Glflegolas

Nope, I'm in Coastal Highway.

I started the game in Timberwolf Mountain, but of course there's no reason not to go there again with half-decent gear. Hushed River Valley might be a better choice as it's guaranteed to have the mackinaw jacket and the moosehide satchel, along with some other half-decent loot in the caches. The only question is: should I get the deer hides first (Mystery Lake is supposedly good for that) or head for Hushed River Valley as soon as I find a bedroll?

As long as you're not under the "anxiety" affliction, you can sleep and pass time without fear. Same goes for repairing clothing or doing any other time accelerating activity.

Of course, I don't have to kill Scruffy to gain access to that cave. I could just go in with a torch and repeatedly throw it, then light a fire inside... though I would not mind getting revenge... Are the wolves that spawn inside buildings/caves really tougher than the ones found outside, or did I just get really unlucky with the RNG? I don't get into struggles very often, but usually they're not a big deal except on Interloper.

Hello folks, In my latest Stalker playthrough (my YouTube stalker series...), I entered the cave in Desolation Point to check it out. Now I was aware upon entry of the potential of running into Scruffy in the cave, but figured "I've got 36 rounds of revolver ammo and a revolver... surely that'll be enough." Upon harvesting the deer carcasses, I found Scruffy getting closer, and fast! Now I was at near 85% condition, wearing a tough wolfskin coat, deerskin boots, and deerskin pants. When the struggle started, I chose the revolver, thinking I'd manage to get a shot off. Nope... Scruffy won the struggle and took my condition down to around 8%. The only way I managed to get myself out was by taking a torch from a fire, lighting it, and throwing it repeatedly at Scruffy. If that wolf has to be shot to be slain, how am I supposed to do that? The cave is so dark, I can't see what I'm trying to shoot. If only you could carry torches in your left hand and hold a revolver in the right... Back when Bleak Inlet was first released, I also tried killing the wolf in the cannery workshop in a struggle using hatchet in Voyageur. That didn't work either. I guess that wolf has to be shot too?

Hello folks, I have been playing Interloper for a while, and have got to the point where I have acquired myself a full set of improvised tools, along with about 10 arrowheads. I also have a storm lantern, simple tools, heavy hammer, prybar, pot, and can opener. So, tool-wise, I am pretty well set. I don't have very good clothing (yet) however. Now that I have my tools, what should I do next? I'm currently in Hibernia in Desolation Point. I'm slightly tempted to stay there (or in the Riken) and try to find maple and birch saplings to make a bow and arrows. While I do have a fair amount of food at the moment, I don't think cattails spawn anywhere in the region, and I'll need to either find a deer carcass or stun a couple rabbits to get myself the guts I need to make the bow. Once I have that, hunting deer at Lonely Island should be fine... ...but at the same time, maybe I'd be better off returning to Coastal Highway? There's more cattails there and I can fish to get some lamp oil. Or maybe Mystery Lake is a better option? I haven't been there yet in this playthrough and there's generally good fishing at Camp Office. Mountain Town is also tempting... but there's so many wolves there. I don't know. If you were in my position, what would you do.

About a year ago, I did a YouTube series where I started in the Hushed River Valley on Voyageur difficulty and survived there for 14 days (I could have easily stayed longer, but I don't want my series to get too repetitive). You can check it out in the video below. To get back to the OP's point, though, I also found that the hardest part by far was getting sufficient warm clothing, although I did get lucky with an expedition parka fairly early on, and there was *some* warm clothing to be found in hidden caches, on corpses, and in caves. The other major resource shortfall was lamp oil: exploring the ice caves without light is nearly impossible, and needing torches all the time was a bit of a pain. Food wasn't a problem, neither were matches or tools. I've played this region before off camera, so I knew what I was in for.

You can keep making water in the mine if you can start a fire (there's plenty of coal to sustain it), but food will be an issue. Before exploring the mine, I would suggest bringing a bedroll and a stout stockpile of food, and making sure your cabin fever risk is as low as possible. One way to ensure that is to explore the mine within the first 25 days (50 on Voyageur) of arriving.

Decent map, but I'm not 100% sure where Bleak Inlet would be located in that case. Maybe I'll take a shot at some Great Bear Island cartography myself one of these days... the maps made by Whiteberry and StmSantana would be a good start I guess.

Well, it is already possible to travel between Mountain town and Coastal Highway without going through Mystery Lake... you just have to travel through Bleak Inlet. Not sure how many people actually do that though as it is very inconvenient (two ropes to climb...), unless you happen to have to make ammo along the way.

Locating Ash Valley between Broken Railroad and the Hushed River Valley would be welcome, and not entirely illogical either. I think your placement is another strong possibility. On the other hand, I don't agree with your placement of Perseverance Mills. Why? [WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS!] Astrid crawls through the tunnel at the Crashed Prison Transport bus and is found by Molly near Long Curve in Pleasant Valley. Many of the convicts, along with a prison guard, ended up in Pleasant Valley too. Therefore, it is almost certain that Mountain Town and Pleasant Valley were once connected by road. Perseverance Mills seems like it would be a rather large town, and so the railway would almost certainly lead to it.

Well, Timberwolf Mountain is facing the wrong way, but other than that, the second map is OK. It is also possible that you'll be able to enter Ash Canyon from the northeastern end of Mountain Town, near the end of the road. I can't spoiler the post anymore - sorry! Maybe the mods can help?

Well, looks like my stalker survival series will have a new region to explore soon -- and have no fear, viewers, I will go to Ash Canyon almost as soon as it's released! Story Mode Speculation: I personally think that Blackrock Federal Penitentiary will not be located in Ash Canyon, rather, it'll be located somewhere north of Desolation Point, probably somewhere on the Trans Island Railway Line. That would make sense since Astrid enters Coastal Highway at the end of Episode 3, and I would expect most of Episode 4 to go something like this: Astrid enters Coastal Highway She finds someone in the Quonset Garage This someone asks her to get something from Desolation Point After a few quests in Coastal Highway, Astrid goes through the eastern rail tunnel in Coastal Highway to get to Perseverance Mills (a new region) For Episode 5, I would expect that Hobbs has captured Will and is holding him prisoner at Blackrock in Perseverance Mills. This episode will either mainly revolve around a) Will trying to figure out how to break out of the jail and find a way to avoid capture, or b) Astrid has to somehow defeat Hobbs in order to free Will, or c) some combination of all of the above. Where I think the regions will be located: Official in-game map: A map made by the developers just before Episode 1 and 2 were released:

In Interloper, coal can be "black gold". I use it often when ice fishing because it makes a hot fire fast, and doesn't need a hatchet to collect.

Hello folks, As of now, coal is a bit of a pain to obtain in large quantities; often, you have to go to multiple caves (each of which spawns with a piece or two of coal) in order to get enough coal to keep your fire going through the night. Even the coal mines don't seem to have much more coal lying on the ground than a regular cave. Since the coal mines (presumably) have exposed coal seams, I think there should be a way to mine coal in the game, along with a new tool to help you mine it: the pickaxe. The heavy hammer could also be used to mine, albeit significantly less efficiently. When you come to a coal seam (found most abundantly in mines, but possibly in occasional caves), you'd select your tool and for how long you want to mine (just like fishing), and get chunks of coal the same way you get fish. Of course, to balance this out, coal mining would consume calories and fatigue quickly. The pickaxe could also be used in a struggle, with similar stats to the heavy hammer. What do you think?

How many cups of coffee did you consume to finish that 8 hour run?!

Wow, I didn't know that "save scumming" is even a thing. Anyways... yeah, I've done it, though only twice in two years. Both times were in my YouTube series, where I really would prefer not to die/have to restart due to doing something really stupid. Namely, both times, the stupid thing was falling off the Raven Falls trestle due to holding down a key for a little too long. (I still hate crossing this bridge) However, something like a sudden blizzard blowing in, getting lost at night, being attacked by a bear I didn't see, getting surrounded by timberwolves, etc. is all fair game.

I only ever did the "survive for 25 days" challenge, owing to time constraints. It was good, but doing it in the Hushed River Valley meant that the cold got a bit annoying after a while. Maybe it would have been more fun in Bleak Inlet, haha.

You know what's really odd? The fact that all soft drinks in this game are called "soda", despite the fact that literally every Canadian (that includes me) calls it "pop".

I did manage to survive for 14 days or so on Interloper once (which was brutal), but usually I play this on voyageur, except for my YouTube series, which is Stalker difficulty for extra suspense and drama. Prior to this, I was playing a Stalker difficulty game with Voyageur needs, and Interloper wildlife. To sum up: I actually think this event is very well thought out. It's challenging, but it's not so difficult that the average player would get frustrated. It's not like the game is trying to kill you constantly, as in Interloper.

Update: I am currently doing Winter's Embrace in the Hushed River Valley, and all I can say is: it's so great to be back. (I started in Mountain Town FYI). Not having a workbench would be less of an issue, if crafting things without it were possible (albeit slower). Same goes for lack of fishing huts. Maybe there could be outdoor fishing spots (marked with something natural like a pile of rocks) in the Hushed River Valley?

PLEASE do this Hinterland! Otherwise what's the rope (which spawns in the workshop) good for?

I'm currently doing a YouTube series in Pleasant Valley in Stalker difficulty, and, from what I have found, it is a much easier region to survive in long-term than the Broken Railroad, despite the former region being described as moderate difficulty (Pleasant Valley is advanced). Two of the main reasons why: there are large open spaces, so, as long as the weather's half-decent, avoiding wolves and bears is not difficult at all. (The same can't be said for the forests though...) Furthermore, the region is large, so your chances of running into a predatory animal are not too great when stepping out the front door. The second (and arguably more important) reason: especially since the release of the plane crash, there is lots of loot available throughout the entire region. From Thompson's Crossing to the Farmhouse to Signal Hill to the plane wreck, finding food and clothing is generally a fairly trivial task (except on interloper). I also would recommend checking out the Misty Falls cave, as I found a rifle, revolver, and bow there in my stalker series. So yeah... I totally recommend spending some time in Pleasant Valley if you haven't already. Scouting out the area in story mode first is a good idea so you know where everything is.

Couple hours a day to play? I might have that much time on weekends. On weekdays when I'm working I'm lucky to get an hour a day to play anything, especially in the summer when I have so many things I like to do outside as well. To summarise: I've had the game since March 2019 and have played a total of 209 hours. My opinion on Whiteberry's maps: They're great if you're somebody who only has a limited amount of time to play per day, and you prioritise exploring over punishing survival. I would also recommend using them if you are someone who is prone to getting lost. As someone with significant spacial perception challenges, playing this game if it weren't for the maps would be extremely frustrating and very little fun. One major tip I would have for any new player: Try to explore as much of Great Bear Island on an easier difficulty before you try Stalker or Interloper. Survival in any region is much easier if you have been there before.

I know for a fact that regular knives and hatchets don't spawn in Interloper, but the Hushed River Valley has a number of guaranteed spawns if I am not mistaken.