As the Dead Sleep challenge

[wilky]

Even Dark posted a couple speedrun vids to YouTube over the weekend, first one where he runs ATDS naked(!) in 2d 4h, and then another where he improves his time <1d 22h(!) So I figured hell if it's that easy/short, then I should get in on the fun, too! Things I learned:

- Warming Up buff is seriously op. I love how the game gives you a "The treatment did nothing" message when you drink a hot reishi tea. It's like, I beg to differ...
- Daisy-chaining torches is not just for warmth; they're for throwing in wolves' faces, too.
- Matches are surprisingly common; I found like six boxes, in the main loot spots.
- You'll lose ~30% condition fleeing BI, but if you play your cards right, that's all you'll lose.
- Never pass up an opportunity to grab more cattails / coal.
- Don't forget lantern fuel can be used as accelerant in a pinch... I forget this sometimes.
- You may as well shoot for Well Fed, to prevent condition loss & help with rope climbs.

- Hardest part is the BI > FM > BR > FM > Milton Basin start. In particular, I followed Even Dark's route through BI, and I didn't encounter any Twolves.
- Spence's and BR M.Yard are highly dangerous wolf zones. Don't be afraid to burn a flare.
- The ice near the Low Blind in FM is a trap. Avoid this ice. Stay on the shoreline!
- Lack of bedroll at the start is a major obstacle, because you can't regain stamina at will (and you permanently lose condition if your stamina bottoms out).
- You'll probably want to rest in the bed at Spence's, and definitely at the BR M.Yard, because this is the last bed you'll be seeing for a long time...
- Both ropes @ Milton Basin are uphill; you'll need the stim from the FM Marsh Ridge cavelet because you'll be exhausted by this point.
- Farmhouse in Milton is locked (EDIT: Apparently the key can be found nearby), but I had to go all the way up to St Christopher's Church for a good rest.
- Don't underestimate the prybar. I almost dropped it to make weight at the Milton Basin double-rope climb, but it came in handy when I broke into the Orca Gas Station to rest before climbing out of Milton to ML (I still didn't have a bedroll).
- Don't forget the stim & the flare pistol in the boxcar at the bottom of the Ravine. Hell, you may need the stim to get back out...


Anyway, I'm surprised Hinterland didn't add a Steam achievement for completing the badge. I wanna see how many of the forum vets have completed this challenge! Feel free to post your "victory" screenshots or share your experiences here, too.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1692752203118319317/59B18A2A7747A6D3AA5E3DBBE2E6B5805D907268/

[maureeze]

Congrats on your run, ATDS is quite hard IMO. I have just completed it on my second attempt within 24 days.

DISCLAIMER: on my first attempt I had no clue about the ramifications, so into ML, I realized that you cannot recover condition LOL. Since I enjoy Sandbox most (mix between Stalker/Interloper) I did not want to spend crazy many attempts on this challenge. I therefore used maps (online) and some reloads (Alt+F4) when certain mechanics felt awfully off. Also, I did not travel during nighttime unless necessary, because I am still opting for an immersive survival experience.

I went after the graves in following order and played it very safe:
- Ravine: anyways made it from FM to ML and you get the extra flare gun which is awesome.
- TWM: trip through PV, getting all the good supplies there.
- DP: from CH into Crumbling Highway is quite dodgy I found, depending on wolves there.
- BR: if you have some flares, getting to the cross and into the Maintenance Yard is easy.
- HRV: I just hate this map and did not want to fight my way back out 😊.

Your tips/advice seems solid IMO. I also went for “well fed bonus” and only nearly lost it when running low on food in CH. Reishi and Rosehip teas helped me through. In DP I considered crafting at the forge because I had plenty of coal and just wanted to have something to defend myself 😊. But I decided against it since I had prybar and hacksaw at that point.
 Farmhouse in Milton: the key is either in the truck near the farmhouse, behind the farmhouse or some other place in the vicinity. Go look it up, there is good loot in there.
 The two ropes from Milton Basis are possible without stim if you rest in the cave after first rope and use a coffee. I made it like that.
 I would add to your point about Well Fed that the extra 5 Kg (European guy here) are worth it, carrying extra water, coal etc. Plus you don’t slowly lose condition which under the ramifications of ATDS is not advisable.
 Stims are excellent to regain condition. Just make sure you use them in a context where you know you can rest safely afterwards. I did it before my nighttime sleep 😊.

Simply happy I am done with this ordeal and can go back to my custom mode Sandbox.

Have fun running from wolves… and killing some of them occasionally.

[wilky]

Originally posted by maureeze:

I therefore used maps (online) and some reloads (Alt+F4) when certain mechanics felt awfully off.

Yeah, I Alt+F4'ed at least once, due to falling through the ice in FM near the Low Blind. I guess I could have dealt with it, but meh. I also kinda botched one of my rope climbs, and I was expecting her not to make it and to have to Alt+F4, but to my surprise she crawled up those last 10m.

I went after the graves in following order and played it very safe:
- Ravine: anyways made it from FM to ML and you get the extra flare gun which is awesome.
- TWM: trip through PV, getting all the good supplies there.
- DP: from CH into Crumbling Highway is quite dodgy I found, depending on wolves there.
- BR: if you have some flares, getting to the cross and into the Maintenance Yard is easy.
- HRV: I just hate this map and did not want to fight my way back out 😊.

Not sure about that route. In particular, the HRV part of this challenge was actually quite easy. You're in and out of the region in like 10 minutes total. I'm also skeptical about going through CrH twice; I pondered doing DP before TWM, but I decided I only wanted to deal with CrH once.

 Farmhouse in Milton: the key is either in the truck near the farmhouse, behind the farmhouse or some other place in the vicinity. Go look it up, there is good loot in there.

Oh ♥♥♥♥, lol... I'm sure the loot inside (Mackinaw Jacket?) would have been helpful. I'll remember that for next time. I haven't spent a whole lot of time in Milton, honestly, and I didn't really want to stick around and attract wolf attention with 0 stamina left. I went the back way to the Church and did not encounter any wolves (although I did hear one howling, close to the Church...)

 The two ropes from Milton Basis are possible without stim if you rest in the cave after first rope and use a coffee. I made it like that.

Does that cave have a bed? I don't think so, because I'm pretty sure I checked it. I actually used my stim to get up the second rope (after barely making it up the first rope, as described above). In hindsight, I should have used the stim for both ropes, but at least I was able to sprint all the way to the Farmstead on that stim. :D

Originally posted by JayXL:

Couple of things I noticed.. you can get out of BI with no condition loss if you play your cards right. I believe the best I did was 98%.

Ah, yeah I guess you're right. But that also requires you to take it a bit slow, resting back up to full warmth at the Cannery Residenes / Washed Out Trailers. Like I said, I followed Even Dark's video for the BI start, and basically I just got the hell out of there ASAP, grabbing a few cat tails & reishi mushrooms along the way. :)

[maureeze]

----- Not sure about that route. In particular, the HRV part of this challenge was actually quite easy. You're in and out of the region in like 10 minutes total. I'm also skeptical about going through CrH twice; I pondered doing DP before TWM, but I decided I only wanted to deal with CrH once. -----
Yeah, after I had checked some YT videos I realized how close/easy the grave in HRV acutally was. So in retrospect maybe different route after Ravine grave would have been better. But then again, after making it through CrH twice (actually no stress at all on return) I was basically cruising through the rest, all geared up and well fed til the end.


----- Does that cave have a bed? I don't think so, because I'm pretty sure I checked it. -----
Ah no, I had a bedroll and plenty of coal to keep the fire going.

[wilky]

By the way, I had something kinda... funny(?) happen during my ATDS run at Mystery Lake. I needed to grab the climbing rope from the Mystery Lake Overlook, and I managed to sprain ALL FOUR wrists and ankles walking up and back down, a testament to how stupid this game's sprain system is.

At that point, I just took a nap for 4 hours in CO before moving on... so at least my stamina was pretty topped off when I hit the Ravine rope climb...

I'm pretty sure that like 75-80% of my all-time sprains have occurred on the Mystery Lake map, though. It feels like that map was created before the current sprain system was implemented, and it feels like retroactively you can't walk anywhere on this map without picking up multiple sprains.

[SimpleGamesLover]

Well I did beat this Challenge a couple days ago actually. Had to Alt+F4 just before last grave as my Flare Gun wouldn't fire despite it being loaded and in good condition. It's not really my "cup of tea" as they say, in fact I even hadn't really played "proper" Interloper aside from that 1 Day achievement. Could finish without too much difficulty basically anyways, thought burned thought matches way too much. Had 5 Stims in inventory at the end too actually and like 60% Condition...
Almost had to do HRV connecting cave blind, but lucked out matches at Milton House. Probably had bad luck with loot too really, thought I also skipped few locations just trying to beat this safely and relative fast. Last few days were super windy which caused my to use way too many matches and I hadn't located any other fire starter :/ .

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2282327076

[pickle]

Congrats on your run! I completed the challenge (screenshot on my profile) back when I was still playing purely on Voyager, and honestly found it easier than early game Interloper.

My route: BI > FM > BR (1st grave) > FM > MT > HRV (2nd grave) > MT (get the rope from the last rope climb to ML to deploy to Ravine) > ML > Ravine (3rd grave) > CH > DP (4th grave) > CH > PV > TWM (last grave)

I'd say it's really doable even for Voyager/Pilgrim players as long as you know the maps and stim spawns well. The hardest part is getting out of BI itself - the nearest reishi mushrooom spawn is near the bear cave so extend warming up buff with 2 reishi teas and go by the secret mountain path to leave BI.

Once you're out of BI, then it's pretty much just walking from place to place with rinse-and-repeat of (1) start a coal fire and make 2 teas (2) drink 1 tea before you leave the fire and the other one when your warming up buff is around 25% left - before your 2nd tea gets cold - to extend it so you can travel longer without freezing. There's no need to save matches so just start another fire whenever your warming up buff is ending.

In short, it's not that hard as it seems so I hope more people would try out the challenge.

[Evendark]

atds is a nice challenge so far you learn alot of warming up teas, wolf spawns and routes.

1 continue with my last route, but yes no stim under the create sience 7 runs, so i start over then :D

good thing is i can run to BR blind now :)

[wilky]

Originally posted by JayXL:

You can get up to the ML Overlook and back without sprains.. there's an optimal pathway all the way up, you can even mark it for later trips with rocks or something. It takes some practice but you can find the safe way up.

OK, it took me like 20 minute to figure this out, but I think I got it now. I was going too far "up" toward this rock face; you don't even want to get as high up as this screenshot depicts. Rather, the safer path is to stay low and over to the "right." The path to the right is not steep as I thought.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2283800058

@got milk, You're right in that this challenge definitely tests your map knowledge. But I also think this challenge tests your ability to react to threats with calm calculation (or maybe, this challenge teaches you how to react coolly). For instance, now that I know the trick about throwing a lit torch into a wolf's face, I don't know if I will ever be scared of wolves again (unless it's windy). Like sure, I could always crouch/stealth around one, or whatever. But if I've got a lit torch already going, then honestly it's easier just to run right at him and scare him off, lol. This was how I ran through CrH on my ATDS run. I literally just ran right down the middle like "Come at me, wolves!!"

@SimpleGamesLover, I agree that the "no healing" thing wasn't really my cup of tea, either, and like you, I also have hardly played any Loper previously. But I think after completing this run, I pretty much have no choice but to upgrade to Loper now. It should be easier than what I just completed. :)

Originally posted by Evendark:

atds is a nice challenge so far you learn alot of warming up teas, wolf spawns and routes.

1 continue with my last route, but yes no stim under the create sience 7 runs, so i start over then :D

good thing is i can run to BR blind now :)

Thanks again for your inspiration / help to complete the challenge. Watching some of your videos, it's like... I consider myself pretty good at this game, a veteran, 360 hours etc, but you (and many others) are way ahead of me man. I appreciate the opportunity to learn some of yall's tricks! :D

By the way, I was curious to ask you... I know you've been experimenting with different ATDS routes the last couple days... Which is your favorite? Do you think the BR > HRV > Ravine > TWM > DP route is still best / fastest?

[pickle]

Originally posted by wilky:

For instance, now that I know the trick about throwing a lit torch into a wolf's face, I don't know if I will ever be scared of wolves again (unless it's windy). Like sure, I could always crouch/stealth around one, or whatever. But if I've got a lit torch already going, then honestly it's easier just to run right at him and scare him off, lol.

This is a nice trick but doesn't seem to work 100% for me. It requires you to be pretty close to the wolf and sometimes that could trigger the wolf to charge and get you in a struggle - which could pretty much end a run on Interloper if you're unprepared.

What I normally do if I have a lit torch and there's no other way to avoid the wolf is (1) get the wolf's attention (2) drop the lit torch in front of you, equip your bow/stone and aim once. This will trigger the wolf to charge at you but once it gets near your torch, it always gets afraid and runs away - which gives you time to move forward/escape. I've been using this technique on my Interloper run and it has yet to fail on me.

I think this technique also works if you're at a position where the wolf can't reach you. You might not have a lit torch with you all the time when you travel so it's good to know places where you can climb on (e.g. rock edges, fallen tree) and do the same aiming trick. But I think the animal AI's pathfinding has gotten better since past few patches so don't be surprised if the wolf can suddenly climb a fallen tree and get you.

In the end, I'd say unless you need something from the wolves (either for food or hides), best is still to avoid and evade them whenever possible. But it's good to know some backup plans like the torch trick when things get messy.

[wilky]

How do you drop a torch?

I only see options for throwing it (left trigger) and lighting / extinguishing it (right trigger).

[pickle]

Originally posted by wilky:

How do you drop a torch?

I only see options for throwing it (left trigger) and lighting / extinguishing it (right trigger).

I believe its "H" if you're playing on keyboard and mouse? I do use the radial menu to equip my weapons rather than repeatedly pressing 2 to cycle through them.

Edit: I only know the key bindings on PC so you might have to check in the options if you're playing on another platform.

[wilky]

Originally posted by got milk?:

Originally posted by wilky:

How do you drop a torch?

I only see options for throwing it (left trigger) and lighting / extinguishing it (right trigger).

I believe its "H" if you're playing on keyboard and mouse? I do use the radial menu to equip my weapons rather than repeatedly pressing 2 to cycle through them.

Okay, I experimented using both my gamepad and the keyboard, and the only way I could figure out how to drop a torch is to switch to a weapon or light source by pressing Right or Up on the D-pad.

So switching to a weapon works to drop the torch, although if you're carrying like a gun she will switch to that before the stone.

[wilky]

You know, I just made a discovery. One of the diciest parts of my ATDS run the other day was the double-rope climb at Milton Basin because I was exhausted with no bedroll, so I had to use my only stim.

Well, it turns out there is a car right next to this double rope-climb, slightly off to the right, there in the Milton Basin. Never seen this car before, and honestly I have no idea how the hypothetical person drove his/her car to this particular location haha, but depending on weather I most likely could have slept here to rest & recover stamina (can always tuck a campfire right next to the car, too). No bedroll needed.

And Jay furthermore pointed out in a different thread yesterday that it's also possible to sleep in a snowshelter without a bedroll (if you have the cloth to make one). This is arguably riskier than sleeping in a car (and also requires two cloth to build), but at least there are workarounds for the lack of a bedroll situation.

[Gooner]

Finally finished this challenge as I have been giving TLD a break for the last months. Never been to BI before, died my first time checking out Cannery. Second time was low health by BR so restarted and the 3rd try ever I finished in 9 days. Was worth the time going through but I found the lack of bunnies and deer weird and in the end was not really that hard for a regular interloper player. I have run DMC up to 30+ days before and stopped. On to my next challenge which is Nomad - this one is way harder for me bc it is so boring. Can you even get CF in Nomad?

[wilky]

I don't think you can get CF in Nomad, but note that Nomad is apparently bugged right now and the in-game clock counts at half-speed toward the achievement. So when it says you need to spend 72 hours at each in-game location, I think it's actually 6 days right now (bugged). Meaning you will just want to pass time to speed it up.