Clothing discussion (best in slot, etc.)

[wilky]

I've never seen a serious discussion about clothing, and I've been nerding out about numbers since the weekend, so I thought I'd open up a topic about Best In Slot clothing choices. I was honestly a little surprised about some of these when I started looking at the numbers myself. Feel free to give a shout-out to any items I missed... and I don't have Interloper experience, so somebody else might wish to chime in & mention which of these can't be found on Interloper. All units in metric (*C / kg).

So what do you guys think, what are your ideal choices? Do you always favor temperature bonus? How highly do you value mobility in your choices?

HEAD-
Rabbitskin Hat: 2* temp, 1.5* wind, 30% water, 4% prot, 0% run, 0.35 kg
Wool Toque: 2* temp, 1* wind, 30% water, 2% prot, 0% run, 0.25 kg
Balaclava: 2* temp, 1.5* wind, 30% water, 3% prot, 0% run, 0.25 kg

^The Rabbitskin Hat is the best choice for the outer layer. Interestingly, the Wool Toque and Balaclava are functionally identical for the inner layer.

HANDS-
Gauntlets: 2* temp, 2* wind, 40% water, 6% prot, 3% run, 1 kg
Rabbitskin Mitts: 2* temp, 2* wind, 50% water, 5% prot, 5% run, 1 kg
Wool Mittens: 1* temp, 1* wind, 20% water, 1% prot, 0% run, 0.1 kg

^I'd argue the Gauntlets have slightly more favorable stats, but can you get them on Loper? Alternately, the insanely low weight of the Wool Mittens makes them a viable option if you're more concerned about weight than weather (maybe if you're playing on a lower difficulty).

SWEATERS (INNER)-
Cowichan Sweater: 2.5* temp, 2* wind, 50% water, 5% prot, 2% run, 1 kg
Fisherman's Sweater: 2* temp, 1.5* wind, 40% water, 5% prot, 1% run, 0.5 kg

^The Fisherman's Sweater is a pretty reasonable alternative to the Cowichan since it's lighter and penalizes your sprint less. Not sure if the Cowichan can be found on Loper.

JACKETS (OUTER)-
Bearskin Coat: 6* temp, 5* wind, 80% water, 18% prot, 20% run, 5 kg
Wolfskin Coat: 4* temp, 4* wind, 60% water, 15% prot, 15% run, 3 kg
Moose-Hide Cloak: 3.5* temp, 4* wind, 90% water, 25% prot, 10% run, 4 kg
Expedition Parka: 4* temp, 6* wind, 50% water, 6% prot, 5% run, 1.5 kg
Mariner's Pea Coat: 3* temp, 4* wind, 75% water, 7% prot, 6% run, 2 kg
Military Coat: 3* temp, 3* wind, 40% water, 8% prot, 5% run, 2 kg
Urban Parka: 2.5* temp, 2* wind, 10% water, 2% prot, 2% run, 1 kg

^Lot of choices here. I would crown the Bearskin Coat as the best choice for the outer layer, but you're going to want lightweight options elsewhere. Remember that wolves sometimes flee from the Bearskin/Wolfskin Coat (and apparently the Moose-Hide Cloak, too). As for the inner slot, the Expedition Parka is clearly the best choice IMO -- offering the same temperature bonus as the Wolfskin Coat with much better mobility. Surely, this item is too good to spawn on Interloper? If so, I would consider the Urban Parka for the inner layer to counterbalance the mobility penalties of the Bearskin Coat. Lastly, it's worth mentioning that the Mariner's Pea Coat is a nice early-game find pre-crafting.

LEGS-
Snow Pants: 2.5* temp, 2* wind, 50% water, 5% prot, 5% run, 1 kg
Deerskin Pants: 2* temp, 2* wind, 60% water, 10% prot, 5% run, 2 kg
Combat Pants: 2* temp, 0.5* wind, 20% water, 7% prot, 0% run, 0.75 kg

^The Snow Pants are a little better than the Deerskin Pants for the outer layer, but can they be found on Interloper? Interestingly, the Combat Pants are the best choice for the inner layer.

FEET-
Mukluks: 2.5* temp, 2* wind, 40% water, 5% prot, 3% run, 1.5 kg
Deerskin Boots: 2.5* temp, 2* wind, 50% water, 7% prot, 5% run, 2 kg
Insulated Boots: 3* temp, 2* wind, 50% water, 4% prot, 12% run, 1.5 kg

The Mukluks offer slightly better mobility than the Deerskin Boots, but can you find them on Loper? I would probably rank the Deerskin Boots ahead of the Insulated Boots, though.

I'm gonna skip the stats for the rest. Wool Longjohns and Climbing Socks are the best options for legs/feet. Can you find Wool Longjohns on Interloper? I know that Climbing Socks do not spawn, and actually I think a lot of Loper players skip wearing socks altogether (is it not worth using cloth to repair?). One last thing to note, the Moose-Hide Satchel covers up the 0.5* wind & 1% prot bonuses from the Wool Ear Wrap, but it's obviously worth it. Again, not sure if the Ear Wrap spawns on Loper.

[Lenny Rat]

Interloper is quite easy: use the best you can find until you can craft animal clothing. Then upgrade. You won't be finding any expedition parkas or mukluks on Loper.

The only early exception is to immediately make head and handwraps so you don't get frostbite. Then rabbit gloves as fast as you can possibly craft them. After that it's scrounge and upgrade on any clothing you get.

[IFIYGD]

Lol! You could have saved yourself a ton of typing, by just linking the Fandom Wiki page:
https://thelongdark.fandom.com/wiki/Clothing

BIS? All depends on the situation. What region, what do I need to do (stashed sets for specific tasks or travel), and what I have found.

In Stalker? Yeah, I ant to be able to sprint, but I also want good armor. In Pilgrim? As long as it keeps me warm enough, dry enough and doesn't weigh a ton... whatever I find is fine. Voyageur? I tend to go for a balance between spring/weight/armor.

Interloper? If it keeps me from being naked, whatever I can find, until I find something better,
(Mackinaw jacket FTW!) and finally have enough cured hides to start crafting clothing. I'm getting more comfortable with Loper, thanks to my hubby pushing me to play it more. I can actually live long enough to get into crafting a full set of clothing. Don't tend to live much longer than that (horrible death or frustration with the rigid routines I feel like Loper calls for), but still... better than when I first started playing Loper.

TL;DR- it's all situational for me.

[mark]

As a Stalker-not-Loper; I suppose I prioritise protection > warmth > mobility > weight - with waterproofness as a tie-breaker, because those moments when you get stuck travelling in bad weather are moments when everything can go wrong very quickly.

Although the wiki decay figures say otherwise, the Rabbitskin hat seems to decay faster than any alternative. Maybe I imagine it. Use it occasionally, but swiftly switch to a wool toque (on Stalker, you can easily find 20+ of them across the regions).

If I find at least 2 or 3 of each, I'll generally usually wear a cowichan over a fisherman, but switch to two of the same if I want to favour warmth over weight, or vice versa.

For coat, (and on wolfy Stalker), I think you're underestimating Moose a bit. Best protection and waterproofing there is, at a lower weight and better mobility than bear (better mobility even than wolf). Mooseskin also decays very slowly, and protection means wolves don't inflict much damage either. But then I usually waste a bit of the weight/mobility gain by wearing wolfskin underneath (for a bit of wolf-scaring) instead of expedition. I realised that a few days and set off to retrieve one of only 2 ep's I found this run.

Disagree on pants; deerskin > snow pants on outer (double protection, slightly better waterproofing, then put snow on inner for warmth). If weight was a huge issue - and once you've done main loot runs, it generally isn't, particularly when you have archery lvl 5 and don't need to carry rifle even in tough areas - then snow/combat makes more sense.

Mukluks >>>, plus they look much better ;). Also avoids having to decide between deerskin and insulated, which are pretty closely balanced for opposite benefits.

[wilky]

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Lol! You could have saved yourself a ton of typing, by just linking the Fandom Wiki page.

BIS? All depends on the situation. What region, what do I need to do (stashed sets for specific tasks or travel), and what I have found.

In Stalker? Yeah, I ant to be able to sprint, but I also want good armor. In Pilgrim? As long as it keeps me warm enough, dry enough and doesn't weigh a ton... whatever I find is fine. Voyageur? I tend to go for a balance between spring/weight/armor.

Eh, I wanted to put the best items together for comparison, and I like to know what I'm working towards (because it's difficult to tell sometimes when you pick up a 46% piece of gear).

So do you guys wear like 50% protection on Stalker? I'm playing custom-mostly Stalker right now, but I turned the wolves down to Voyageur levels. So my biggest concern is probably weather/mobility, or just all-around gear.

Originally posted by mark:

For coat, (and on wolfy Stalker), I think you're underestimating Moose a bit. Best protection and waterproofing there is, at a lower weight and better mobility than bear (better mobility even than wolf). Mooseskin also decays very slowly, and protection means wolves don't inflict much damage either. But then I usually waste a bit of the weight/mobility gain by wearing wolfskin underneath (for a bit of wolf-scaring) instead of expedition. I realised that a few days and set off to retrieve one of only 2 ep's I found this run.

Disagree on pants; deerskin > snow pants on outer (double protection, slightly better waterproofing, then put snow on inner for warmth). If weight was a huge issue - and once you've done main loot runs, it generally isn't, particularly when you have archery lvl 5 and don't need to carry rifle even in tough areas - then snow/combat makes more sense.

I was wondering if anyone opted for the 25% prot and only 10% run penalty of the Moose-Hide Cloak. I'll grant you that it seems like a viable late game option. But I'm assuming you only craft it on your 2nd moose hide (first = satchel), so that's pretty far into the game at that point for me. Plus, it takes another moose hide to repair (or do you harvest it, and then re-craft it?)

Fair point about the Deerskin Pants offering more protection, but I wouldn't wear both Deerskin + Snow Pants because of the double 5% run penalty. I would still wear Combat Pants underneath.

[mark]

Originally posted by wilky:

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Lol! You could have saved yourself a ton of typing, by just linking the Fandom Wiki page.

BIS? All depends on the situation. What region, what do I need to do (stashed sets for specific tasks or travel), and what I have found.

In Stalker? Yeah, I ant to be able to sprint, but I also want good armor. In Pilgrim? As long as it keeps me warm enough, dry enough and doesn't weigh a ton... whatever I find is fine. Voyageur? I tend to go for a balance between spring/weight/armor.

Eh, I wanted to put the best items together for comparison, and I like to know what I'm working towards (because it's difficult to tell sometimes when you pick up a 46% piece of gear).

So do you guys wear like 50% protection on Stalker? I'm playing custom-mostly Stalker right now, but I turned the wolves down to Voyageur levels. So my biggest concern is probably weather/mobility, or just all-around gear.

Originally posted by mark:

For coat, (and on wolfy Stalker), I think you're underestimating Moose a bit. Best protection and waterproofing there is, at a lower weight and better mobility than bear (better mobility even than wolf). Mooseskin also decays very slowly, and protection means wolves don't inflict much damage either. But then I usually waste a bit of the weight/mobility gain by wearing wolfskin underneath (for a bit of wolf-scaring) instead of expedition. I realised that a few days and set off to retrieve one of only 2 ep's I found this run.

Disagree on pants; deerskin > snow pants on outer (double protection, slightly better waterproofing, then put snow on inner for warmth). If weight was a huge issue - and once you've done main loot runs, it generally isn't, particularly when you have archery lvl 5 and don't need to carry rifle even in tough areas - then snow/combat makes more sense.

I was wondering if anyone opted for the 25% prot and only 10% run penalty of the Moose-Hide Cloak. I'll grant you that it seems like a viable late game option. But I'm assuming you only craft it on your 2nd moose hide (first = satchel), so that's pretty far into the game at that point for me. Plus, it takes another moose hide to repair (or do you harvest it, and then re-craft it?)

Fair point about the Deerskin Pants offering more protection, but I wouldn't wear both Deerskin + Snow Pants because of the double 5% run penalty. I would still wear Combat Pants underneath.

I don't run much :). My 'sprint' feat has made virtually no progress, while most of the others were completed many, many playing hours ago. General weight and crouching/walking speed (if affected, never sure if it is) is a concern, but not as much as protection from weather and wolves. Crouching and avoiding wolves when I want to do so means longer exposed to the elements, so increases the importance of weather resistance.

On my last two runs, I've prioritised getting to HRV reasonably early, to avoid having to craft a satchel at all (it's a bit of a waste, as you never need two of them). On my current 350 day run (on a little break at the moment), I might have repaired a moose cloak once - but I've now got 3 moose cloaks all in 80%+ condition and the newest is still around 95% (and still a couple of spare hides). They really last for months in excellent condition. Got lucky with an early moose sighting and probably had the cloak inside 30-40 days.

I don't mind combat pants, but they're not well suited to outer wear (wind/wet) - the other advantage of deer/snow is that if your outer gets damaged in an attack away from base, you can switch them while maintaining almost the same weather protection.

[canis39]

Originally posted by mark:

On my last two runs, I've prioritised getting to HRV reasonably early, to avoid having to craft a satchel at all (it's a bit of a waste, as you never need two of them).

Can you use two satchels at once? I just equipped my first one ever recently, so I don't know anything about them.

*

I play on Voyageur, so I'm not too concerned about armor or sprinting. I want protection from the weather so I can explore without worrying about freezing.

[wilky]

I am surprised y'all don't value mobility more. I've never had trouble with the weather being too cold on Voyaguer, for instance. Usually I feel like it's the opposite, that I'm overdressed for the occasion.

[CzechMate]

Wolves DO fear you in Moose cloak

[wilky]

Originally posted by Nomak:

Wolves DO fear you in Moose cloak

Ah, good to know! I will make it my goal to make one / try it out later this run.

[canis39]

Originally posted by stinkin badges:

I was able to put this outfit together which is a pretty tough outfit for dealing with wolves. I later added the moose satchel. Pretty much just blizzards bothered me which killed me in this outfit, BTW. :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1995192549

+54°F is crazy! But that wind protection is pretty low.

[CzechMate]

It's better to have satchel as an outer layer. Yes you lose a little of wind protection since ear wrap is in inner layer but you save it from being destroyed during wolf/bear struggle since satchel is tougher.

[wilky]

Originally posted by stinkin badges:

I was able to put this outfit together which is a pretty tough outfit for dealing with wolves. I later added the moose satchel. Pretty much just blizzards bothered me which killed me in this outfit, BTW. :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1995192549

Wow, that's practically ideal gear as far as I'm concerned. My goal is to get to that point on my current run. So far I've looted four regions (ML, PV, CH, DP). I have some pretty good gear (Gauntlets, Mukluks, one pair of Climbing Socks I think) but I am lacking in other slots (I only have one pair of regular Thermal Underwear).

I also just killed my first moose on this run last night, so I'm waiting for the hide to cure at CH currently. I should have the Moose Satchel (and the Wolfskin Coat) in my current run tonight. Still looking for that Expedition Parka, though, so my next goal is to summit TWM (can often be found in Tail Section). I'm waiting on the Satchel before going to summit, though.