How do you explore the caves????

[gamerhelligon]

I am 78 hours into the game and have only done minor cave exploration on 1 or 2 saved games. I know all the good stuff is down there but how do you explore them with no freaking lights???

What I mean is you wrap cloth around a weapon or stick and light it..cool but it lasts less than 30 seconds and lights up about a 2 foort area around me. The lighter puts off more light than the "torch" you make with cloth on a weapon, and lets face it the lighter only works about 10% of the time when you need it.

I tried to use logic (silly me) and figured the more cloth you put on it, the longer it will burn and the brighter it will be.....WRONG!!!! I had about 90 cloth on me and maxed out the plane axe with speed and damage (from teeth) so I figured..let's put about 25 cloth on this thing and go cave exploring. Well about 30 seconds after I lit it..POOF it goes out and have to reapply cloth again. Put about 30 more on it and 2 swings and hits on the cannibles in there...poof lights out.

I'm stuck in a catch 22 now. I need a flashlight A.K.A. torch to explore caves but it is in the cave...AHHHH!!!!

Any tips for this problem? I have tried the lighting trick in the options and have tried all the settings (original, texas, modern, ect, ect) but it doesn't help much or makes it worse. I tried using the modapp thing which gave the cave lights, but it messed with my game and made the recent dead bodies I made disappear, plus I like playing games the way they are MADE to play. I hate modding it up when I shouldn't have to.

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

[ELDERBLIVION]

I put those standing skull lamps all over the place. Lights up the paths pretty good.

[maria_kalista]

Try color grading blockbuster as shown at the bottom here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=703441108

I don't mind dark but this game is made so artificially pitch black dark that it turns the whole thing from scary to plain annoying. Other then that it's a great game though. :)

[Me]

Add alcohol to your torch for a longer burn time. Stick, cloth, alcohol or axe, cloth, alcohol. The caves are suppose to be dark. Changing the settings breaks emerssion for me.

[Brigadier Elm]

Originally posted by Crush:

Add alcohol to your torch for a longer burn time.

[hapy krakhed]

Maria is on the right track. I go into options, color grading at the bottom and hit the left arrow. It changes it to M131. screen looks a bit hazy but it lightens things up. Also, there are two locations for the flashlight. One in in the cave where you get the katana, just off to the side behind some boards you have to break. And the other location is in the cave with the rebreather, but based on your writtings I don't think you'll like what's in that cave. So recommend going for the one with the katana. You hear the mutant canibals but don't have to fight them. Easy pick'ens.

[hahalou88]

I always play with my colour grading on 'Super'. It really helps being able to walk the forest at night with no lights as to not attract the cannibals, and works great in the caves, as well. I usually stick to this for as long as possible, but if I find I need a little more light, I use the lighter, which usually provides just enough extra light to be able to see a little more clearly.

If you want to use the burning stick or axes, do what Crush said, and combine booze to the stick/axe with the cloth around it - it definitely makes it last longer!

[CarFaxxx]

I've noticed that sticks tend to burn a lot longer than weapons, and combing booze with a stick torch makes one that can burn for about two minutes. And as the others said, M131 is a great help when exploring caves, not to mention nights in the forest above.

[Syncourt]

I like the natural colour setting as it really adds to the atmosphere of the caves and to me personally doesn't feel like I'm cheating as opposed to the unnatural ones. I generally just use the lighter because it provides a constant light source and can be held in my offhand. I occasionally whip out the plastic torch just for large open cave areas as it provides good distant light for scanning for items or enemies. I find the craftable torches don't let off enough extra light in comparison to the lighter and being held in my main hand is drawback enough for me to avoid them.

I usually place a standing skull lamp at every tunnel link, rotated to face the nearest exit for navigation. The lamps seem to provide less light than any other light source in the game does so they're not very helpful for providing vision, but they can be seen from a distance and easily guide you from A to B and provide a good reference point for navigating larger cavern areas. Only problem is the skull carry limit is low so you often have leave the caves and stock up in order to keep the navigation system going. This is another reason I don't use craftable torches is because they chew up your sticks required for lamps.

What I have noticed though is that the burning arrows tend to give off a decent amount of light, they dont expire like torches do, they provide a strong means of combat while equipped so it doesn't matter about occupying your main hand, they allow you to keep your lighter on stand by as a backup light source and they can be put away to save wasting the arrow by opening your inventory and swapping out the bow. It only depends if you want to walk around holding the mouse button.

[hapy krakhed]

Syncourt mentioned the lamps. This is a good idea, helps from getting lost. But once you upgrade a stick to use as a torch it never goes away. So, this does not effect your stick count. Also, the issue with skulls, if you did kill any canibals in the cave you can burn them to aquire new skulls. Yes I do understand that there isn't an abundance of canibals in the caves and the will despawn after time. Maybe they should add a random respawn to when canibals will reappear in caves.

[WORLDSTAR]

As others said, alcohol increases the duration of the 'torch' not cloth. Also don't get too hyped for the actual torch that you'll eventually find in the caves. It's light is far from good and the battery runs out wayy too quickly.

Originally posted by ELDERBLIVION:

I put those standing skull lamps all over the place. Lights up the paths pretty good.

This is brilliant.

[Shona (vincit omnia veritas)]

Originally posted by maria_kalista:

Try color grading blockbuster as shown at the bottom here:

This!
I play with it since i have the game and it is better then pitch black and a torch.

[Damnion]

Originally posted by maclean.kevin.r:

Maria is on the right track. I go into options, color grading at the bottom and hit the left arrow. It changes it to M131. screen looks a bit hazy but it lightens things up. Also, there are two locations for the flashlight. One in in the cave where you get the katana, just off to the side behind some boards you have to break. And the other location is in the cave with the rebreather, but based on your writtings I don't think you'll like what's in that cave. So recommend going for the one with the katana. You hear the mutant canibals but don't have to fight them. Easy pick'ens.

You forgot the flashlight next to the modern axe in the cave that leads to the bottom of the sinkhole.

I prefer playing in blockbuster myself. Helps you see but doesn't feel as cheetish as using super. And on a side note, you can drop easily visible skull lamp blueprints without filling them in to track where you've been in a cave. They don't cost anything, and you can see em from pretty far away in the dark. Just make sure the room is clear of cannibals then go back and place a skull in the middle of the room and at each entrance, maybe a double lamp at the one leading back up, or if you can tell what direction there facing have the skulls pointing toward it. I just light up the whole cave system myself but thats just my ocd kicken in.