Blizzard Walker

The route from the transition cave exit out of Coastal Highway down to Thompson's Crossing in Pleasant Valley can be tricky.  I commonly have a lit torch in hand and three more in inventory for torch chaining.  If it is too windy I wait at the top in the transition cave before venturing down.

Like Leeanda noted the two ropes up to the Lookout Tower give you a place to warm up and rest prior to pushing on to the cave route leading from Coastal Highway to Pleasant Valley.  The route from the Lookout Tower to the transition cave usually is patrolled by one wolf. My preferred route is the upward slope from the lower coastal mine to the upper coastal mine - being sure to have the mid point trailer already stocked with food and water for rest and warming up.

I am deciding if I want to find any of the special loot in Blackrock.  I have traveled to Last Prospect mine to find the four noise makers - thus unlocking the recipe for me to make more at the Bleak Inlet's Last Resort Cannery. While at Last Prospect Mine I did not bother the run the toxic gas gauntlet to retrieve the password to gain access to the ammunition workbench in the workshop.

On this current Voyageur run I will return to Blackrock to at least visit the Old Substation to repair the transmitter tower.

Weapon variants like the Warden's Revolver don't tempt me to explore the rest of Blackrock.  

That leaves only the Ballistic Vest as a possible reason to explore the prison.  I am debating if it is worth the bother considering the penalties in carrying capacity, warmth and mobility.  It might be handy if I knew I was travelling in an area where wolf struggles were unavoidable but I have been able to limit wolf struggles to around 1 every 250 days on this run.

I would be interested in learning if other players have sought out the Ballistic Vest and if they use it regularly.

The Transfer Pass region is clearly meant to be a hub for the Far Territories but I am wondering if it useful for anything beyond serving as a travel route. 

The region seems too large to be a transition zone but too small to be a proper self sufficient region.  Has anyone spent an extended period of time in Transfer Pass? My Voyageur character will make his first foray into Transfer Pass - acorns and cattails appear to be reasonably abundant.  Ptarmigan and rabbits can be found as well.  Are deer, wolves, bear or moose available for meat and hides? Shelter is clearly limited.  Fishing I imagine is also non-existent along with work benches.

Thanks in advance for all opinions.

On 4/20/2024 at 11:00 PM, PrincessAutumn said:

Honestly I have never beach combed. I'm aware that it exists but the old Long Dark player in me is still scared of falling through the ice and dying a very cold and lonely death because I'm basically a walking murphy's law at this point and that would be my luck 😅😂

PrincessAutumn, I commonly prowl the edge of the ice after every blizzard in CH.  Two types of loot: Type 1 are items that appear on the ice singly or in groups (over a stretch of say 10 paces) that appear about every 5 days without a blizzard in essentially the same locations.  On Voyageur the prized items are rifle cartridges, rifle shell casings, knives, hacksaws, quality tools, cloth, leather, saplings, flares, stims, MRE's, tooks and red longjohns  You can gather prodigious quantities of loot over a 100 days or so of diligent beach combing.  Type 2 are items found only after blizzards and despawn after 3-4 days.  These include fishing boats, canoes, trunks, suitcases, backpacks and filing cabinets.  All of these may contain valuable items including arrows, hatchets, revolver rounds, rifle rounds, sewing kits, matches, flares and various clothing items.  Some Type 2 locations are perfectly safe while others are surrounded by weak ice and are sure to get you dunked.

To deal with the locations where searching for loot will get you dunked I first (1) make a fire nearby, (2) get 1 or 2 teas warming up, (3) take off but do not drop clothing.  Rush to the location and loot till you fall in.  Once dunked in the cold water retreat to the fire, drink the teas, put back on all  clothing and retreat to an area where you can sleep for 12 hours.  In CH Jackrabbit Island house is ideal for recovery while the fishing hut between Jackrabbit and Misanthrope works well - the latter works best if you can make a fire in the pot belly stove.  After a few dunkings it becomes routine.

On 10/15/2023 at 11:11 PM, TiffTastic said:

A whole azz boat. A ton of arrows for some reason, a prybar, 3 hunting knives, 2 hatchets, 1 MRE. Several corpses. This was in one playthrough not one blizzard

I have the boat at the same location just off Jackrabbit Island.  The problem is that the boat and the canoe underneath never despawns.  It has been present for about 300 in game days playing at Voyageur level.  Unfortunately even trying to enter the boat activates the thin ice mechanics - I don't care to get dunked trying to search the boat.

13 hours ago, Sebastian1992 said:

Definitely not, but stalker and below can wash up!

 

Based on long beach combing experience on Voyageur, improvised knives, hunting knives, hatchets and hacksaws all wash up.  Enough can be found that I hoard whetstones as I don't need to worry about wearing out knives and hatchets.  Improvised knives wash up in 100% condition while hatchets are invariably at 51% condition. Improvised hatchest, heavy hammers and prybars do not wash up....at least not on Voyageur.

To date I have not taken on Blackrock or Forsaken Airfield.

Mystery Lake, Milton, Coastal Highway, Pleasant Valley, Timberwolf Mountain, Ash Canyon, Broken Railroad and Desolation Point all serve as a comfortable, long term well provisioned bases of operations.  Bleak Inlet and Hushed River Valley are tolerable despite the timber wolves in the former and the lack of structures in the latter. I have learned to safely transit Forlorn Muskeg on the way to Broken Railroad, Milton and Bleak Inlet but otherwise spend little time in that region.

The same cannot be said for the newest regions.  I am loathe to try to master the complexities of Blackrock and I am put off by the vastness of Forsaken Airfield.  ZOC sounds like another level of scary.

Are there regions your character(s) seldom, or never, visits?

6 hours ago, TiffTastic said:

Yup. The shed office is the site of my longest campfire, 530 hours.

20+ day campfire is seriously impressive. 😃

7 hours ago, hozz1235 said:

Position yourself somewhere where: a) he can't reach you, or b) you are on a ledge with a place to drop down to where he can't reach you.  i.e. use the landscape/terrain to your advantage.

hozz1235, all excellent advice.  Never engage a bear in a fair fight.

On 3/13/2024 at 3:48 AM, Leeanda said:

I really only kill the PV farm one so only about 42  on my 745 day pilgrim  run..   I wish he'd come back ..     I have got 33 moose kills to boost meat supplies on some maps though.

 

Leeanda, I find it more difficult to hunt bears and wolves on Pilgrim as the creatures get scared and run off.  However, apart from killing 3 moose, either for satchel or because they were in the way, I don't hunt moose.  In my opinion they are notably more difficult to deal with than bears.

33 moose I thus find very impressive.

I'm at 102 dead bears on my 1765 day Voyageur run.  That is about one every 17 days. 

Admittedly bears more frequently on Voyageur - every 15 days by my reckoning.

As I think about it, my Will on Voyageur subsists almost exclusively on bear meat for long stretches.

Do you recall numbers of killed bears on long runs?

Although not my favorite base, my character returned to TWM's Mountaineer's Hut preparatory to an excursion into Ash Canyon. 

I realized how stress free the Mountaineer's Hut can be. 

The wolf stays on his side of Crystal Lake unless I chase a deer its way.  The bear conveniently walks by the fishing hut twice a day for a shoot-from-safety bow shot.  Rabbits wander within sight of the Mountaineer's Hut - simplifying clothing repair. Sticks, branches and limbs are readily available.  The work bench avoids having to trek back to the PV Farmhouse for crafting.

Provided you import sufficient cloth and metal this location affords easy, stress free living.  The fishing hut provides a surplus of lamp oil and the fish themselves provide abundant food and vitamin C.

12 hours ago, WillemD said:

On interloper, once you have a bow, you can probably live in Fishing village. If you kill the bear, he will be gone for 40-50 days. If you make a fire outside the fishing hut, you can attract wolves with smell, and shoot them to pacify the area. And you should probably use tinder to make a storm-line on the ice towards the cabin, so you find your way in a blizzard. As for fuel, one trip to the coal mine (PV transition cave) should provide plenty of coal. One full day of fishing combats cabin fever, and you get enough fish to not get scurvy. Still, the area feel unsafe, wolves are quite unpredictable. I think this run, I will try to make a fishing setup in the fishing hut between Jackrabbit and Misanthrope. If need be, I can always retreat to Jackrabbit island.

WillemD, in my experience (admittedly on Voyageur and not Interloper) the fishing hut between Jackrabbit and Misanthrope is the one farthest from known  wolf patrol areas. My favorite fishing huts in CH are the two huts (2 of the 9) with doors.  They make for the easiest sleeping without fear of frostbite, at least on Voyageur.

10 hours ago, Leeanda said:

Am I the only one not finding much beachcombing?    Last time I checked,after a blizzard there were only 6 things,3 of which were so far over the cracked ice I couldn't even get near them..

Leeanda, if I recall you play on Pilgrim and the beach combing bounty should be at least as good as what I experience on Voyageur.  I cannot explain why you have not had better luck with patrolling the edge of the ice.

At last count I have stashed away 144 birch saplings and 43 maple saplings - admittedly some were relocated to CH from other regions but surely 75% were the result of beach combing.  Each of the 9 CH fishing huts has one or more hatchets, knives, hacksaws and tool kits found via beach combing.  I find enough intact arrows so that I do not need to craft arrows.  

Since beach combing was dialed back I find that certain items like boats, suitcases and file cabinets spawn in areas of thin ice.  You just cannot loot those items without falling through the ice.  Its still sufficiently lucrative that I spend weeks at a time in gameplay patrolling the edge of the ice.

On 2/19/2024 at 6:43 AM, WillemD said:

I always used the Fishing Village in Coastal Highway as my main base. Fairly close to a Forge (Riken in Desolation Point), and close to the Carter Hydro-dam. Outdoor cooking & Fishing in the fishing hut. Even after exploring other regions, I always loved coming back to the coast, with the sound of the sea. I also have fond memories of this location recovering from intestinal parasites (on interloper).

However, this was 4-5- years ago. I started a new run a few days ago (after a few years), and it now seems there is a murdering fluffball roaming between the fishing hut and the cabins. Maybe I will live here later when I'm fully geared up, when I can pacify the area first. Otherwise, I need to find another location.

However, on interloper I usually have 1-2 bases per region, and I constantly migrate.

I too favor the Fishing Village in Coastal Highway as my main base.  I have spent hundreds of days in Coastal Highway on my current Voyageur run (Day 1680) and end up accumulating most of my valuable resources (ammunition, arrows, birch saplings, maple saplings, matches) at these cabins.  In addition I have added five rock caches at this location for extra storage.

I periodically travel to ML, MT, PV and TWM to repair clothing and bedrolls stashed at Camp Office, Milton Trailer, PV Farmhouse and the Mountaineer's Hut.  They are all significant bases in their own right but all pale in comparison to my setup at CH's Fishing Village.

The windfalls provided by beach combing (at least on Voyageur) provide a steady supply of birch saplings, maple saplings, cloth, leather and tools as well as occasional matches and rifle rounds.

Living exclusively on the ice at CH is a viable option after stocking each of the 9 fishing huts with 30 kilos of firewood, cured guts, cured hides and extra cloth and leather.  Traveling from fishing hut to fishing hut along well marked paths over the ice all but eliminates unpleasant wildlife encounters.  

The downside to the unwary at the Fishing Village is the bear that walks past the cabins and the wolf that patrols the ice beyond the dock.  Killing the bear every 15 days from the safety of the nearest fishing hut and hunting the wolf from the dock provides for relative peace for long stretches at the Fishing Village.

On 2/3/2024 at 9:19 AM, Semple Fi said:

Very Dark Maple Syrup, Strong Taste
This maple syrup is from sap gathered at the very end of the season and therefore has the strongest taste of all. It adds rich, distinctive maple flavor, as well as nose and color, to sauces and glazes
 

 

Different times of the season produce different colors and flavors, if you really want the full maple flavor, dark maple syrup is the best IMO

I am a fan of the light syrup produced at the very beginning of the sugaring season - in the Mid-Atlantic States of the USA it is known as "light amber" - its subtle flavor and sweetness does not overpower tea.

I cannot think of a time that I could not harvest rabbits in the dark.  Similarly I harvest ptarmigans in the dark prior to kill time before sleeping.

I would be happy for anything but it took less time to build the pyramids than to reconstruct the hinterland merchandise store.

I am finding that fishing is not only possible within Milton Basin but you can fish surprisingly close to the cave I use as a base.   Now I am stocking up on lamp oil to use traversing the ice caves within HRV.

On 1/21/2024 at 6:34 PM, UTC-10 said:

Not in Milton/Mountain Town, but in Hushed River Valley I found that Monolith Lake has suitable ice and much of it GREEN.  

Now if only I could build a tiny log cabin to stay in while hunting and fishing.  If it had a small stove to cook and keep warm and dry that would work pretty well.  

Thanks for the news about fishing at Monolith Lake.  It means a source of lamp oil as the nearest fishing hut would be at Mystery Lake. 

For a long stretch - say 40 in game days - the bear that walks through the CH Fishing cabins area was absent.  Eventually it appeared again and it may be related to me entering and exiting the fishing cabins.

2 hours ago, artmunki said:

The multi-spawns for Barb's and Vaughn's rifles have been popping up quite regularly for a few folks on this forum (myself included - currently have 3 Vaughn's), and I've also had a respawned Woodright's bow too. I'm pretty sure the Sport Bow in the Zone is intended tho - it's a manufactured product after all, so it's not too unlikely to find two on an island where hunting is quite popular, and I haven't yet heard of anyone finding it twice in the same place - always one in the Airfield region and one in the Zone. Not sure I've heard of anyone report multiple Curator's Rifle tho (I haven't found one at all in my current run), nor any of the variant pistols, so it might just be those two rifle variants for some reason. I do have a nagging feeling someone mentioned getting silly numbers of just regular rifles too tho. Multi-spawning various things has been a glitch in the game for a while now.

As for the beachcombing stuff - I've also found a couple of those fishing boats on weak ice, but wasn't brave/foolish enough to stick around long enough to find out what happens when the ice cracks - somehow I just couldn't see the game logic agreeing with what real-world logic would suggest might happen. With the smaller watercraft I can sometimes manage to grab stuff when they're on shaky ground, since it's just sitting loose beside the craft anyway, but I just don't bother with containers on thin ice - learned that lesson the cold way several times. I haven't really seen any of the various containers or boats stick around persistently after a blizzard tho, but it seems like their loose items sometimes do - I often see the loose items from the rowboat or canoe hanging around on their own, and even those from the fishing boat have still been there occasionally, just levitating in place where they had been sitting on the boat. Once I was walking towards a distant fishing boat (on regular ice, not thin) at the Commuter's Lament end of CH when a blizzard hit, and the boat itself despawned right in front of my eyes, just before I reached it. I think I may have posted about it elsewhere on the forum, and I can't actually remember clearly right now, but I think the loose items were left behind, even tho I actually saw the boat vanish. So yeah, that's a thing too, for now. 

These spawning issues were happening before the recent update and hotfix tho - at least since the Frontier Comforts update, and maybe before that - so whatever's causing it just hasn't been fixed yet. They'll sort it eventually, so just be grateful for your bonus booty for now I guess. 

Artmunki, thank you for your detailed response.  It helps greatly.

I agree that containers on thin ice are not worth the bother.  By the time you reach and open it you are going to be through the ice.  I did this once near a fishing hut with a raging fire in the stove.  A quick retreat to the hut and 12 hours of rest set me right again.  I have seen the various scenarios you paint....loot remaining in mid air after the boat is gone, loose loot persisting on the ice after the canoe or row boat despawns and even suitcases spawning inside a wolf carcass on the ice.  Eventually these bugs will be worked out.

Now I have decide what to do with 7 extra Barb rifles.  If only each one came with a few rifle cartridges.  😐

Since the last hotfix (Dec 2023)  I have noticed two strange occurrences in Coastal Highway:

1.  Barb's rifles keeps spawning every few days at the fishing hut where i initially found my Barb's rifle at or about day 50 of my 1400+ day run on Voyageur.  At times I have 2 or 3 at once - pick up one leaning inside the fishing hut and a second or third is still there.  I have assembled a pile of seven extra Barb's rifles outside that fishing hut.

2.  Canoes, fishing boats, suitcases, etc that show up in areas of unapproachable thin ice never despawn.  Those items would vanish after 3-4 only to return at various locations after the next blizzard.  A fishing boat at the end of Jackrabbit Island has been in place on the edge of the ice for 15 days.

At this rate I will soon be harvesting extra rifles for fire wood and extra metal.

Anyone else finding extra rifles?

6 hours ago, odizzido said:

Bears have a set and completely predictable path. What I did when I tried survival mode was just get set up spending my time in a place where the bear paths. Choose a spot where you can safely shoot it and it will just wander to you, no need to hunt it.

I have noticed that bears will change their routes on occasion.  My long term  bases include the Fishing Huts in Coastal Highway and Crystal Lake in TWM. Generally, but not always, the bears pass by the respective fishing huts at those two locations. Pull in the bear, shoot and harvest. 

Sometimes I wait 15-16 days (on Voyageur) for the respawned bear to resume that same route but the bear is nowhere to be found. Seemingly it changes its route but will eventually, say after 30 days, resume its old path.

I noticed something odd during an aurora. 

My character was sleeping in the fishing hut closest to the Coastal Highway fishing cabins.  Normally the bear on its route walks off the road, past the four cabins,  down an incline and onto the ice.  My character slept for a few hours and woke during the aurora.  Peering out the fishing hut toward the cabins the bear came sprinting down the incline onto the ice and along the shore headed in the general direction of the Quonset hut.  To my knowledge the bear was not chasing anything and was not aware of my character's presence in the fishing hut.  I had never seen anything move this fast in the game.