my main objective then, not to get warm as fast as possible. I like to stone 3-4 bunnies in the first days and leave them to dry, takes away the stress to gather guts for me. But probably around day 30-60 depending on whether there's find moose and bear in decent locations. I haven't used the bear coat for a long time cause it slows you down so much but should probably give it another shot. Anyone know how much more effective it is than the wolfskin coat at scaring wolves away?

I say that's HRV, reclusive falls yes?

Full moon to new moon over FM railtracks, MT picnic area and ML trapper's cabin.

Sure, in best possible circumstances an hour worth of firewood will do, but without coal (and sometimes with it) there are plenty of situations where you'd have to add a lot more fuel to stay warm. Let's say you're fighting off cabin fever by sleeping outside and you had to add fuel for 5 hours to stay warm. The wind blows out the fire and takes the firewood with it. Like @Makex I find this a bit too skewed from a logical point of view (notice how I refrained from using the realism argument 😉). While the nursing fire-strategy is efficient it's also a little too odd that a dying fire provides the same warmth as a lively, flaming one. Would have to agree there, definitely makes it interesting 😄

Congratulations on your progress 😊 Every death is a step up on the learning ladder and you summed it up pretty well yourself: "confidence will kill you". 1) Damage will scare off the wolf. Knifes make a little bit of damage but cause the wolf to bleed out fast. Hammers on the other hand make a lot of damage but the wolf won't bleed out. Axes are somewhere inbetween these two. So hammer is the choice for a short fight, prybar works as well. 2) From my experience wolf attack damage is inconsistent so yes, they may crit. 3) You'll receive aim assistance from revolver skill 4. Before that, I'd recommend luring wolves to safe areas where the wolves won't carry out their attack and practice your shooting ability from there. In MT you can lure them to the farmstead porch, in ML you can lure them to one of the fishing cabins. Stand just inside the cabin and the wolf will cease it's attack by the threshold.

Feel free to share any thoughtful criticism, it's a forum with diverse opinions. Again, I understand that it's been a long wait when you're eager to solve Astrid and Mackenzie's mystery. As for timberwolves much can be said but we'll find ways to handle them and with practice, eventually what seemed impossible becomes doable. It's supposed to be a difficult game after all. Wholeheartedly agree.

Seems like the wise thing to do, will also wait til the respawn timers are slower. Not til day 1200 but when I went to BI with a 300+ stalker timberwolves didn't respawn at all for 20-30 days. I don't know whether predators respawn more frequently in interloper than other wildlife but I'm thinking around day 300 would equal pretty few timberwolf encounters considering that and your description above. Alright so the cattails equals a deer give or take. Though I can't wait to get my hands on the mill that runs on northern light.

Thanks for the inspiring read! Made me just a little more optimistic about BI 😉. Decided to venture into it the other day from FM just to grab some low hanging fruit (still haven't maxed archery). I too feel like stealth is a must, gotta see the timberwolves before they see you. The first encounter was a moose between the transition cave and birch forest so I went further into the region and all was quiet and calm. Second was howling. Third was an aurora. Fourth I got the f out. Sweet that you found so many kits and matches. How did you find the reishi, rose hips and cattail amounts? About the boring trailer, it would've been nice with more crates up the rope by the cannery for sure, neat place for a sleepover if there was only firewood.

Way to go! You obviously know how to plan for a long run and stay alive. Goals are helpful indeed, keeps me motivated and efficient. I like to have a main goal with the total run (like stay alive longer than ever Before), a handful of semibig goals (such as emptying regions or crafting a moose cape before day 30) and one or a couple of goals for each playing session. Ah, how exciting good luck with HRV, let the rivers be your Compass :) To spread resources to make a backup plan for future emergencies is a very well-functioning strategy. You're right that one can avoid wolves at most times by knowing patrols. But sometimes we're just out of control, if you consider these situations: You get lost in the heavy fog on the marshes of FM so you lost grasp of possible closeby wolf locations. However, you may be able to make that fire in case of an attack. Or, you've just goated down TWM on a heavy snowy night. You got sprains, 10% hp and you're cold. So you deploy the emergency stim in your vein, the night goes discobass so you can't see nothing but you run towards what you think is the cabin even though you know you might cross a wolf's path. That's a very helpful approach to prevent disappointment. For me it works best to play with the mindset of surviving and how to be better than last run. Even if I die, it's been a while since I got upset, the first 1-2 years were worse 😃

True, it's a major test of patience to craft a whole wolf/bear/moose coat there. Especially if mr. cabin inspector bear is still around But the shorter crafting sessions like deer and rabbit clothing are usually fine, at least til you got 2 incoming blizzards per day.

There are obviously a lot of human behavior that can ruin a perfect game, such as tiredness, boozing and cats that unpause your game while you're out buying groceries. After recently going through a handful of early deaths in interloper I'll share two conclusions that though likely mentioned before are well worth repeating to help facilitate your longevity. They're from a psychological perspective rather than gameplay tactics and they're currently helping me stay alive. 1) Success will kill you. If the weather is unusually warm, the wolf patrols are absent and most things have been going your way for an ingame day or two, you run the risk of becoming too relaxed. When you're too relaxed you start taking risks and make mistakes. As you already know by now, one mistake is enough to fade into the sudden long dark. Take a break from the game, whether it's 10 minutes or 10 days, and come back with a fresh cautious mind that won't let you do stuff to ruin an otherwise perfect run. 2) Zoning out will kill you. This tend to happen when you're on a long journey or when the game becomes too easy as mentioned above. The problem is that when you're doing some deep contemplation on what your boss told you during appraisals or plan your weekend with your partner as you play you know that Mr. Wolf will jump out from behind a stone or a corner and there you go, thanks for playing. Again, take a break, plan your weekend or whatever, then get back to the game and voila, 100, 500 or 1000 hours wasn't wasted after all. What do you do to remain alert, do you lock yourself in to avoid distractions or are you just a natural multitasker? I'd like to hear the tips and tricks that help you stay sharp in your long run.

If you're going to CH anyway, why not craft at the outside table by the fishing huts and you won't get cabin fever? Might just take a little longer due to bad weather.

It's a must for reaching HRV, as mentioned above. Going to MT in early interloper is a pretty good way to die. Unless you know the routes of the many wolf patrols, I recommend you to stay out til you wear clothes with decent protection and wield an improvised hatchet. Yeah, no buildings makes navigation in HRV tricky til you've gone full-blown nerd 🤓 When you enter the region from ML, turn left and keep walking along the left mountainside. That'll take you through an abundance of cattails and reishi. If you're careful and keep an eye out for the bear and wolves you will eventually find a safe Cave where you can rest if you brought a bedroll. Once rested, keep going forward on the left mountainside til you find a rope, climb it and continue to keep to the left mountainside and explore the lake. Use the same way back and you won't get lost in the wild.

I understand that it feels like a long wait if you mainly play story mode. It sounds like you enjoy the game quite alot, I highly recommend giving survival mode a shot in case you haven't tried it yet. That's many hours of fun if it's your cup of tea You could be up for a few years wait til next episode since that's what happened between episode 2 and 3, we might to wait a while til a release date is published. There's been a great deal of improvements made since 2017 like new regions, mechanics, interface etc.

The same dude who carries an infinite amount of empty plastic waterbottles in his backpack and is able to convert air into pure snow by any indoor stove. 😉 I get that it's another realism issue, suppose you could around it by not carrying more than 1-2 cooked teas? Not much reason to carry loads.

Thanks, that's a great read!

If you're finding interloper too easy you can use the menu system to kill yourself. Just change language to mandarin.

Aurora and full moon over Timberwolf Mountain.

Yes, and you could get around the 'death trap' issue with doors that work like the one at the cannery in BI. Once open they stay open.

Thanks for this heads-up, makes me think twice about using rose hip teas for warming up in a run with long term ambitions. I recommend you to explore a region where you haven't been for quite a while. If they made major changes there you've got a shot at finding respawned rose hips. For example the cave entrance by the crashed plane in PV. I lost a seasoned survivor down in moose overlook in HRV under the same conditions. Got butted, was out of rose hips (by 8 pieces) and couldn't climb out.

Yeah there's a waterfall in that cave but it was phrased as a "waterfall cave in a cave", technically that's the same one cave. There aren't 2 loading screens. But okay then, semantics 😛