manolitode

The Long Dark is a hard game. It's major premise is to keep you from doing the things you want to do. If you really enjoy a game like The Long Dark which is indeed superslow at times, then you probably have another reward circuit setup in your brain than if you prefer the average reward-spamming game. That's not saying that this or that wiring is better.

You won't survive getting jumped so many times in loper without the ballistic vest. Since you know the map, just keep an eye out for climbable treetrunks and you'll be fine. While it's hard to hit the wolves from above you should have a decent amount of arrows. Though it's usually more beneficial to pull the pack to a constructed obstacle like the stairs at the radiohut. Or the wooden bridge by the blue trailer, it's basically made to kill off a pack with little hassle.

21 hours ago, Shadox said:

Reishis for warming up + extra calories, or in case of infection? I cant recall if there is alot of lichen in Blackrock.

There's plenty of lichen, just bring a couple with you and you're good. Reishi is for warming up. You could always just make rose hip tea as there's plenty on the map, but I prefer to save those for future ribstomping-sessions and I'm kind of biased towards reishi tea. Birch bark is a splendid idea.

8 hours ago, Shadox said:

Really? Torches are working against them?

You can also just light a torch while you back out of their designated territory as shown by a forum member a while back. Though make sure to turn to face each t-wolf as they charge or they'll ignore the torch barrier.

9 hours ago, Shadox said:

How hard is Blackrock in Loper?

It's a horror show but a very fun and challenging one. There's little non-hostile wildlife on the map so preferably bring a small stock of deer-hides for repairs and cattails for a week. Go there well-fed so you can bring more coal to the map than you think you'll need. A couple of stims is a good idea as usual and a pile of prepared reishi. But you already did the best possible preparation which is exploring the map on another difficulty level.

Good luck!

Any unique time that looks truly inviting to use but is only part of the environmental decor. Such as the two-handled saw.

1 hour ago, turtle777 said:

By the time you hit lvl 5 in archery, you should also have lvl 5 cooking. At that point, I normally don’t worry about spoiled sardines.

The only spoiled food I dread eating at lvl 5 cooking is peanut butter and condensed milk.

-t

No milk or peanut butter in interloper my friend.

On 1/25/2022 at 9:51 PM, Shadox said:

Maybe im too worried about that degrading but things seem to spoil really fast. When i went to gather the Cattail stalks in CH, i gathered a few Beachcombing items and there was a can of sardines in it, which lost 4% Condition the way up to the Ravine entrance. Its my first Interloper game and it feels like if im not done looting all around Day 50, every item will be ruined

Not to worry about clothing or general item decay, you'll find the stuff you need unspoiled. Though most foods will be ruined. One of the more frustrating details of fooditem decay on interloper is what we could call the pescetarian paradox in Bleak Inlet. What I mean by that is that the crates at the cannery contain an abundance of sardines even on loper (think I found 30 or so last time). Meaning there's basically enough canned fish to allow you to explore the whole region sardinefueled without attracting predators. However, it's not optimal to go to Bleak Inlet before level 5 archery because of timberwolves and that usually takes a while. By the time you reach level 5 most sardines will have decayed. Hence the paradox. Though of course, you could always just exploit the game's weakness to handle the t-wolves in early game.

You're missing my point, though I did little to clarify it. Question being, why do we need blankets when we go to bed covered in two layers of clothing from top to toe? Surely not from day one but shortly from starting a run and onwards. A blanket mechanic would in essence grant a third clothing layer available when sleeping. So, what purpose would a third layer serve, ease life in harsh weather? Help sleeping off cabin fever outdoors? I generally agree that we need more stuff to craft, especially from hides. But a blanket system could have major implications for difficulty. How much warmer should we be able to be with a blankets, ie how much easier a game are you comfortable with?

1 hour ago, Mistral said:

Lack of cloth on Interloper? You mean just in Blackrock or in general? Because there is enough cloth in Milton alone to last for lifetime and beyond... with that in mind, not wearing socks because of saving cloth seems strange

I told you, I'm a hippie

Though, who says there is a lack of cloth on interloper? Sure there's less cloth on interloper than any other standard difficulty. Does that mean there's a deficit? That depends more on playstyle than difficulty level. I go for long games, if I waste cloth I'll run short eventually.  If you're a high consumer of bandages, use multiple sets of clothing and avoid the bear bedroll then that makes a difference over hundreds of days. But also how much clothing you wear that need maintenance. If I have a toque, two wool sweaters, ear wool wraps and two long johns I have 6 pieces of clothing that demands continuous maintenance. From the standpoint of item economy preservation, why would I wear two pair of socks when it adds cloth consumtion by 33% when the benefit is limited to +1C? Does it make a huge difference to you? I'd rather throw another stick in the campfire than spend more cloth than I have to. What's your best argument for wearing socks on interloper (apart from risking frostbite in the situation described above - losing my shoes is extremely rare in late game)?.

@Strelok Again, your enthusiasm in looting all is highly contagious about the skillbooks, maybe next time? What made me curious to collect skills books to begin with was to examine how high one could level up certain skills from reading skill books alone (such as gunsmithing in loper, I've reached 4/5 if I remember correctly).
35 storm lanterns indeed, wow. And yes, I've also noted the high number of quality tools that we get, it sort of takes away the challenge when finding a red toolbox early in each run. I'm not sure the difference in amount of tools such as hacksaw, hammer or lantern matters at all for most players. You'll still find one tool of each fairly early on and hopefully take good care of it in order to preserve it. What matters more is the huge difference in matches, roughly about 5x the amount of matches in your stalker game compared to the interloper run. Though a little less if we take into account the 2 missing regions in my playthrough. The problem that this means for some players is being discussed elsewhere on the forum.
As for natural resources, when I made the compilation I estimated a +-5% to all numbers. But I was very thorough and would think that the cattails number was rather accurate, though surely not perfect. The number of cattails isn't fixed with settings. Hinterland has stated: Cat tails have a random spawn which changes with each new game. Also, depending on the time you played, more cat tails may have appeared. Because of these factors, we're unable to give you an accurate count of how many cat tails spawn in any given session. About sapling, I would have hoped that they gave interloper players a small boost but that's just wishful thinking

1 hour ago, Valuable Hunting Knife said:

Tough situation! reminded me of Douglas Mawson (link not for the faint hearted...):

The Most Terrible Polar Exploration Ever: Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic Journey | History | Smithsonian Magazine

Hopefully you'll find a nice cosy pair of trail boots before it reaches that stage 🥾

No footwear so far but compared to him I'm the luckiest guy alive. Takes determination to keep going under those conditions. Though I identify with the joy of seeing something else than endless white blizzards, like an orange, or a bush of rosehips. One thing is for certain, TLD is most intruiging when you have to save yourself from the dire situation you put yourself in. Though Mawson would probably disagree

1 hour ago, Leeanda said:

In general though wouldn't it be better to keep socks on and harvest gloves if you need cloth? At least you can make gloves later on in the game when you do have enough cloth.

It wasn't like that, I just don't use socks at all. The decay rate for clothes in interloper makes wool socks cost a lot of cloth to repair while the benefit of wearing them are questionable. That's not saying that you can't use socks on loper. I just prefer to be restrictive about spending cloth. And that came back to bite me today Bite, but no frostbite as of yet. I made it to the power plant and back to the prison. However, the food and wildlife around the prison area was still depleted so I had to go back to Bear's bend again to fetch some 17kg of bearmeat. The timbers ate my gloves but as you established that's a lesser problem. Going to Blackrock region I didn't expect the lack of wildlife. That definitely impaired my ability to repair my clothing even though I had brought hides from my main base. However, I have now found my first box of matches in Blackrock, returned to the prison a second time and will look for a path home where I can avoid frostbite and allow my 376 days survivor a few days of peace.

Thanks, that's too far away with the frostbite risk. I think I've seen shoes at the power plant. Though they're probably not there on loper anyway but I'll make a run for it. Oh what I wouldn't give for a pair of shitty sports socks right now.

Where is the transition cave to Timberwolf mountain? I'm at bear bend without shoes or matches. Unfortunately I never wear socks, cause I'm full-blown hippie, which means I'll have to make a run for it to possibly avoid frostbite and survive.

edit: found 1 and only 1 deer in the 25 days in blackrock by the way, man that's harsh, i love it.

Big ups for following through on your commitment, that must have taken a long, long time I did something similar on interloper a while back but it must have taken you so much longer with the abundance of loot on Stalker. Any chance you kept the skill books? Would be interesting to know how many there were. I found 46 on loper.

Was curious how the loot in your playthrough in custom stalker compared to my interloper run pre AC and BRM. Hope you don't mind that I made a comparison below, in hidden content (in order to not hijack your post ). None of our numbers are exact but it's still kind of cool to see some aspects of the perceived differences in difficulty level in plain figures.

7 hours ago, Strelok said:

After thinking and reading again, i think you are right in so far that they eventually didnt count in the advanced skill levels.

Also, I realize my point of reference is the set of improvised tools while you're referring as it seems to the non-craftable knife and axe. The difference in harvesting efficiency shouldn't be huge though but I don't have the data. Thanks for pointing out this about early game carcass harvesting, it's been a while since I started a new run so it was good to be reminded.

4 minutes ago, Shadox said:

Another Question, is the Flare gun in the ravine base available on Loper? Because that means i could get that either on the way to ML, or back to my favourite base (Jackrabbit island), depending on where i find a rope. Would be alot safer to reach, and nice to have to stop a charging bear if hunting goes wrong

The flare gun is there and it's a solid investment before taking on TWM summit. You can avoid encountering a bear entirely by keeping left after the first rope. There's a narrow crack in the mountainside that constitutes a shortcut to the second rope. Meaning you won't have to encounter that bear and risk spoiling a good run early.

9 minutes ago, Shadox said:

Im really lucky in this loper run, having bow, 12 arrows, deer boots on day 11. I dont think i could do this another time if i die now. Also found 2 thin wool sweaters on CH, so the only thing in TWM is the flare gun and wool ear wraps.

Sounds like you're doing it right It's certainly safer to pick up a bedroll first, you already have decent clothing so the mountain weather won't be too bad  whether you choose to go straight away or wait til day 30.

If you start at Mountaineer's hut you can make it to the cave just below the summit without using neither coffee nor stim. There's still 2 ropeclimbs to get to the cave so make sure you start fully rested. Set up a snowshelter inside that cave, which means you brought 15 sticks and 5 cloth (you will also want a couple of torches ready for the caves). Collect coal from the cave system and make a fire, also inside the cave just below the summit, and rest in the snowshelter. The campfire will be hard to shelter from wind so don't sleep more than a couple of hours at a time. Anyway, sleep until fully rested, then go out and climb that last rope. If you use this strategy, don't linger when ascending the mountain, just grab the necessary stuff and take the shortest path. Ideally you minimize the size of your pack to 20-25 kg to begin with. That means you'll be able to collect all the loot you need from the summit (it's a lot less on loper) and carry it down to the hut in one go instead of making multiple trips.

Edit: And bring a piece of scrap metal should you need to repair your hacksaw on the summit. You wouldn't want it breaking while opening the last box of loot.

On 1/24/2022 at 7:24 AM, Strelok said:

Afaik if the carcass is more than 50% frozen, its actually better to use hacksaw. The knife is only better at frozen above 50% if you only harvest guts and hide.

I only use knife if below 50% frozen AND if i have to be fast, because of weather.

Knife can't be better than hacksaw at the same time that hacksaw is better than knife for harvesting carcasses 50% frozen or more. Or are you comparing them both to some other tool? The knife will in fact be slightly faster for harvesting 50%+ frozen meat when you've capped the skill. The time difference however is disappearingly small. Nevertheless, we're obviously not dependent on the knife for harvesting carcasses once we've leveled up harvesting and could just as well save it for crafting essential clothing. And save the whetstones for the improved axe.

10 hours ago, Kranium said:

You spawn with 2 bear coats?

Nope.

Why do you need a blanket when you go to sleep wearing a bearcoat wrapped in another bearcoat?

3 hours ago, Serenity said:

No. Your total chance is 100% when using a stick. You're forgetting the bonus from the starting fuel.

I stand corrected for saying "always". If you're using a stick (my most common starter fuel for sure), cedar or book to light your fire with capped firestarting skill you can be certain that it'll work. Though you can't with a firelog for instance, nor fir or reclaimed wood (the latter actually reducing your chances to 85% so you'll have to use a firestarter or accelerant to reach 100%). It's math exercise before you cap the skill, I prefer to always light a fire with a torch to stay in the habit.

23 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

I think a good strategy to limit the use of the sharpening stone in Interloper or in any mode for that matter is to forge dozens of improvised axes and knives. 

Sure, spend an in-game week or so forging a stockpile of tools and you're good for a long while. Especially with the increased weight capacity we've received lately. You could also just use the impro tools up until you've maxed your harvesting skill. After that reserve the knife for harvesting bear or moose and the axe for exploring new wolf-infested territory. With decent protection and skills the hacksaw and hammer should serve you almost as well. And you can repair them infinitely.

@I_eat_only_wolf_meat Yeah lighting fires with torches is key above stalker where you won't get more than 300-350 matches or so. I don't think I ever had to do that before interloper due to the abundance of matches but peoples playstyle will differ. Though I think you should always keep lighting fires with torches, even when you've capped the fire starting skill as there's only a 90% chance of succeeding. Depending on when you hit cap that likely makes up one or two matchboxes, you'll need them eventually.

Definitely not spray cans I tend to run out of whetstones in interloper just as @ChillPlayer, somewhere around day 250-300. Mostly because I use the improvised knife a lot. While I avoid tearing down curtains with the tool I should switch to harvest meat with a hacksaw way earlier in order to conserve the knife for cold carcasses. It's worth it to postpone regular trips to the milling machine in late game.

It's a challenge for sure. I came from PV and it took me a long good time to actually reach into Blackrock. Probably 5 days or so because of careful exploring and ill-timed blizzards. Wildlife was extremely sparse but I came with a large stack of cattails and could remain well fed. The coal that I brought was gone rather quick even though I picked up every stick I could find, had to sleep outside a few nights. Couple of minutes into Blackrock I soon found myself on a treetrunk, caught in the second blizzard of that morning, four timberwolves hovering below me. I managed to escape them. Soon as I found the substation it was a different kind of game. Having both timberwolves and nasty, nasty weather, Blackrock keeps you on your toes on interloper.