No matches = Game over ?

[Hannibal]

How do you start matches without a fire ?. This seems to me like the only thing that would always kill everyone no matter how far you got.

[IFIYGD]

You can start a fire with cardboard or wooden matches, lit torches, brands or flares, the magnifying lens (if you have a clear day and sunshine to use it) an the firestriker.

Depends on what difficulty mode you are playing as to how rare the matches, flares, firstrikers and mag lenses are. Some people playing Staker and Interloper try to keep a permanenet or semi permanent fire going, to save matches, and degradation of the firestriker. Planned carefully enough, as long as you have a magnifying lens, and start a lonf burning fire, and keep it stoked, on sunny, clear days, you can suvive without matches. No idea how long, but since mag lenses do not wear out, ans long as it doesn't get ruined during a struggle, it's with you until you die. However long that may be.

[Goozie]

beachcombing does not provide matches or mag lenses. IFIYGD is right. Pray for your mag lense to remain healthy forever (do not take it to struggles).
Keeping a perma fire lit is possible but a pain in the a**.
I have done it - perma fire going on for more than 100 days.
But: you have to consider roughly 1/3rd of you day to be wasted with foraging.
and the fire will run for a max of 12 hrs. Which means that you cannot do long exploration trips. CH to TWM and back is possible within 12 hrs if there is no Blizzard.
You basically have to relocate your perma fire for longer trips.

I usually recommend to have a mag lense stowed away near your base, pile up water and food supplies so you can survive a week without cooking.
At least once a time sun comes out (usually during earliest sunrise) where you have a chance to light up the fire using your mag lense and restock your supplies.
And even when you about to deplete your resources you can consume them in a reduced fashion by only eating 300-500kcal a day. This will weaken you but keep you alive until sun rises again.

So running out of matches is not death sentence.

What is more critical is to run out of antiseptics:
Leaving wounds untreated will kill you.

Although you can get old mans beard lichen by beach combing, you will only get a very rare loot. It will take you several in-game weeks to gather enough lichen to craft a single bandage. If you are too careless with our furry friends you might more easily run out of antiseptics.

[Cyndi62]

several in-game weeks to craft a single oldmans beard bandage? really?

[Cyndi62]

3 lichen and 1 cloth bandage.

[Goozie]

it's not about crafting - but under the assumption that all resources are gone. the only renewable resource for old mans beards lichen is beachcombing. It will take a few weeks to wash up 3 of them.

[dubstepdeejay]

Are you guys talking about Interloper? I'm day 140 on Stalker and stacked with matches, 2 lens, 2 firestrikers, 3 hatchets, 4 knifes, 3 hacksaws and I haven't even gone to Pleasent Valley, Timberwolf, Muskeg, and spent only 4 days looting in Mystery Lake buildings/Trappers. 99% of all of my loot is from Desolation and Coastal Highway where I live. I even have 2 orange Parka coats which renders my 2 wolfskin coats useless, and 18 old man bandages, 2 rifles and 15 arrows/6 bows.

I'm literally feeding old cooked meat to wolves as to get rid of it so I can cook a new mound of fish and meat that's been sitting on the ice by Jackrabbit for (in-game) weeks.

Is OP on day 1600 or something?

[just_hamzah]

Originally posted by dubstepdeejay:

Are you guys talking about Interloper..

Is OP on day 1600 or something?

Such situations may come up if you're doing a challenge run where you only try to survive in one location and if you don't find a mag lense. On every difficulty, including interloper, you're guaranteed to find a mag if you try. You don't really need to be in a 1000++ day run. I'm doing a FM stalker run and I can't seem to find my mag lense and I only have 23% firestriker left. Gonna stock up on sticks for a perma fire I guess.