Interloper, I just can't...

[Hard Rooster]

I've been taking a crack at interloper all day, and I just can't. I've probably played 20 games, best I've done is 4 days. Even if I find matches, I still can't get enough food. And I've only found the hammer once...but on that run, no matches...I died in less than 24 hours.

Cat Tail Stalks: Would be great if the hypothermia and cold wasn't destroying my condition. I mean, I can't be outside for more than 90 seconds, and my condition starts taking a hit. But it's not like you can avoid being outside, looking for food, matches and the hammer.

Bunnies: Cost more calories and condition (again, cold) than you gain.

I generally die from simultaneous hypothermia and starvation, and in less than 24 hours most runs. Gah!!!

[r4nd0m]

Loper can definitely be tough to work with. I usually head straight for Coastal in that mode then work to Desolation to make the knife and hatchet. There's good stuff in the dam too if you can hit it up on the way

[Hard Rooster]

Im in the dam, found a hacksaw...and two moldy granola bars. Plenty of books to burn, no food to cook tho. I'm gonna die today. Low on condition, starving and no food...and its midnight.

[SBlack]

Know locations good items have at least a chance to spawn

Within reason take the condition hit. You get some of it back when resting. Being cold isn't a problem as long as you know that you have something to do inside to warm up. Even if it's just going to sleep right away. So before bed you can go outside and pick up some sticks for example. Or see if you can stone some bunnies if they're close by (Jackrabbit's Island for example).

The start is definitely a a huge issue. Often the RNG just screws you over. I've hit 3-4 locations and not found matches. Usually you're screwed at 3. You can make a fire with a flare. But only once.
Try to get the Pleasant Valley start. Check the fireplace in the farm house and the shelfs in the basement (easy to miss). The barn doesn't have matches AFAIK, but the crossroads store can.

Except for the hacksaw, the hydro dam is definitely a disappointment in Interloper. Still the hacksaw is great. Let's you harvest deer carcasses


In my current run I seem to have been pretty lucky finding food. That lasted my a good while. So I didn't need to immediately subsist from wildlife only.

[dubstepdeejay]

I'm trying my first Loper run right now. Starting in Pleasant, found hacksaw and hammer, went to Coastal and started curing gut right away, made fishing tackle and made trips about every 3 days to the cave between CH and PV for coal. This saved a lot of time stick hunting so there's time to loot more buildings. This method lasts for a few days, but I'm gonna die of starvation due to having to use coal in order to fish in the first place.

But yea, the food shortage is rough. Seems like it's a race to get to the forge to make arrowheads in order to eat in the first place, which is all dependent upon luckily finding the hammer.

Heh, I thought it was funny because I had my plan when I realized I spawned in Pleasant. "I'm just gonna go get the arrows from the bullseye by the farm, make a bow asap and I'll be good." Arrows weren't there; welcome to Loper, I guess. But anyway, try the fishing/getting coal from the mine when you need to live for about 8 days.

[SBlack]

Originally posted by dubstepdeejay:

and made trips about every 3 days to the cave between CH and PV for coal.

The unlikliest location I found coal there is up at Bear Creek Campground. Just lying around on the river. But I doubt that respawns. You can also hunt bunnies there and there is a small cabin you can stay in overnight. Also a deer carcass, but if you go for that you're likely to be eaten by the bear.
I think there were also some cat tails, but not a lot. Not sure about that.

[Hard Rooster]

I'm alomost done with my current run, and wouldn't you know, I JUST found the freaking hammer.

I'm 4 days, 2 hours and 42 minutes in, my condition is about 10%, I'm starving, I'm at the lookout in ML and it's snowing.

I started this run in FM, headed to the poachers camp first, then made a bee-line to the trappers cabin. I found matches in the low blind in FM, then spent 3 days wandering around looking for the hammer. Last time I found it was in the Trappers Cabin. This time it was in the lookout.

I don't like CH...too many freaking wolves and bears. I can avoid them much easier in ML and FM.

I also don't care for PV, big ole map and cold winds eat me alive. Good loot usually, and clothing. No clothing in ML unfortunately it seems.

[MrMittzu]

Interloper is the greatest mode in this game. Believe me! You just need to know spots and priorities, and, ofc, know how to play the game. Know how to read the weather, know how to not waste precious resources and seize the opportunity when it's needed.

In my opinion, Stalker is not worth for players who really like to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ in the ass.

Tell you something: I stopped playing Stalker mode at the mark of 20-25 hours. After that I have wasted more than 40h playing interloper and failing a lot. But, finally, with 90 hours I have no struggles anymore in the first 2 weeks.

Believe, it's all about knowing where to go, planing time, and that's it. I've spent hours looking at the maps and trying to memorize every bit of place per region... therefore, I know everything about ML,FM, and bits of TM so far...

Just learn where important items are and where you need to head to when you fail to find something you need.

Don't believe some guides we have on these forums. Jeez, there's a famous guide which says you need to RESTART the game when spawning in TM... that's such a blatant BS. I spawned in TM and did fine for let's say 1 week, and then I had to move on to PV. So don't believe everything you read, just do your own game and follow your own way of playing.


Edit:

Also - pick every twig you find... those will make the difference!

[Hard Rooster]

Originally posted by AceGamer0011:

I found the biggest adjustment to becoming a 'loper player was learning that condition will usually be quite low for the first few days.

Some quick tips:

- only eat before sleeping (I think 675 cals will get you a solid 9 hours sleep).
- don't worry about condition drop, it generally will hover around 20-60 the first few days.
- cat tails are definitely the best early on, I'd gladly take around 40 condition loss to collect 30 cat tails early on (that's about 6 days worth of food!)
- try for a quick bunny kill but I only harvest the meat in the first few days
- sticks, sticks, sticks, get em!
- reishi/rose hip tea can give you a warmth boost early on, it can help if the cold is killing you.

Location:
Generally make for CH or ML, they've got reasonable 'bases' to find your bearings!

Good luck! :)

Thanks for the tips, I've already learned most of them. Such as only eat before sleeping and harvest cat tails. And I never pass up a stick.

Seems like for a FM start the place to go is ML Trappers cabin and the new look-out tower for the hammer, and pray for matches.

Is there a good rescourse, a central list of matches/hammer spawn points on the googlewebs? I haven't been able to find anything current, or particularly organized.

[Diveyoc]

Maybe try switching up your strategy and try to get a 20-30 day run. Before obtaining a lot of experience with Interloper, racing against the clock to find a hammer, forge a knife, and craft a bow can be distracting and deadly.
Maybe focus on getting the hacksaw. Harvest deer corpses for everything but mainly the guts. Make rabbit snares, I usually place 4 at a time. You should be able to sustain yourself this way. Set snares and gather sticks while staying cozy at trappers cabin or camp office. And explore when you have a solid food supply. Eventually you'll be able to craft deer pants, boots, and rabbit mittens and then head to FM to forge.

Edit: Once you learn where all the deer corpses are, it helps considerably. There are quite a few of them laying around too.

[iheartmyocd]

The key to loper is definitely knowing the maps. You cannot possibly survive any length of time if you don't immediately know where you are, what you need, where you are likely to find it. The big trick to playing loper is knowing all of the major key points across several maps, and by that I don't just mean shelters but also sapling spawn locations, animal corpses locations, bunny spawns, wolf spawns, bear spawns, safe routes to travel... wherever it is you start, you need to have a plan ready for that location and a backup plan for whatever it is RNJesus decides to screw you over with. Every loper run will give you an abundance of a few key items, the average for others, and then an absolute derth of the rest. I've had runs where I couldn't turn around without bumping into a sapling, then had to cross four maps to find a hacksaw. I've had pre-packaged food falling out of my bahooky, and not a single match to light a fire. Tons of warm clothes and no food, or tons of tools and no clothes. You will always lack something.

Also bear in mind that every map you are on triggers the start of the decay of all of the pre-packaged food on that map - so if you, for example, start on TWM and immediately leave, everything packaged-foody on that map has now been triggered to go bad. Come back to it 20 days later, and every single food item you find will be spoiled. When at all possible I've found it luckiest to keep map transitions to a minimum up until you can craft tools.

[Hard Rooster]

Got the heavy hammer to spawn twice in a row at the new lookout tower near the Camp Office. It's on the bench each time I've been there.

I just need to find a reliable match spawn in FM or ML, because again, I haz no matcheez.

[Hard Rooster]

Heavy Hammer now three times in a row at the new lookout tower.

Still can't find guaranteed, or high probability matches in either FM or ML :/

[RM1985]

I've tried Loper last week for the first time and the biggest problem was, that I found ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! No matches, no clothes, no knife, found only a bit of food and some sodas, but nothing to warm me up, even inside I was freezing, cause I only had pants, shirt and shoes on! Started in DP by the way, got straight to the Lighthouse, then to the ship and the whale station and died after 18 hours due to cold, hunger and thirst!

[Hard Rooster]

I've tried making my way to CH from DP, only to get killed by wolves every time in the Crumbling Highway.

Does the hammer ever spawn in DP? I've yet to find it.

I won't play TWM, I've never spent any time there, as soon as it loads, I just swan dive off the nearest clif. I burn 11 calories before I die :D

[jouertue]

Originally posted by Hard Rooster:

I've tried making my way to CH from DP, only to get killed by wolves every time in the Crumbling Highway.

Does the hammer ever spawn in DP? I've yet to find it.

I won't play TWM, I've never spent any time there, as soon as it loads, I just swan dive off the nearest clif. I burn 11 calories before I die :D

hammer doesn't spawn in DP