Savages keep detecting me

[Shame]

To my understanding, if the player is out of sight during the night and the light sources don't cross through the baricades, you are generally fine. Except I'm not. What am I missing here? Do they hear me? Do they detect me in a radius? I'm in the Silent Forest, btw and cowering in the room right next to one where the crafting bench is at. I've seen a playthrough employ my method and have way more success than me. For some reason the savages appear to always detect me.

[Ivy]

No monster knows you're there (maybe except banshee, it always feels like they know). They just explore your hideout attacking any barricade they come across. You can still potentially hide from them.

[Shame]

Originally posted by Ivan the Space Gopnik:

No monster knows you're there (maybe except banshee, it always feels like they know). They just explore your hideout attacking any barricade they come across. You can still potentially hide from them.

They very much attacked as if they knew where I was. One of them path-found themselves around a maze of the area and I could hear gunning towards me, but got stuck for a very long time until I started moving. Then 2 of them just broke in through one place I really do not like them breaking in through.

EDIT: just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rage quit, I can't stand these pieces of ♥♥♥♥, having 3 of them coming at me almost at the same time, while some other event is occurring. Not even a molotov is enough! I'm starting to think barricading is completely useless and I should just set traps everywhere and invest in ammo somehow. May be in the normal mode I should just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ skip the night.

I did have banshee attack me in one of the nights and dealt with it and its gremlins well using a molotov. Then three savage ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ showed up and the last one ♥♥♥♥♥♥ me up. I don't know what to do about these goblins anymore. The super annoying thing is that your melee attacking is way slower than you expect (the charge should be 1/3 shorter and attack execute should be near-instantaneous, which is the only way I can expect to have my attack interval when using a shovel).

The most annoying ones are ones with staffs; they attack faster, they have a a range further than you and each one has the same health pool as you, what am I supposed to do?! 4/5 deaths it is them!

[Mirage Seraph]

You need to just fight back. Hiding might work in the first two hideouts but you're in for a rude awakening very soon. So don't hide, invite them in and kill them efficiently. Barricades aren't good for keeping things out, they're good for stalling and rerouting enemies so that 3 enemies don't raid you at once. So leave one window without boards and trap it to kill it as fast as possible. Retrap it.

In addition, trap corners and entryways you don't want to defend. Where I bunker in hideout 2 there's a spot with 3 doors all in one small room, I tend to barricade 2 of those doors and leave the last one open and just trap it in several spots. Seems to be a hotspot for savages, but I like to be near doors so whatever. Then I stay in the hallway between that and the backroom with 2 boardable windows, I board the window facing the outside and leave the window facing the rest of the building trapped.

If a window is getting smashed and nothing is at the open window, trap that boarded window, manually remove the barricade if possible to conserve resources and time. Kill, re-barricade, return to the open window or wherever you feel safest.

If 2-3 enemies do get in somehow, it happens, especially big dogs, then it just depends on what you have. Hideout 2, I will just get my lantern and run outside and fight in the open. It's really not that dangerous to be outside if you're already under attack, I think there's a limit to the number of spawns around your base, but that's just my assumption. Hideout 3 you need guns though, it's very hard to defend otherwise.

Leave at least 2 traps in your bag, a molitov, a lantern/flashlight swap, pills on hotbar with bandages in bag, and your best melee weapon and gun if you have it. Don't rely on healing perks, and Third Eye (I think it's called that) is one of the best perks in the game for night time defending. Lastly, just in case you're not, press M3. It's an instant melee swipe that does slightly less damage but consumes more stamina. Charge is way better most of the time, but M3 swipe comes in clutch here and there.

Hope that helps. Game is frustrating, it's extremely punishing, but it's never been unfair in my experience. (Well, okay one time a big dog hid behind a tree and killed my permadeath run, I was kinda salty about that one)

[Shame]

Thanks for the advice. I was still in the second hideout and I really should have just put more traps around places, but the problem was that all of the savages came in at once, at least one with a staff, which is the most dangerous. I realise there are also mechanics that I don't take use of, like spraying gasoline and lighting it with a match stick or dodging. I switched back to using a board with nails from using a shovel because its attack rate is faster and I can at least get a feel for the attack rate better as opposed to the shovel, where most hits I expect to hit, it just can't do it in time. So it's good to upgrade the plank's durability as well as its damage.

[ashrasmun]

Well, you think that the savage with the stick is the most dangerous, but it all depends on your playstyle. This game really punishes people, who are too stubborn to learn how to survive. Keep in mind, that being in second hideout is right after tutorial zone - you just only start to encounter dangerous enemies.

I have never gotten 3 savages at the same time, even on hard mode mod. You must be doing something strange so that you gather them up. If you hear something fishy happening in the hideout, you should react accordingly. Same goes with events. For example, when I hear a "bug event" starting, I immediately pick up the lantern and run around the hideout to destroy all of them. There is a possibility that you will encounter other enemies on your way, but I highly doubt you will be swarmed by savages.

Savages are not going to rush to you if there's no light next to you, and there's a slim chance they are going to ignore you overall if you have a light setup in a different place as they tend to favor search in lit places and get bored if they find nothing. I wouldn't rely on it tho. My strategy during first playthrough, was to keep unlit lamp next to me and when I hear someone being close (not in the second building) I immediately lit the lamp and "started" the defense, which sometimes happened around 2:00 instead of 22:00.

Remember, that if you don't feel competent enough to kill everything, you don't need to. You only need to survive. Running away is a tactic too. Yes, you can just run around the house for last two hours, but you need to be focused and not get into any corners / traps.

Skills help immensely - In your situation, Scream would be perfect. You use the skill, kill two savages during the fear effect and then just fight with the remaining one.

It's hard to write down all the tips... It all boils down to whether you want to learn from your mistakes or rage on forums :)

[Shame]

Fair. I have now reached the third hideout and have forgotten to get booze for the bike dude, so most of my stuff is still at the second hideout. So far survived one night here, but without the rest of my stuff, this won't last for sure. If I drip gasoline on the floor, it will dry up, just like the glass goes away on day-break, even if it's not used up, right?

[Ivy]

It stays until you burn it. Also glass doesn't go away until something steps on it.

[Mirage Seraph]

I don't think I've ever actually used gasoline strats. Tbh probably pretty good in hideout 3 cause it's all corridors. Anyways yeah, since you're at hideout 3, savages with staves are far from your worst problem by now. That said, glad you're still playing. Also remember that you can always go back to your previous hideout, but I'm assuming you either already did that or got alcohol by now.

As for any advice I can offer for Hideout 3... Not much. I generally speedrun that part of the game so I only spend 2-3 nights at it. I don't think it even matters too much where you bunker, but I always use the room with a window facing outside and a broken generator in the corner. The entire place kinda sucks and if you get the disabled lamp event you need to move somewhere else so trap spamming can backfire hard. As unhelpful as it be, save up ammo for chompers and big dogs, and learn to melee the savages.

Tip for staff savages, you don't need to do anything fancy. Charge your weapon, walk in front of them, they'll always do one of two things. A single downward smash, or a 1-2 swipe. Just wait for the animation, works everytime, no need to waste ammo unless there's more than one. And as that guy mentioned, Scream is a fantastic perk. Always take it. You'll definitely want it for a certain location later on.