Glflegolas

Hate to say this but I did something stupid. I somehow managed to glitch through a fence and got caught in terrain at the eastern end of the broken Mule Bridge, sprained an ankle, and could not get myself freed. Thus ends my run with no sleep, after surviving about 9 and a half days... When you consider that I only explored maybe 65% of the world and that my route probably wasn't the most efficient, I am nearly 100% certain that it is totally possible to survive two entire weeks in this game with no sleeping, at least in Voyageur difficulty. I never once used a stim or energy drink, I had something like 6 stims and 4 energy drinks, and 4 cups of coffee in my inventory. Maybe next time I try Stalker? I think a better route might be to start in Mountain Town as there are masses of houses and trailers there to loot for coffee.

I have survived 8 days and 22 hours so far with no sleep. I went back to the Old Substation to try and find the bunker, but to no luck. I searched around the prison earlier that day and found two more tins of coffee. They were in the offices. I also picked up the vest armour for extra protection, as lost condition due to struggles is not easy to recover when you can't sleep. I am going to head for the trailer at Foreman's Clearcut, as well as Lineman's Retreat, Bricklayer's Retreat, and Cutty's Cave. In story mode the bunker spawns somewhere north of Foreman's Retreat so I guess I'll check there too. Is there coffee in the mine? I don't know...

I have survived just shy of eight days with no sleep so far. I think I should be able to make it to 14 days - I have an energy drink along with a few stims for emergencies. If you tell me where the food cache in Pleasant Valley is, then I'll take a quick look there. I also believe there is a cache in Blackrock (at least in Story Mode)? I plan to travel Blackrock -> Timberwolf Mountain -> Pleasant Valley -> Coastal Highway -> The Ravine -> Bleak Inlet -> Forlorn Muskeg -> Broken Railroad -> Forlorn Muskeg -> Mystery Lake -> Mountain Town -> Hushed River Valley. I'm not sure how easy this is going to be, given that I won't be coming to a coffee-rich region anytime soon. What I am becoming more and more certain about is that it is completely possible to survive and have a relatively normal life on Great Bear, at least for a couple weeks, by consuming loads of caffeine and not sleeping. Seriously, who knew that Big Moose Kicks was so potent?

Alright, made it to the prison. No tins of coffee in the infirmary or the guard towers, and no more luck in the steam tunnels. I did find a tin in the power plant, so things are still looking alright on the coffee front... I have sufficient supply to last about another 1.5 days or so.

@GwynrenMaybe you need to go to Coastal Highway -- there's usually lots of coffee in the houses there (I found 6 tins on that map in Voyageur). From my experience, Mystery Lake is not a map known for copious quantities of caffeinated beverages.

Update: I have made it to Blackrock - specifically the abandoned substation, where I found a tin of coffee and two emergency stims. However, it was a long walk from Long Curve to get here... and I had to brave timberwolves along the way. I really hope there's lots more coffee around. The main cellhouse ought to be a good place to search, no?

@GwynrenMaybe you should have played Will instead. I've heard that women need more sleep than men... or so The Infographics Show says. So far, I have had more luck with trailers than cabins when it comes to finding coffee, so definitely do check the logging camp. Coastal Highway had lots of coffee for me, but I also remember finding at least a couple tins in the Carter Hydro Dam in prior playthroughs. Other spots you may want to consider are Mountain Town (you will need a stim in your case to make it there); both the houses in town as well as the Orca and Paradise Meadows Farm are good places to look.

I actually don't plan on starting over -- I have enough coffee reserves on me to last at least another couple days, which is plenty to get me from Coastal Highway to Blackrock Mountain. I'm not 100% sure where all the bunkers in Pleasant Valley are, but I can certainly take a quick look around on the way to Blackrock. I also don't mind traveling at night through Coastal Highway, I know that region very well. Yes, I do use birch bark tea, when it's necessary. But I'm fairly careful and it usually isn't needed.

Feel free to post here too

Hello, This is a continuation of my old thread, as I deleted it by accident. If you're new here, I'm trying to find out how long I can survive in TLD with no sleep. I started in Timberwolf Mountain as a Voyageur. My strategy was to head for the summit right away, nearly getting hypothermia in the process and only just barely making it with the 2 tins of coffee I got in Echo Ravine. At the summit I got basically all the gear I needed, along with 4 tins of coffee. From there, I went into Pleasant Valley. Didn't find coffee at Misty Falls Cave, but did find some at the farmhouse. Signal Hill often has coffee tins, but this time it had only a cup in the microwave; on the way there I nearly got killed in a wolf struggle. It did however have a revolver which would prove useful later on. From Signal Hill I went to Thomson's Crossing, where I found 1 more tin of coffee. From there, it was an easy trip through the Cinder Hills Coalmine to the Abandoned Lookout. No coffee there, but the trailer west of there had a tin. The log sort didn't have a tin either, however I got two at Jackrabbit Island. There were also 2 tins in the Coastal Townsite, and one in a trailer north of there. Right now I'm in Desolation Point. I have survived nearly six days (or is it seven?) with no sleep. Hibernia had a lot of coffee, with two tins in the office and one in the trailer just outside. One place that did not have coffee (to my great chagrin) was Scruffy's Cave. I went so far as to check Scruffy's body for coffee, but no such luck. Not sure what that wolf is on though, as he ripped a bunch of my clothes in a struggle, despite taking two hits from the revolver. Maybe he drank his last cup of Big Moose Kicks; he sure kicked like a moose. Key notes so far: Kitchens are the best place to find coffee, with offices a close second. Trailers have it fairly often too. I haven't found coffee in a cabin or vehicle yet, or on a corpse. Coffee works best as a fatigue reducer, not a remover. Consume frequently for best effects. Be careful with your condition -- you can't get it back quickly or easily. This is something I will have to be very mindful of in Bleak Inlet.

@I_eat_only_wolf_meatI thought the only thing you ever ate was wolf meat... lol What else do you eat?

Alright folks - I've started the challenge. You can discuss it in my new thread! Do you think I can survive 14 days with no sleep at all?

I guess we could change the challenge into a "no sleeping anywhere" challenge, and remove the regional restrictions. From a fresh spawn, how long do you think you could survive on Great Bear without sleeping at all?

Hmmm... maybe I should change this challenge from the "No Bedroll or Snow Shelters Challenge" to the "No Sleeping for 2 weeks in Hushed River Valley Challenge". My strategy for this would be to get as much coffee as possible. Each coffee restores 10% of the fatigue bar, so to last for 14 days and have a decent amount of energy each day would require 140 cups (that's 28 tins). Coffee isn't too hard to find usually, but still, that's a LOT of coffee... are there even that many tins on all of Great Bear in Interloper? Even in Stalker getting that much coffee wouldn't be too easy. For added challenge, I could consider turning off condition regeneration except during sleep.

Hello folks, Here's a challenge that I've been thinking of for a while now; is it possible to survive on Great Bear Island without carrying a bedroll? Now, I'm sure many of you are going to say "of course! You just need to know where they spawn naturally and plan accordingly". And you'd be right; there are guaranteed bedroll spawns throughout Great Bear, even on Interloper. However, what if I take this challenge one step farther: I can't use any bedroll I find, and I can't make or use snow shelters either -- only actual beds (stick beds do count IMO). Furthermore, once I enter a region for the first time, I can only leave said region after 14 days (I will exclude transition zones for time's sake). This challenge should be fairly easy across most of Great Bear, though things could get hairy in Forlorn Muskeg (only bed is in Spence), Ash Canyon (loads of climbing), Timberwolf Mountain (can only sleep at the Mountaineer's Hut), but especially Hushed River Valley, where sleeping will be impossible. Guess I'll need to save up loads of coffee for that one! What difficulty do you think would make sense? I am thinking either Stalker or Voyageur.

@hozz1235One thing to keep in mind about any house built on a summit is that you'll be blown away much of the time by high winds, and you'll have to carry food and other supplies up a steep hill. IRL, I live near the ocean, but it's on an inlet nearly 7 km inland from the open Atlantic. I'm on a small hill but surrounded by trees on three sides, which keeps my house from flooding or being too cold in the winter. Below is a photo of a cabin I visited IRL this October. Very secluded in the woods; doesn't it remind you of TLD? The view from your doorstep is great... ...and there's a nearby cliff to climb too! I will have to come back here someday in the winter to take some more "TLD-like" photos, haha

If the temperature fell to -120C, I don't think it would snow anymore. Any clouds and/or precipitation would consist of dry ice.

Well, that changes the difficulty of Desolation Point quite a bit, now doesn't it -- and it's a great example of how important knowing every detail of the map can be the difference between life and death in Interloper.

-61C? That's pretty darn cold. In fact it's only 2C above the coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada (-63C in Snag, Yukon, Feb 1947). However, the real-life record was set under clear skies, with little wind; the coldest weather in-game generally occurs during blizzards and high winds.

Same goes for the bearskin bedroll. If you're carrying it, wolves have a chance to be scared off. When you sleep in a bearskin bedroll, it reduces the risk of wolf attack in your sleep, and eliminates the risk of bear attack IIRC.

One thing about Ash Canyon: in my Iatest Interloper playthrough I found at least four boxes of matches there. Could even be five, IDK. That alone could make it a decent start location. Getting out of Desolation Point if you don't find matches is very hard -- and I don't know of any guaranteed match spawns in that region either. Without matches, you can't make torches, which are almost a necessity to leave Desolation Point. First there is the dark mine which is very hard to feel your way through. Second, if you do make it through the mine, trying to get past wolves in Crumbling Highway without torches or a flare is possible, but a bit risky; a minor miscalculation can get you charged and killed. (that being said, torches aren't 100% foolproof -- a gust of wind at the wrong time can get you into trouble. But it is an extra layer of protection.)

I have watched videos on this game as far back as 2017, but only purchased it in March 2019. Surprisingly, I still have my first save ever, which is a Voyageur run with ~140 days on it or so. I have moved Will Mackenzie all over Great Bear in that time. I did once lose a different Voyageur run (Survival Tutorial 1.0) after ~15 days or so during a blizzard on the Forlorn Muskeg. Ever since then, I don't trust that region. Other than that I think I have lost my character five times. Twice in Stalker, both of those times were on camera (once in Broken Railroad, once in Ash Canyon), and three times in Interloper, twice to the wolves of Mountain Town and once to freezing in Coastal Highway. My current Interloper run has lasted ~75 days or so, which isn't bad.

Ugh... arguments. Why can't we all just get along? Anyways, back to the original question. I wrote my opinion piece on the game difficulties on my wiki profile page some time ago. This text is copied directly from there. Pilgrim The equivalent of easy. Good for learning the maps and the basic game mechanics, but you won't get the full experience the game has to offer. As a result, it's easy to get lulled into a sense of security here. The only way to get attacked by wolves is to get too close to one that's feeding on a carcass, and bears/moose don't attack unless you shoot them. This difficulty is excellent for players new to the survival genre and who haven't played Story Mode yet, but I find it gets boring after some time. However, if you enjoy this game mode, don't be ashamed -- you do you! Voyageur I consider this difficulty the equivalent of "normal", and it's my favourite difficulty when I'm off camera. You get the full Long Dark experience, without things being so difficult they become frustrating. What do I mean by that? There's hostile wildlife, but it's not everywhere. Blizzards can freeze you, but they're not too common. There's lots of loot, but it can run out if you stay in a region for a couple in-game weeks. Overall, it's ideal for people who like a "casual survival" experience, and surprise, I'm one of them. If you have played Story Mode as a Capable Survivor, have played survival games before, or have watched a few hours of YouTube videos, you should be able to play this difficulty off the bat (at least, that's what I did). Stalker This is "Hard" difficulty in my opinion. While there is less loot than in Voyageur, and the weather is a bit more unpredictable, those challenges are only really apparent in the early game, before you're well equipped. What will be a problem throughout the entire gameplay is the high frequency of hostile wildlife. Wolves, bears, and timberwolves will be the biggest threat to your long-term survival in this difficulty. I would not recommend playing this difficulty unless you have some first-hand experience with the game first. You are likely to die repeatedly and become very frustrated. You might do OK with it if you played up to Episode 3 of Story Mode as a Capable Survivor, or have played on Voyageur for a while. Interloper Definitely "ultimate" difficulty level. Literally everything about this game mode is hard. No tools, very little loot in buildings, icy cold temperatures, and extremely deadly wolves (though less frequent than Stalker) can all spell disaster. Even if you don't like cheating in games generally, I seriously recommend using the spoiler maps on this wiki and/or Interloper loot tables (search the Hinterland Forums for those). Your survival may depend on it. Although this difficulty can be the most satisfying, it's also easily the most frustrating. You can do everything "right" and still not manage to survive long enough to get a full set of improvised tools and crafted clothes. I would not recommend trying this difficulty unless you have lots of experience with the game and have explored all the maps inside-out.

In Interloper, you can't choose your starting location; it's chosen randomly. Because of that, the ease of your early game survival can be greatly affected by which region RNG decides to place you in, even if you know the lay of Great Bear better than your home-town. Personally, I have heard rumours that the Hushed River Valley is the easiest starting location, because all the manufactured tools needed to survive can be found in that region (I think?). It's also not bad for clothing, as you'll always get the Mackinaw jacket, combat pants, and work boots from the hidden caches. Furthermore, food is easy to find, predators are easily avoided if you know the map, and the ice caves provide plenty of shelter. Another rumour has it that Pleasant Valley is a great starting region, and... yes, I tend to agree. It does have a lot of blizzards, but when the weather's fair, they're easy to see from far away. The plane crash and Thomson's Crossing contain lots of clothes, and there's three workbenches in the region. I think that it also does spawn several (but not all) the basic tools needed for survival... The third contender I've heard is Timberwolf Mountain. The strategy here is to rush to the summit as quickly as possible, and hope that the hacksaw spawns there so you can open the cargo containers and get loads of food, decent clothing, and a few hides for crafting. There are also always matches in the Mountaineer's Hut. If you don't get the hacksaw, well you're out of luck. I haven't heard people's comments on Desolation Point, Ash Canyon, Bleak Inlet, Forlorn Muskeg or Broken Railroad, and I haven't started in any of those regions myself ever. Ash Canyon seems rather chilly and far from a forge to me. Bleak Inlet has too many Timberwolves, unless you grab the flaregun early on. Desolation Point is a bit on the small side I would think; the same can be said for Broken Railroad, making predator evasion challenging. Forlorn Muskeg might the OK, given that you're sitting right next to Mountain Town and Mystery Lake for easy looting.

I would very much like to have a house at Monolith Lake, although I don't think I'd want to live there. It'd be more of a vacation home to me. The exact location would be on the west side of the lake. For a place to live longer-term, Coastal Highway is hard to beat. I particularly like the two-story house on Misanthrope's Homestead, though there are a couple modifications I'd like to make to it. Firstly, I'd build a dock somewhere on the coastline, so that I have easy access to the ocean for transportation. Secondly, that house really needs a woodstove or two. Get the 6-burner stove from the Crumbling Lighthouse for the kitchen (my neighbours once brought a cook stove to an island cabin using a dory). For added bonus, how about getting a wood stove from a crumbing cabin and putting it where the TV now sits? Oh, and while I'm at it, might as well move the workbench from Fishing Camp into the basement, no?