Darkwalker Event Guide *SPOILERS*

[Daximus]

The Long Dark:

Darkwalker Event Guide

I decided to throw together a simple guide to help others with some of the mechanics of this event from my own observations while playing. I also gathered bits and pieces from others’ observations and tested them out. I understand that not everyone is thrilled about this event or the limited duration of it, but I wanted to make this for the players who may be struggling and still want to complete it. If you just want to get the 2nd achievement (6/10 pages), I added a route just for that. Hopefully this helps!

*SPOILER WARNING* If you would rather explore this awesome event by yourself, do not read on. Consider yourself warned!

Event Information:

It is perpetually night and the Darkwalker (DW) is after you. Your goal is to survive for as long as you can before it catches you (or you die by other means). Your additional objective is to survive for an hour in Real-Time (RT), which unlocks the first badge, then collect at least 6/10 diary pages from the green campfires. This will unlock the Darkwalker feat which lowers fatigue at night but increases it during the day. Obviously, this feat has a very situational use for the Endless Night mode.

DW does not slow or stop for any reason with the exception of a Ward glyph. With a Ward out, it will stop near 200m of you and pause until the ward expires in 2.5 hours of Game-Time (GT) or you leave the protective radius. DW is also incorporeal so it floats, goes through walls, and effectively ignores all terrain. Being inside of a house/cabin does not protect you. Each map is also timed by a Toxic Fog which will eventually kill you and/or lock you out of that area.

General Information:

- The map has limited functionality. It will show your direction and where the campfire is.

- The diary pages will always be at the green campfires and the campfires are only on the major maps (not transition maps).

- The temperature is relatively mild and able to be easily managed once clothing is found.

- There are no blizzards, but it can get windy. It can also get a bit foggy making it more difficult to navigate than it already is.

- Wolves and bears are still out there but seem to be less frequent than normal (at least compared to Stalker/Interloper).

- Keep the revolver for scaring wolves then move on.

- There is plenty of food around, but water will be more difficult to manage.

- DW will begin to heavily harm your condition if he gets within 50m of you (Fear debuff). You are unable to perform most actions at that point. Run!

- Toxic Fog:

- Each map has a certain RT limit you can be on it due to the toxic fog. It’s typically around 30 minutes (+ or - a few), but does vary by map size.

- The % duration is visible on your map screen and once it reaches 50%, the icon for impending fog will appear on the bottom left of the HUD.

- If you leave a map, it will pause the fog counter (bottom left of screen) and resume from there the next time you enter that map.

* It does look like it drops to 0 when you leave, but it restores back to previous value.

- You may only extend the fog duration *once* by a flat +50% with the Dispel glyph. That is one extension per game, not per map. Save this for somewhere like FM that you may need to cross several times. MT is another option since it's a short duration.

- Having only 1 minute left on the fog will cause all of your food to spoil instantly.

- If the fog timer expires, you will lose condition rapidly and only have a few minutes before you die. You can also never re-enter that area once you leave.

Tips:

- Run as much as you can. RT is of the essence. GT does not matter much.

- Stamina is easy to recover because you can sleep any time you are far enough from DW.

- Don’t bother with heavy tools or fuel for fires. You won’t need them much later on.

- Don’t bother harvesting animal meat. Food is plentiful throughout.

- Soda and coffee are gold. Pick them up wherever you can. Save coffee for using ropes.

- Use the first 15 minutes before DW spawns to do as much exploration of the map as possible. Focus on gathering as much as you can, boiling water, and repairing clothing.

- Once the first 15 minutes is up, drop a Lure glyph and get to the other side of the map. When DW reaches the Lure, he will destroy it, so at least you know where he is.

- Use Lures regularly! Especially at the beginning of each map because you’ll be moving from there. This can potentially buy you a lot of extra time before DW reaches you.

- Using a Lure within 200m of DW will not work; however, if you drop a Lure before DW is within range, he will follow the Lure even if you later are within range. Use this to get by him on narrow maps.

- DW operates on RT, not GT. The only exception to this is when he is within 200m of you and you have the Anxiety/Fear debuff.

- Spraypaint is actually pretty plentiful (most camps, caves, cabins) and can be used 4 times before exhausting. Use it regularly! Remember to drop the cans once empty.

- Wards and Lures both use GT, not RT, so do whatever you need to do (like sleep) before using them. Using a Ward to sleep is typically wasteful.

- If you are stuck in a bad spot with DW near, one tactic is to drop a Ward to stop DW from moving then move away outside of 200m where you can drop a Lure. DW will then go for the Lure first which should be enough to buy you precious sprinting distance.

- DW will randomly spawn on the map each time you transition zones *regardless* of the map layout. This means that narrow maps and/or maps that circle back (Like Carter Hydro Dam) can be extremely difficult, even unfair, to get around DW. You may have to be creative with Wards and Lures. Keep your condition high in case you need to run by him.

* I really hope that they fix this by either giving a 15 second grace period after transitioning so that you can drop a Lure/Ward if needed or making DW always spawn behind you. Sometimes DW spawns literally right in front of you and you have no way through. See below for possible workaround.

- If you transition maps when Anxious (DW within 200m), DW will still be that close when you appear on the next map. Try to be farther than 200m before leaving an area.

* Being this close seems to prevent DW from randomly spawning on the next map and he will appear behind you. This can actually be useful if you are entering certain narrow zones to prevent bad placement. *Need to test this further.*

Route Options:

These are just suggestions and can be adjusted a bit based on preference or circumstance. I personally hate going through Carter Hydro Dam due to the circular elevating layout and DW always being close.

If you are just wanting the 6 pages for the 2nd achievement (feat) you might try this route:

TWM – PV - CH - (R) - ML - FM - BR / BI / MT

It takes advantage of getting out of TWM quickly, getting supplies from the crash in PV, going to CH for more supplies, then skipping DP since you won't need it. No backtracking that way. You can also end it in whatever last zone you want from FM. Alternatively, you can do this route backwards since there are no rope requirements this way.

If you are going for all 10 pages, see the routes below.

1st Option:

DP – (CHW) – CH – (R) - BI – FM – BR – FM – MT (or ML then MT) – HRV – MT – ML – (WR) – PV – TWM

This route is a gradual buildup and has a bit less backtracking than the others. CH has a lot of resources early on. I personally dislike the climb up to MT from FM (lots of ropes), but that’s just my preference. Either way is a bit flexible with regard to the circle from FM – ML – MT so long as you remember to leave enough time to hit the dead end zones.

2nd Option:

TWM – PV – (WR) – ML (skip fire for now) – (R) - CH - (CHW) - DP - (CHW) - CH - (R) - BI - FM - BR - FM - ML - MT – HRV

This gets TWM out of the way since you’ll be going downhill and with PV being 2nd, you can load up on warm clothes and supplies from the crash site. Not having to worry about temp and being able to sleep nearly anywhere makes this challenge much easier. Plus you'll have tons of airplane food. It does zig zag your path some, but you should have enough time. One thing to note, make sure to bring a rope to Ravine (in case one isn't in the cave there) in order to get to BI. This route allows you to go through MT only once and end in HRV since it can be difficult to navigate in the dark.

3rd Option:

BI - FM - BR - FM - MT - HRV - MT - ML/FM - (R) - CH - (CHW) - DP - (CHW) - CH - (R) - ML - (WR) - PV - TWM

Alternative: BI - FM - BR - FM - MT - HRV - MT - ML - (WR) - PV - TWM - PV - CH - (CHW) - DP

Starting in BI allows for some fast decent loot (like moose satchel) and gets two of the dead end zones out of the way right off. You may need to use your Dispel glyph while in MT since going through it twice will be a time crunch with so many rope climbs. The first option is there to avoid going through HCD because it's layout sucks to avoid DW. If you don't mind risking that and want to cut down on doubling back, this is an alternate route that was suggested.

4th Option:

HRV - MT - FM - BR - FM - ML - (R) - BI - (R) - CH - (CHW) - DP - (CHW) - CH - PV - TWM

This way is one of the more direct routes, but HRV is difficult to navigate in the dark and doesn't have much clothing so you will have to fight the cold longer unless you get lucky. There's not much time in MT to loot, but this route also takes advantage of MT's noticeably short fog timer and prevents you from having to cross it again. As with route #2, make sure to bring a rope to Ravine in order to get to BI.

Anyway, I hope you found this helpful. If you have feedback or other ways to improve this, please comment and I'll try to get it added. Enjoy and may your nights be filled with darkness and poison death!

Edits: Formatting and added to the route options.

[wilky]

Too many words. The event really is not that difficult.

But your idea to start in BI is pretty interesting, since there are no predators in the first 24hr grace period.

[Daximus]

Yeah, it isn't difficult, but after reading tons of comments from people on Reddit about how they didn't want to do it because they were scared or had a difficult time navigating in the dark, I figured I'd try to help someone who may be struggling and didn't want to miss out on the event unlocks. If it helps a few people out, cool.

[SteelFire]

You might want to double check your point about food insta spoiling with less than a minute left on the fog timer. I barely made the transition from CH to (R) in time last night and did not experience any food spoilage.

[Bollyumph]

Excellent write up. Thank You. Knowledge is life here.

[wilky]

@Jay, I think using the Fog glyph on MT was probably the right call. You're gonna have to bee-line across PV. Prob use some coffee/stims/energy drinks for PV. I would skip looting things like the plane crash. That deep into the run, you're not gonna need any more loot.

I wonder what your final time ends up being. There is a guy on the Hinterland Forum who posted a screenshot of 8h 14m for his death time, which is extremely impressive.

[Khan, Binary of None]

Originally posted by SteelFire:

You might want to double check your point about food insta spoiling with less than a minute left on the fog timer. I barely made the transition from CH to (R) in time last night and did not experience any food spoilage.

Was it counting down seconds left? Cause if it said 1 minute left vs. counting down from 59 then it doesn't spoil till it's on the last 60.

[wilky]

Originally posted by Duo Vandal:

Originally posted by SteelFire:

You might want to double check your point about food insta spoiling with less than a minute left on the fog timer. I barely made the transition from CH to (R) in time last night and did not experience any food spoilage.

Was it counting down seconds left? Cause if it said 1 minute left vs. counting down from 59 then it doesn't spoil till it's on the last 60.

Duo is correct. When the Fog says "1 minute" it's really like 1:59, 1:58, 1:57, etc.

When it switched to "59s," I only had one food item in my inventory (energy drink), and a "Food spoiled" message popped up on my screen with the Energy drink icon.

[Khan, Binary of None]

I managed to survive my first attempt completely blind for about 2 hours and 2 minutes before I died to the fog because my biggest weakness is that I don't know how to navigate the Long Dark's zones that well. It's more of a lack of natural game experience than the mode itself.

[nautofon]

Thank you so much for this guide! I was so scared of this event that I didn't even want to try it. Now I'm at least considering it lol

[Daximus]

@JayXL

Originally posted by JayXL:

In reference to the third option OP listed, I would humbly offer an adjustment..

BI - FM - BR - FM - MT - HRV - MT - ML - (WR) - PV - TWM - PV - CH - (CrH) - DP

Good call. I added it as an alternative to the 3rd option. My reasoning for avoiding this was because I just really hate HCD in this mode and wanted to avoid doing PV twice since it's so large, but it does cut down on doubling back by doing PV and TWM before DP. I personally didn't have any major issues avoiding DW on Ravine or Crumbling Highway, but HCD almost killed me twice.

[archimedez]

Very helpful and not a word too much!

[headhunter41]

Tip - Try to avoid tight spaces (mines, transition zones). It seems like the darkwalker spawns at the other end of the tight spaces and walks towards you, making progress harder.

[Seriously Unserious]

Great advice from the OP. I'll add that it's also a very good idea to get and keep the flare gun. I did a 4 1/2 hour run where I got all 10 pages and ran into 2 bears that needed the flare gun to drive them off. The first was the TWM bear which showed up shortly after I picked up the flare gun, the 2nd was in Forlorn Muskeg, where I got stuck between a bear and the DW and didn't see the bear until it was rearing up and starting it's charge due to the fog. I needed 2 flares to deal with that one, first shot I think caught it in the middle of it's rearing up animation so it ignored it, and I had to load and shoot the flare gun in record time with the bear bearing down on me (sorry I couldn't resist), and got the 2nd flare shot off just a second before the bear would have mauled me.

I had a youtuber who was forced wide by the bear near fishing camp in CH who didn't have the flare gun, just a bow and single arrow, and that cost him his run. The time it took for him to go around the bear left him stuck in the toxic fog for too long and he died to a wolf almost right away in PV with his cnd near the red by the time he got out of the fogged up mine.

[Seriously Unserious]

One more thing, xaDskaD mentioned in his guide always placing a lure at the entrance right away. I would caution to be careful of a fixed strategy and adapt to your situation. If you drop a lure at the entrance in a zone line Broken Railroad or Hushed River Valley where the entrance is also your only exit and there's a long, narrow path to the entrance, you can easily draw the walker right to you down your only path in, or leave it guarding the only exit, forcing you to wait for the lure to break so you can place another lure deeper in where it will draw the walking away from your only way out, and wait long enough for it to slowly move out of your way. If the toxic fog sets in before all that has time to occur, you're SoL.

It is a good strategy most of the time and one I used myself many times in my run, but one I also used only when it would be beneficial. I found the lure at entrance trick worked best in a more open region where your path opens up to many options quickly, like all Mystery Lake entrances do, for example, That way if the DW happens to come from a bad angle, you have options to move out of the way and go around it. If you attract it along, say, the entrance canyon of Broken Railroad, not only can you draw it down your only path in, leaving yourself no choice but to retreat back into the Muskeg, but also can draw it to guard your only path out. Same goes for areas like the ML entrance to Milton, Long, narrow path with only forward or backward to go in. Best to wait until the path opens up before placing the lure to avoid trapping yourself.

[Zigzag9000]

Also... Toxic Fog cannot be escaped by going into a Transition Cave.