GarlicPops

You can say that again! In regular modes, (Pilgrim, Voyager and Stalker) the total amount of cloth is roughly 800+ if you go around breaking every single curtain, towel and pillow you can find in every single region. On interloper this would be around 500+ (probably more after the new regions got added). So getting mending all the way up to level 5 literally consumes up to 45% or even 65% of ALL the cloth you can get in the whole map IF you succeed in every single repair attempt, and for what? To be more efficient with the remaining cloth after you've already used most of it? If you are a conservation freak like myself then, as someone already said, it's much more cost efficient to grind your way through mending by using your left over rabbit pelts and guts you get from trapping and hunting (but still, we are talking about 300+ rabbits). I personally don't really bother with mending since I always save scum my way through repair fails (the only thing I still use save scumming for) simply because I don't really like how it currently works.

I agree with you, however stuff like critical hits on animals and weather changes is something you can prepare to. Things like stripping naked to preserve your clothes while hunting for bears, always carrying materials for a snow shelter, always staying above 80% condition while walking around wolf areas and stockpiling supplies while waiting for an aurora in BI are things that the player can do to minimize RNG. Even fires aren't that big of a deal since the lens exist, however cloth is 100% non renewable if you don't consider beachcombing and there is nothing the player can do to "prepare" for a repair fail aside from just crossing your fingers or accepting the wasted materials and durability, so for this reason I'd rather scum that away.

A while back I posted a topic (here) regarding the fact that I abused save scumming and I asked the community's opinions about it. While most of you were very respectful and recognized that this is a valid way to play the game, most of you claimed that it takes away the fun and would rather not do it. After careful consideration I decided to abolish save scumming and started a new sandbox were I would base at the clothing bunker in Pleasant Valley. Right now I'm at day 41 in my new stalker survival sandbox and I can say I'm having a lot of fun playing without the safety of save scumming, it's being a nice learning experience for me and I'll see how far I can get. The only situation where I decided to allow myself to save scum is to avoid clothing repair fails. I personally hate the fact that you lose both the materials and sewing kit/tackle durability in a repair fail and that it is completely dependent on RNG, I really dislike the idea of losing 5 precious cloth in a row purely because of bad luck, in my opinion this is beyond the players control and skill and I don't feel like scumming this away is all that impactful for the immersion and challenge. Me and my new base at PV above.

I rarely come out during the night and I rarely confront wolves when I do come out, I've read somewhere on the wiki that wolves become more aggressive during the night, with increased detection range and they might charge stealthily without barking or stalking. Is this actually a thing or is this information outdated? Do wolves behave any differently at all during the night?

I have pretty much avoided all blizzards in my previous runs by save scumming. Recently I started a new sandbox where I decided to abolish save scumming and play the game like a man for once. I'm living in the clothing bunker in Pleasant Valley and I constantly get terrified by the idea of getting lost in a blizzard, do you guys have any tips on how to deal with blizzards without having to resort to a snow shelter?

As both a Stalker player and a bunker enthusiast, I'd say my favorite long term base is Pleasant Valley's clothing bunker. It's near a rabbit, deer and moose spawn, it's just a short stroll away from a bear and wolf spawn and there is a fishing spot at pensive pond. It connects to CH whenever I need to beachcomb and It's very close to ML whenever I want to visit the ravine or the dam. I personally do not like CH as a long term base because I can't stand the amount of wolves there in Stalker (I made a full post about it if you want to check) In general I'd say different people have different tastes and their long term base can vary widely since each one fills different criteria that might appeal to a player.

Yes, you can put itens in the accessory slot. There are currently 3 itens that can be put in the accessory slot, the wool ear wraps, the moose hide satchel and the recently added crampons. The wool ear wraps are a clothing item that grants +1ºC of warmth and + 0.5ºC of windchill The moose hide satchel is an item that can be crafted that increases your maximum carrying capacity by 5 kg. And the crampons are a new item that can be found in the Ash Canyon region that allows you to get less tired while climbing, reduce the chance of getting sprains and allows you to walk over weak ice for longer. Hope I helped you

I've been save scumming since I started playing this game and I do know this is frowned upon by many people. I do believe it does take away a lot of the danger and the adrenaline from the game since you can pretty much play without consequences as long as you don't get a sprain. I also do recognize that this isn't a good way to learn how to play the game and allows you to always get away with risky plays, with the only cost being your own time, but at the same time it allows me to explore more daringly and try many things out to see what works and what doesn't. For this reason I just don't seem able to stop doing it, or at least I don't have the motivation to. What are your thoughts about it? Am I a bad player for abusing save scumming? Should I stop doing it? What are the reasons why do you do/not save scum? Can it be considered a "learning playstyle" and therefore be considered a valid gameplay mechanic? Should it be removed from the game? Let me know your thoughts about it.

That's a very nice thread. I'm actualy an organization freak myself too. However I've noticed you are storing all your food indoors, even the ones that decay faster while indoors (Beef Jerky, Candy/Granola/Energy Bars, Peanut Butter etc). I personally store all my indoor food (Salty Crackers, Pork n Beans, Pinnacle Peaches, sodas etc) in storage spaces and keep my outdoor food in a rock cache just outside my base, and I leave the meat on the ground as well. Here you can see all food that decay slower while indoors neatly organized in the shelves, in decay order (Yeah...). Here I store all my meat also well organized by decay order (Old meat on the bottom left <<<) And finally I store all processed foods that decay slower outdoors inside this rock cache I built.

The way prepper caches work in both Mistery Lake and Pleasant Valley is that only 1 will spawn in each of those regions in a location picked at random from the 9 possible spawn locations. So if in one playthrough the clothing bunker spawns, it doesn't mean it will appear again in the next one, another one might spawn instead (Firewood, Medical, Tools or Food). I personally haven't noticed any inconsistencies in bunker spawn locations in Mistery Lake. They're challenging to find, so just check the region map and watch YouTube videos and keep checking every possible spawn location in your playthrougs until you find one. If even after doing this you can't find any you should report that to us so we can see what's wrong. For Pleasant Valley on the other hand I've noticed that in previous versions prepper caches weren't spawning correctly in the region, in my current playthrough I've checked every single spawn location in the region and couldn't find any bunkers. It seems that this has been fixed now, but I'm not sure if missing bunkers will reappear in playthroughs were they were previously not present, does anyone know if that is the case?

Birch Bark indeed does recover a little bit of condition, but it is a very small amount. Also all your stats must be on the white, so you can't be freezing, exhausted, dehydrated or starving in order to gain the tea's passive benefit. This is a sweet bonus in my opinion specially considering it's a renewable food source and grants you hydration and calories on top of the condition recovery. If you are living near the ravine or the birch forest in Pleasant Valley you can get around 2 days worth of calories from birch bark every 5-6 days assuming you have cooking 5 and efficient machine, so it's a neat resource to be collected.

If my profile picture doesn't already make it obvious enough, my favorite long term spots are bunkers The best one in my opinion is the Clothing Bunker in Pleasant Valley. It's close to a Fishing Hut, a Deer, Rabbit and Bear spawn, safely distant from wolves, close to the Winding River cave, a short stroll from the Farmstead for a workbench, plenty of storage and super cozy. I admit that bunkers aren't necessarily the best spots for long term survival, I just love to live in them for the challenge and the "apocalypse" feeling I get from them. I'm currently living in the Clothing bunker in Mistery Lake and I'd say it is the second best one, but the best is the one in Pleasant Valley hands down.

They do still exist. Mukluks are likely the rarest item in the entire game, you might be able to find one in the Old Spencer Family Homestead, The Safe in the Trapper's Homestead and in Broken Railroad.

In my current 150 day stalker run I have the habit of going to the ravine every 4-5 days to collect sticks and specially birch bark. It turns out that the Ravine is the second best place to collect Birch Bark according to a post by TheEldritchGod, only behind the birch forest in PV, to the point that I'm able to collect an average of 20 birch barks every 4-5 days in it. However after the newest update I've noticed a SEVERE decay of birch bark in the ravine, the last time I went there after 4 days I only managed to get 6 of them instead of the regular 20. Is anyone experiencing something similar? I couldn't find anything in the patch notes that referred to reduced birch bark spawn rates.

I actually have two memorable losses that can also be counted as "stupid deaths". If my profile picture doesn't make it obvious enough, I absolutely love living in Bunkers. There were two instances where I had an excellent early game living in the clothing bunker in ML but died in ridiculous ways, the first one was when I was exploring the dam during an aurora and got electrocuted because I didn't know wires could insta kill you, the second one was when I was exploring a cave and decided to strip naked and sleep for 12 hours straight, which caused me to freeze to death on a promising save. Even though these deaths were stupid they helped me learn more about the game and prepare in advance, such as always wearing clothes while sleeping in caves and sleeping in shorter intervals to make sure I won't end up freezing to death, as well as staying away from exposed wires