Blizzard Walker

Hinterland needs to remember the six P's.

I received the email AFTER all the mugs were sold out. Thanks for nothing Hinterland.

All mugs sold out. More Hinterland FUBAR.😭

I am ready to order with credit card in hand.

Leeanda, I certainly second your opinion about Grey mothers. My issues are the lack of deer and too many wolves. Any time I have tried setting up a base at Grey Mothers I invariably run short of food. In comparison the Trailer beyond the church on the way to Spruce Falls Bridge represents a safe place for me with ready access to rabbit, deer and the periodic moose. Adequate site distance thereabouts let me avoid wolves. A location I loathe as a base is Quonset and its surrounding town site structures. The roaming bears and wolves make that area too dangerous in my opinion. For me that entire town site is a loot and leave location. Broken Railroad's Hunting Lodge lacks sufficient food for a long stay. Anything I find of value at that location, and everywhere else in Broken Railroad, I stockpile at the Maintenance Yard. With a bit of patience I find that I can kill the wolves that infest the Maintenance Yard every few days from the safety of the windows and door.

Useful items found after one blizzard in CH (playing Voyageur): 1 whetstone, 1 stim, 1 MRE, 1 rifle cartridge, 1 rifle round casing, 1 knife, 1 quality tools and 1 spray paint. Canoe and row boat spawning with the usual arrows and hatchet. No fishing boats lately.

hozz1235, you are spot on with your observations. After one dunking I gave up on trying to reach trunks or backpacks well within the thin ice boundary. I have found 1 quality tools since the changes but none of the knives, hacksaws, rifle cartridges and rifle shell casings I had been finding regularly. I still find an occasional blue flare or MRE. Birch saplings and broken arrows are proving abundant.

Beachcombing seems to have tuned down substantially sometime during September. In game (Voyageur) I exited Coastal Highway for about 100 game days to visit PV and TWM. Upon returning I noticed various changes: (1) more thin ice conditions in areas where post blizzard items show up, (2) different locations for the items that wash up every week or so with or without blizzards and (3) a marked reduction in high value items on the ice like tool kits, flare shells, rifle rounds, rifle cartridges, knives and hacksaws. Fish are less common. About the only items seemingly unchanged are clothing found in suitcases, trunks and lockers. Fortunately I hoarded a good deal of loot beachcombing loot for my current Voyageur run while I could.

I agree with Glflegolas that Monolith Lake makes for a much better long term base with the addition of free form fishing. Improved fishing provides for abundant food and lamp oil - just bring enough fishing tackle. Monolith Lake still falls short of my expectations for long encampments. My idea of a long term stay is 100+ days. I will park my character at the Coastal Highway fishing cabins or TWM's Crystal Lake for long stays. I view Coastal Highway as the best such location due to the availability of cloth, leather, metal and saplings via beach combing. A fair amount of cloth and metal can be accumulated at the Mountaineer's Hut even without trekking back to the PV Farmhouse. I would view Monolith Lake as comparable to my two favorite long term locations IF bears and wolves visited the lake. I say this as I rely on a steady supply of wolf, bear, deer and rabbit hides to maintain clothes and the bear bedroll. Having to import wolf and bear hides in addition to cloth and metal make Monolith Lake less desirable in my opinion.

I prefer to never engage a bear in a fair fight. Playing on Voyageur I can use the revolver, rifle, bow or flare gun. I prefer the bow when my character reaches Archery 5 and set aside low condition arrows specifically for bear hunting. The wounded bear may run but the broken arrow remains behind. When hunting on the ice (CH Fishing Camp, Mystery Lake Lone Cabin or Bleak Inlet Cannery Workers Residence) I use the fishing huts closest to the bear's route as my preferred hunting locations. The Riken's outside deck serves the same purpose. Pulling the bear into close range with stones, scent or just standing in plain sight allows me to take a bow shot from the fishing hut entryway. When no fishing hut is available I opt for high ground accessible to my character but not the bear or a conveniently placed car/truck. It just takes one arrow to kill the bear - it is uncommon for me to use a second arrow unless I want to be more certain it will drop next to the fishing hut. I stock up on stones for my favored fishing huts to keep a wounded bear in close proximity. Having a nearby fishing hut simplifies harvesting and cooking bear meat. After developing an ample supply of bear hides and uncooked bear meat I continue to hunt bears simply to buy 15-16 days of peace not having to worry about stumbling into a bear.

I will let you know if one turns up walking the ice.

New item for me (playing Voyageur) beach combing at CH: Dusting Sulfur.

Leeanda, I cannot account for the variation in beach combing contrasting your experience with mine (Voyageur). I keep an inventory of what I have stashed away. At the CH Fishing Cabin location I have 11 knives, 21 hatchets and 18 hacksaws - almost entirely due to beach combing. In addition I have perhaps another 8 hatchets stashed at the two fishing huts that flank Jackrabbit Island. I use hatchets for all cutting tasks and care little if they wear out as I can harvest them for 2 metal and one fir firewood. It is accurate to say that I am finding them more quickly than I can wear them out. The great prize on Voyageur when beach combing are rifle cartridges plus empty rifle shell casings. If I see any main change in beach combing loot it is in the appearance of the fishing boat. It is much less frequent. However, I am still finding a fair amount of red and blue flares plus occasional prizes like 100% condition fisherman's sweaters.

Red toolboxes are very common finds via beach combing these days..At last count I have 16 toolboxes stashed at the CH Fishing cabins and adjacent fishing huts - playing on Voyageur. Most were found via beach combing and most are the red toolboxes. If metal was scarce in CH I might start breaking down toolboxes for their metal.

I have not seen the fishing boat for a while - playing on Voyageur. It is rarer since the cooking update. When it does spawn after blizzards it has been invisible more often than visible. When invisible the loot within such as fish, flares,canned food, clothing, etc. is floating above the surface of the ice ready to be plucked out of the air.

I believe the classic mechanics of items washing up are still operating as usual with the addition of special wash ups during blizzards. What I do find on Voyageur is that the classic mechanics wash up items now include interesting items like marine flares, MRE's, knives, saws, rifle shell casings, rifle rounds, arrows (whole and broken) and wires in addition to the usual sticks, cedar limbs, fir limbs, cloth, metal, leather, birch saplings and maple saplings. Even if I don't want the items (like cattail heads) I am sure to take them or at least move them to allow something else to spawn. Post blizzard items can include just about everything you find in the game except the highest tier clothing and heavy hammers. My most recent lucky find was Maple Syrup. After the last blizzard in CH I found the special wash up items in suitcases, lockers, etc but the classic mechanic items were missing - pointing to them being triggered separately. In CH after intensive beach combing over 300 days I have a huge surplus of hatchets, knives, saws, marine flares, maple saplings and birch saplings. Over 40 found rifle shell casings will make the trip to the ammunition work bench more productive. Diligent searching has added about 20 rifle rounds to my inventory.

Thank you Leeanda, off I go to climb the rope to TWM and repair my extra clothes stored at Crystal Lake.

Thank you Dan.

Has the problem regarding rope climbs been resolved by the latest fixes? My character has been in CH and BI for some time and I have not had occasion to try rope climbing. I had heard the climbing stamina had become linked to sprinting ability leading to difficulty climbing ropes even with crampons. I am wondering if this issue has been solved.

Update - The last bear killed in CH is exhibiting the same bouncing bear effect. It does so until it despawns.

Even before the December 2022 game update sticks and branches were scarce (playing on Voyageur) around the Cannery Workers Residences and broken Lighthouse island. It was a continued struggle to build up a supply of fuel to cook bear meat and fish. Fuel was so scarce that I was always careful to do my bear cooking at the broken lighthouse's 6 burner stove. The most reliable spot for sticks and branches was around the bear cave - I would work this area hard in the 10 days after killing the bear that resided at that cave. Coal would reliably spawn about once a week in the Cannery workers residence area. Stones were notoriously scarce in that area as well.

Today I killed the third bear since the update. This one was at the fishing hut in CH nearest to Misanthrope Island. Unlike the 1st bear killed at this location post update it stayed quite dead - no bouncing bear effect.

I have had no success using the fishing holes within fishing huts since the update. Making a fishing hole in the ice just beyond the fishing hut has led to traditional results - about 2 fish per hour on Fishing 5. At CH that means trout and salmon. I stay within the fishing hut and use a fishing hole in the ice just beyond the threshold of the hut. Using a lure led to less fish per hour and those included only the new exotic species - rockfish being the common catch with the irish red lord being caught once. To date I have crafted but not used the new unattended fishing pop up. To date I have not used any bait.

Thanks for adding that detail about drying off coins at an outside fire. I will remember to drop wet clothing items and then immediately pick them up to let them dry as my character wears them.

I have seen the seen similar dead bear performances with the two bears I have killed since yesterday's update. The first time when I returned to a CH fishing hut after killing a bear it was quite unnerving.