ChaosInEquilibrium

Something similar happened in my run a few weeks ago. I was hunting the bear by the cabin lake house on mystery lake. He was about 40 feet from the house, tracking me, and I put an arrow in him. Then he began to charge me, so I ducked inside the house for cover. I crouched and came back outside and he was resuming his stroll around the lake with my arrow stuck in him. So I go inside to chop some firewood and hope to let him bleed out. After 2 hours I came back outside and there was NO bear on mystery lake. I promptly quit the game and restarted pulling the save back to the moment I entered the house (and before I chopped firewood). I go back outside and the bear is just strolling. It does seem like the buggy animal behavior is back — very reminiscent of issues I recall having a couple years ago with animals disappearing when you enter indoor environments.

Agree with post above that using flare gun is not necessarily a good strategy. Flare shells are the most valuable ammunition. I am not even sure how the flare gun will work on T-wolves. They might lower the pack morale a bit, but you’re not likely to drop a T-wolf in 1 shot or anything. If you just want to lower pack morale a more efficient method is to build a campfire and chuck torches at the wolves. The campfire will hold the T-wolves at bay. The campfire does act as a deterrent. Checkout some vids on YouTube to see how Twolves react to torches/fire. My one suggestion is to bring lots of arrows to Blackrock (if you decide to go — personally I think it isn’t worth it). Like 30 arrows is not overkill. Those suckers will run off with your arrows. You might lose an arrow for every T-wolf that you kill. Also bring a 100% condition bow. You might miss 4 shots for every hit that you make — each missed shot will deteriorate your bow.

Also the hunter’s blind by Alan’s cave! I think I’ve had it spawn there but not at the other locations. OP, I did a day 5 summit from a AC spawn (so I did have plenty of cloth for the snow shelter by the base of the last rope climb, unlike the TWM spawn which gives you none) and all I can say is: it’s not worth it IMO. The only loot that degrades before day 40ish is the container with the canned food. Better to find the bedroll and get the bow and arrow first. Makes the whole journey much safer and less wasteful of matches. IMO. I prefer instead to rush HRV after I get the bow and arrow, for the guaranteed wool ear wrap and mackinaw jacket. Loot all of MT along the way. Then return to TWM by day 40ish. good luck!

Can I ask you a question since you have a lot of experience on IL? I know the drop torch aim rock trick for scaring off wolves. It seems to work 100%. First Q: Can I am my bow and arrow instead of aiming a rock and will it have the same effect? Second Q: Another method to scare wolves is to throw the torch at them after they’ve begun their charge. This used to work 100% for me, or so I thought. However recently I’ve noticed that sometimes the wolf will stop their charge in front of the torch and start growling at me. This seems to be the case especially when I’m overencumbered. If this happens, and the wolf starts growling at the thrown torch, I presume I can just take out a rock and aim at them and they’ll flee?

Desolation Point is not so difficult if you are willing to ration food using starvation tactics in early game. But if you want the well fed bonus by day 3, it can be a serious issue for the DP start due to lack of food. Basically, like others said, you have to leave DP on day 2 or 3 to search for food in CH. About food: there is usually a fish washed near the Hibernia docks, there are rabbits on the island near Riken and Katie’s Secluded corner has rabbits and a deer carcass. Also some rabbits near the stone church. Enough food to last a few days, but then you have to scoot to CH. Problem is, if you return to DP later you’ll find it empty of food. Which is why a DP start usually means that I use FM for my first forge run (and to collect extra cattails). Honestly, when I get a DP start I usually just end the game and re-roll for a better start. It’s not difficult per se, but it’s not a fun start in the slightest.

Maybe you’re the right person to ask. On my only HRV start I got the southern signal fire, which I know is accessible without a hatchet. Signal fire grants the mackinaw jacket, hammer, and sewing kit, I believe. But is the northern signal fire accessible without a hatchet? If so, you can always get full tools on HRV independent of the randomized loot tables. It’s definitely a significant advantage to have full tools available with set spawn points on one map. To be fair, I don’t know whether I would call HRV start “easy”. It definitely requires significant map knowledge to know how to navigate the ice cave systems to get from Hushed River to the signal fire locations. I had to watch a YouTube walkthrough to figure out the ice cave layout. AC has to be one of the hardest starts if you want to fully loot the map before leaving. No guaranteed bedroll and you have a quarter day trek and to hit multiple tough rope climbs in succession to get to the gold mine.

For regular difficulty starts, my favorite is TWM. You can loot the mountaineer’s hut and nearby fishing hut and find guaranteed matches, gloves, usually a jacket, and usually a tool. Then head immediately to PV. More recently I’ve discovered the awesome nature of HRV and AC starts. Specifically, HRV on interloper provides: guaranteed Mackinaw jacket, combat pants, wool ear wrap, bedroll, Hacksaw, Hammer, and several boxes of matches. AC is great for the technical backpack and crampons, but has less of the other guaranteed high-tier loot. Overall, I think HRV wins as the best start on interloper, at least for me. DP has to be my least favorite start. Guaranteed matches in Hibernia, but that’s about it. Sometimes a bedroll. Usually no Hacksaw and never a hammer. Plus it’s a dead end zone. If you return to use the forge in early game, you’ll find the region already looted. Not a good deal. Bleak Inlet is not an interloper spawn map AFAIK. I think Broken Railroad isn’t either, but I’m not sure.

Timberwolf mountain is a great start. The classic route is to go to PV (Prepper Cache —> Barn —> Farm —> Signal Hill). Hopefully by that point you’ll have a hacksaw and can start cutting Birch/Maple. From Signal Hill go to the cave that leads to the river that leads to the Dam in ML.Then you can head to the ravine to get an early game Flare Gun. After, head to Costal Highway and continue the search for the hacksaw if you didn’t find it in PV. Then head to DP for your forge work. Alternately, you can stay to loot ML and head to FM for the forge. A more advanced early route is to head from Timberwolf Mountain to Ash Canyon with the eventual goal to reach the gold mine to find Crampons and Technical Backpack, and hopefully a hacksaw/bedroll, and then back to Timberwolf to reach summit by day 7 (need hacksaw to obtain loot at summit). This route is quite difficult because you need to use torches to scare wolves in the narrow stretches of the basin of Ash Canyon.

On interloper I emphasize keeping my weight low. Coal has the highest burn time per weight ratio. It’s the best bang for the buck! When I leave the house for a hunting or looting expedition I’ll often take 1 stick and 5 pieces of coal. The stick is used to light the fire and the coal to fuel it.

Yes, one steak doesn’t trigger a scent bar. IIRC 3 cooked steaks trigger the first scent bar. But did you read the thread I linked? It contradicts what you said. A single steak does affect the tracking behavior of wolves. What I said is also not entirely accurate. Let me clarify. The wolves tracking radius is determined from an explicit formula in the base code of Long Dark. Tracking radius is determined by the players scent value and wind direction. If the distance between player and wolf is less than tracking radius, wolf always tracks the player. For simplicity, assuming no wind: Tracking radius is proportional to (Player Base Scent Value + Total Item Scent Value)*(multiplicative difficulty factor) For example, say, interloper, difficulty factor =2, stalker difficulty factor = 1, etc. Item Scent Value is a sum of values determined by players inventory (cooked Steak=5,Rabbit Carcass=30, Animal Quarter=50,etc) If Total Item Scent Value is more than 15, it triggers a scent bar. That’s why 2 cooked steaks don’t trigger a scent bar, but 3 cooked steaks do. So, wolf tracking radius will increase as you carry additional steaks despite the fact that 2 steaks don’t trigger a scent bar. This information is drawn from a Reddit thread from a few years ago. Exact numbers might not be accurate, but that’s the gist of it. Here’s the link: I’ve been playing Interloper exclusively since 2018, and this description of wolf behavior is consistent with my experience. EG, in my current run I was cooking meat from a bear corpse on Coastal Highway in the near presence of a triad of wolves near the logging camp, and after I collect a steak, wolves begin tracking, when I drop the steak wolves stop tracking. It’s predictable behavior.

This isn’t true AFAIK. Carrying one steak won’t trigger the scent bar, but will still cause wolves to track you. This is how it works in interloper, at least. I suspect stalker is the same. See here for more: https://steamcommunity.com/app/305620/discussions/0/2666627242544778689/