Mystery Lake, New to the game.

[🦍🦍 doug]

Hey guys, just got this game yesterday and I am having so much fun. I found the Camp office /fishing huts on the frozen lake. I've been alive for approx 4-5 days now and just wondering what I can do to take my game to the next level. I basically gather equipment for a fire, go fish with a fire to keep warm then cook the food etc. Then run back to the camp and sleep and basically rinse and repeat. I'm scared if I venture off I will get cold or hungry without enough food to last me. Basically I'm asking how do I eventually start hunting animals. Darn, mid post my fishing tackle wore out so I cant fish anymore. Now i'm stuck for food. I run around and find the little plants that are food but they are very minimal. I've explored all the cabins around the lake and gathered supplies but I'm also wondering how to get a hacksaw, is this a random spawn? What to do next.

Edit: Also looking for any tips that I might not realize can improve the gameplay.

[len186]

You could first start looking for better cloathing. Then you can craft new hooks and carry on fishing. You can look for more way to hunt. Most things are random spawns. You have to explore to survive, everything wares out and you will end up naked if you don't work hard.

[IFIYGD]

Go look into the cabins around the Lake, there may be lot there (food, tools, clothing). Listen and watch for crows. They circle the sky above animal carcasses you can harvest for hids, guts and food, and over human corpses you can loot. Explore... the more you go and explore the world the more good stuff you will find. And being new, expect to die often, while you learn the maps and the transition areas between maps. There are many new locations to find, structures to find and explore, and resources to gather and harvest.

And if you want spoilers, there are guides, lots of them. And a great community here and on the Online forums, who will answer yur questions if they can, and help you.

Welcome to the Long Dark! Enjoy your game, stay warm and stay safe, and get out there exploring! :)

[sockpuppet12421]

Learn to hit "tab" to see what is killing you, water is more important then cold or hunger, learn how those bars interact with the others. Repair your clothes so you can hunt out a bow or rifle. Learn from every death what the comon cause is and how it could have been prevented. Avoid looking at the maps, just learn the area One piece at a time. Get stuck with something, do a search or ask us, we know alot.

[Creation]

My biggest tip is to just explore and learn from your mistakes don't get attached to your character early on because you WILL die at first, don't let it deter you.

[Ginger]

Bring a lot of wood and on a non-windy day, follow the tracks until you find a dead deer. Build a fire next to the deer and harvest everything from it. Make sure to keep the fire going long enough to harvest everything. Then go back home, place the guts and hide on the ground inside your cabin. It will take several days to cure then you can use the guts for crafting.

[RebelSandGaming]

try to fight a bear or fight fluffy in the dam go to timber wolf moutnain climb the summit do challenges killa bigfoot make the clothing in the workbecnh oh and get rid of that thing in the back of my mid my conscience cause ive lost all faith in my life

[Ginger]

Random tip: wind direction matters and will make you colder and will burn out a camp fire faster. If you need to get warm outdoors, you can get behind a rock or something to block the wind (look for the little shield icon in the lower left of your screen, that will tell you you're shielded from the wind).

[Dayve]

The camp office on Mystery Lake is a great place to make your base. It's in the center of the map (more or less) and has good landmarks around it for newbies to find their way back (such as the railroad and the frozen lake).

So... you can make the camp office your base and begin decorating it. By decorating it I mean stacking it full of loot for survival. To do this you'll have to explore, obviously. Equip yourself with some food and water, a knife/hatchet, and some tinder and matches (but not wood) and head out and explore when the weather is good.

Pick up some little twigs along the way. If you find yourself in the middle of nowhere and freezing, make a campfire with the twigs you picked up, warm yourself up and carry on. Mystery Lake has lots of buildings and shelters so if you get lost just pick a direction and walk... you'll most likely find somewhere nice and cosy.

One major thing - don't worry too much about food. When I first started playing I was letting my character eat like a pig. Every time I saw that his food was low I would let him eat. Don't do this, it's a huge waste of food. Let your guy starve. As long as his condition is high it doesn't matter.

The only time you need to eat is at night pretty much. You can let your condition drop during the day to as low as 50%. When night comes, eat around 1,000 calories of food and sleep for 10 hours. In the morning you're back at 100% health. During the day you can eat small amounts periodically so that you're not constantly losing condition due to your food bar being empty.

[deelee58]

I am assuming that your are playing on Pilgrim Mode! To start out that is a good place to start to learn the mechanics of the game. When you feel confident step it up one notch. Voager mode is the next and you will have to learn to avoid the wildlife or defend yourself from it. It is a great starter for the next two modes. I would check out each area before moving into Stalker or Interloper modes. Food gets scarcer and the weather gets harder to survive in. Just explore and keep on your toes. Ask for help here in the forum. We are a group that loves to give tips and will be your cheering section as well. Happy surviving.

[Seal Clubba]

Wait for optimal weather conditions early to midday and explore, explore, explore, explore.

[JiffyPopKids]

Haha. theres already a few really good tips in here already. I'll just add s'more CAUTION there are spoilers.

Always eat before drinking. if you take a long nap of say... 10 hours? you eat then drink. even if you're parched when you eat the food takes your water meter down while eating. so if you eat then drink you wont waste water. its kinda hard to explain just take my advice :p

Dont look at maps! it ruins the fun-exploration... err.. unless you want spoilers :p

Early on you die alot. when I first got the game I was a horrible player lol. Now i know all of the maps by heart. I know all the locations of the bunkers. rifle spawns, etc, When I first got the game I died 5 game hours in mystery lake on voyagure xD Now I have a current run of 150+ days :p not that impressive but its something.

If you repair clothes it gives more warmth. so keep your clothes in Tip-top condition if possible.

Spoilers ahead:! I'll state a few spawns of rifles in mystery lake. Forestry Lookout, Under the bridge to the carter hydro dam, the trappers homestead--- enough spoilers for now ;)

Dont worry about food! like you said you may not know if you might get stuck without food. water is the big thing really. Mysterylake isn't that big of a map so you're bound to find something eventually. trust me you wont run out of food on mystery lake if you keep explorering.

That's just about all. hope anyof this helped? :p

[🦍🦍 doug]

Originally posted by JiffyPopKids:

Haha. theres already a few really good tips in here already. I'll just add s'more CAUTION there are spoilers.

Always eat before drinking. if you take a long nap of say... 10 hours? you eat then drink. even if you're parched when you eat the food takes your water meter down while eating. so if you eat then drink you wont waste water. its kinda hard to explain just take my advice :p

Dont look at maps! it ruins the fun-exploration... err.. unless you want spoilers :p

Early on you die alot. when I first got the game I was a horrible player lol. Now i know all of the maps by heart. I know all the locations of the bunkers. rifle spawns, etc, When I first got the game I died 5 game hours in mystery lake on voyagure xD Now I have a current run of 150+ days :p not that impressive but its something.

If you repair clothes it gives more warmth. so keep your clothes in Tip-top condition if possible.

Spoilers ahead:! I'll state a few spawns of rifles in mystery lake. Forestry Lookout, Under the bridge to the carter hydro dam, the trappers homestead--- enough spoilers for now ;)

Dont worry about food! like you said you may not know if you might get stuck without food. water is the big thing really. Mysterylake isn't that big of a map so you're bound to find something eventually. trust me you wont run out of food on mystery lake if you keep explorering.

That's just about all. hope anyof this helped? :p

I don't really want to look at maps too much to ruin the game I just basically want to learn the basics of surviving. How do you distinguish the weather of the day? How do you repair your clothes?

[IFIYGD]

Repairing clothing requires cloth (or scrap leather for leather footwear), and either a Sewing kit or fishing tackle. Those forst aid its on the walls sometimes have a sewing kit in them. Cloth is tougher to come by on Mystery Lake map. But breaking down chairs with a hatchet, or breaking down excess clothing items, old bedrolls and old pilllows will give you cloth, breaking down leather footwear will give you scrap leather. Curing animal hides will not give you scrap leather, Hides caan only be used to craft or repair crafted animal hide clothing. And in some locations, you can find pieces of cloth or scrap leaher to loot.

Clothing repair is done from the paperdoll clothing UI. Select the item, click the "Actions" button, and either repair or harvest the item. Just pay attention to which action you have highlighted, it can be easy to click the wrong one when you aren;t familiar with they system yet. And be aware that until your Mending Skill has increased, after many successful clothing repairs, you will have many failures. Sometimes many in a row. The success chance is set for that chance on each attempt. If it says 70%, you don't get and average of 7 out of 10 successes, you get a roll of RNG that gives you a 70% chance on that attempt. Each time. It can be frustrating at times, but it gets easier as you Skill level goes up. Choose which clothing you want to repair wisely. And you cannot sew to repair in the dark, so look at how much dy aylight you have left, and the repair tie needed before starting.

Weather? Well, the sounds, the look of the sky, animal behavior (some critters will go into hiding before and during a big blizzard). Just pay attention to what happens in the world around you, before a blizzard or windstorm kicks up. You'll learn the sounds and signs of imending bad weather fairly quickly. . And if you are indoors, you can hear sounds of increasing wind, usually a sign that it isn;t too nice outside, and travel should be limited.

[sockpuppet12421]

Tab opens a menu to tell how cold it is, looking at it (sky) will help too. Clothing menu is opened with "C" by default. Holding space opens more menus that break into some more options, play around in them and if it looks better, do it.

[numbertwopencil]

There are some interesting climbs a short distance from the Camp Office, at least two that I can think of. They are generally fairly rewarding climbs and they have great views--you'll get a better sense of the lake and the map in general if you climb on a clear day--and while there are some dangers they are some of the safer climbs in the game.