How do I light this BBQ?

[Itharus]

It has planks. I have a notched board and sturdy stick, it says I can light it... but it never catches. What am I missing? It says it should have tons of light time in there.

[Itharus]

Do you need to have some sort of particular fuel in there? I did eventually get it to light after adding two pieces of paper, but it took like 6 more attempts. Wore me out.

Is this method improved by any particular skill? Or is it designed to just be really crappy?

[Kurogo]

You need 3 things to light fires: fuel, tinder and ignition. You had the fuel, but lacked tinder until you used paper. Other paper items and twigs will also work for kindling.
As for ignition: notched board method is the slowest and most exhausting. Matches and lighters work far better. I haven’t tried with a blowtorch so you could give that a try too.

[Itharus]

I had 1 twig in there. Does there need to be a certain amount of kindling? I didn't have any success until there were 2 pieces of paper (and 1 twig) in there. Do you need a ratio akin to the campfire materials?

Also even with that stuff it still took half a dozen attempts. Is there a skill that makes lighting a fire like that more successful?

[stevasaur]

You don't actually need kindling/tinder unless you're using matches or a lighter to start the fire. I just tested by throwing a log in an empty charcoal BBQ and using Notched Plank+Tree Branch to light it.

Sometimes the notched plank method catches the first time: sometimes it takes several attempts. IME, it takes more attempts on average if you're already tired when starting the process. But it's the only method of lighting a fire with sustainable materials, so it makes sense that it is less effective than matches/lighters.

[Itharus]

Right on. Is it skill linked or just pure RNG?

Also the charcoal BBQ doesn't smoke you out indoors for some reason. Not sure why... but I'll take it.

[Itharus]

Man, just started playing this game again and it took 30 hours of consistent trying to light the fire, lol. There's gotta be some dang trick, or skill.

Edit: tiredness/exhaustion levels have a huge impact on success rates. If totally exhausted you can't even try, apparently. So... wait between attempts.

[Shenji]

Just dump it with zombie clothes, save your log.

[Ryukan]

Its a low chance of lighting the fire with the notched plank, 1/300 for every game tick if i remeber correctly, and also 1/300 for breaking the stick. The only thing that makes it quicker is the ''Outsdoorman" trait, wich increases it to 1/150 and chance to break to 1/450. The only other thing you can do is sit in the ground while trying so you can counter the endurance loss.

[Itharus]

They should allow a stick and some thread to make a bow to use with the notched plank that makes the success rate much higher :)

[Itharus]

Originally posted by Ryukan:

Its a low chance of lighting the fire with the notched plank, 1/300 for every game tick if i remeber correctly, and also 1/300 for breaking the stick. The only thing that makes it quicker is the ''Outsdoorman" trait, wich increases it to 1/150 and chance to break to 1/450. The only other thing you can do is sit in the ground while trying so you can counter the endurance loss.

Sitting on the ground helped a LOT.

I think any degree of fatigue/tiredness massively destroys your chances or something. Doing it while sitting increased my odds to like 1:4 or 1:5. Thanks man, that did the trick!

Edit: you don't get fatigued doing this while sitting.