Survival Interloper difficulty

[Gun Tech.]

It plays nothing like the Nov 2017 Youtube videos on it. My issues:
1. Searched 60 containers of all types, they are ALL empty. 60/60. The only few things I find are on shelves or on the floor.
2. Extremely difficult to find starters for fires. In one game I found 12 matches, but didn't have time to use them before hypothermia

In the videos they just get some sticks and tinder and when they get to a place, it has a stove, a tool, probably 20 useful items.

So for me the difficulty is to survive long enough to start my first fire.

I have verified the game files. The longest I have survived was 60+ days, still didn't die, just stopped playing. This was on normal difficulty.

[mf187doubleg]

Hello,

You may use my guide :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1466232572

Interloper is the pur essence of this game :)

[IFIYGD]

Videos from 2017 are outdated by a year or more. There have been many updates that have tuned balances, and changed mechanics in the last year or two..

Look for very recent videos and stream replays. Not old ones. Look at the Guides section here, and look for recently created and consistently updated guides. Search for threads about Interloper, there are plenty of them, with tips, tricks, and spoilers, by some of our most skilled and hardcore Interloper players.

The game is not meant to be easy, even on the "easiest" experience mode it has challenges. Each mode is uniquely tuned for an expoerience, not a linear "difficulty" progression like an RPG. Loper is the most harshly balanced. There are guaranteed and *guaranteed potential* spawn locations for some items like matches, firestrikers, hammers and hacksaws. Other things are random, like in every other mode. You are not meant to survive long, and to do so, you need to play, and hone your skills and strategies. The few people who "never die" are rare exceptions, not the norm.

You can try custom settings to tweak the game experience to suit your preferences, but the custom settings are a bit confusing, and may take some time to get "just right".Start with a set template from one of the four vanilla expeience modes, and make it harder or easier, add or remove elements to sui your wishes.

It takes time. This is not an easy game to master. And death is the only end-game.

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by Gecko-GER:

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Videos from 2017 are outdated by a year or more ...

I'm always impressed with your math skills!

:p

:D

[SBlack]

Containers are mostly empty so that's more or less normal

It takes quite some time to go through 12 matches. Interloper is a lot about map knowledge. There are fixed match locations on most maps.
The mag lens is also immensely useful.
If you really can't find matches early on (which can happen in Mystery Lake) use a flare to make your first fire

[Gun Tech.]

Thx guys. I did find 5 more items after searching 100+ searchables. I'm still alive, but I had two problems on Signal Hill that caused issues - the Fire Barrel doesn't work like a stove etc, I was completely unable to cook anything, which would have kept my condition up. And going inside did not stop it from going down, unlike a house etc. Which is strange. Whatever the game mode, these things should behave the same.

I did manage to survive, and I now know to not be worried about an empty stomach.

But apart from these 2 potential bugs, this mode reveals the unrealistic survival flaws quite well, such as any calories or time spent smashing a chair or harvesting pretty much anything outside, requiring x to do y whereas x isn't required in real life, inability to sleep without a bedroll, etc.

Also, you have to know much, much more about these game mechanics and the maps vs spawn point to succeed.

So it's not as fun to play this mode then when it's up to knowing the wilderness perfectly and getting a few key items placed under some shelf in a pitch black house so you have to know exact spawn coordinates. A good challenge for nerds but still based on RNG so not so fun for an opportunist survivor that would have succeded better in a real life situation.

[Gun Tech.]

To combat the exaggerated time and calorie consumption, if I started over I would recommend to not waste time on searching containers for other than clothes and sewing kits, and only collect sticks, mushrooms, rose hips and cat tails, until you find a house that raises your temp and has a bed, then repeat until you have matches and a cutting tool.

I.e. it's more important to move on than search everything, but only if you know you'll get to a place that raises your temp and has a bed. And if you search, it pays more to search around containers than bothering with them.

[PowerOn]

Originally posted by Gun Tech.:

I'm still alive, but I had two problems on Signal Hill that caused issues - the Fire Barrel doesn't work like a stove etc, I was completely unable to cook anything, which would have kept my condition up.

What I do for this fire barrel bug is:

Select the can, point in any place over barrel, then crouch and left click.
The can is correct placed and cooking menu became available 100% of time. Are other "workaround" for this issue.

As new to "Interloper'thermia" instead move to PV you should have move to Milton, knowing how avoid wolves there are good loot and 100+ cat tails.

Most places places around town at few minutes of walk, including an bed in Cabin Fever free place, Milton Park Office.

Until find bedroll collect plenty of cloths and make snowshelter* (15 sticks+ 5 cloths) during long travels, in front some rocks to be able to make campfire protected from wind and sleep in 4+3+2+1 hours turns. Smaller turns in early morning in what could is high an you depends on fire for survive.

Knowing how manage the temp drop is not need lite fire for ~10 hours, but lit only in early morning hours, then using less firewood.

* Snowshelter can't be build in places that have any kind of cover above, like rocks or partially broken barns/sheeds.

In Trappers you can build snowshelter in that barn if find the place exactly under the hole in the roof. Don't know if this place is safety from the bear that wander in front or a wolf that sometimes are in the hill at right.

[terryt3535]

Yes, fire barrels are a problem. I got them to work by moving to outer edge of being able to interact and then items will snap to cooking zones (cans, pots, uncooked meat/fish). I had the biggest problem with the one at the trailer in Milton.

My first three attempts at Interloper ended with less than 48 hours of in-game time. To get past 50 days in game, you need a totally different playing style then every other difficulty level and a LOT of luck with RNJ. My guess is even if they are playing 2017 version, they started at least two other attempts before they got very far in a video.

[mf187doubleg]

You have also a guide for possible equipment locations. It helps :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1524158008

The key on loper at start is to manage calories (eat only before sleep) and to maximize recorevring during sleep (best is 10h but you need to be very tired).

[Pestilence]

Originally posted by Gun Tech.:

this mode reveals the unrealistic survival flaws quite well, such as any calories or time spent smashing a chair or harvesting pretty much anything outside, requiring x to do y whereas x isn't required in real life,

Calories are in no way required. If you don't have any, the game still let's you do the action.

[The Pistol Experience]

Here are a couple of tips they are very common but undoubtfully helpful!

When you get your first matches or flare if shelter is far away always create a fire with said flare or matches, once it's lit grab as many torches as you can, and leave one lit in your hands. Torches can be used to light fires while they are lit, (you can relight torches on any fire, on other burning torches and flare not just with matches).

Therefore when you have torches available you can light fires for only 1 match! Making firestarter perk worthless iMO. Always bring a lit torch and if you can drink a hot tea before you go outside, only do this if you already have a fire going no need to waste excess matches. A hot bewerage gives many bonuses, it gives you a 4c warmth bonus for a hour or two, slows down the time you freeze, IIRC it will also keep your character away from losing condition to freezing to.

Also keep in mind when heating tea and such. They dont need to be on the fire surface, what i mean by this is you can drop them and place them near a fire, and they will heat up. A neat trick for saving cooking spots. Aswell when they are heating near the fire they dont burn, you can for example place a bunch of teas around your campfire for the night and when you wake up they are ready boiling for you to drink. Think this is a bug though currently.

Eat hot food if you can.

Dont get sad if you dont find much loot, interloper is notourious for containers not dropping anything, but SOME containers like safes and locked lockers can contain items that will ALWAYS spawn in it. For example the FM farm safe usually has a mackinaw in it.

Interloper can be genourous with loot of you know were to look, each map contains atleast a hammer and hacksaw if not other goodies to, there are also loot tables out there to which you can use. Overral man made food in interloper is rare. Generally man made food is pretty bad condition and weight to calorie wise. You will never starve if you have enough cat tails on you, cat tails and other wild plants you can find are always in the same area, are just as plentiful as in other modes and don't spoil, mushroom and rose tea are great for getting cooking skill up, and cat tails have 3000 calories per kg which is 20 cat tails.

Not counting in if you are good with the stone you can hunt rabbits easily and get their around 500 calorie meat, rabbits are basicly sitting ducks for stonethrowers. Food is easy to get in Interloper you just need to know were too look.

PS: Don't save your man made food eat it all first then cat tails. (Cat tails dont spoil)

Good Luck!

[Gun Tech.]

Thx guys. :) I did know some of the strategies. Love the crouch-click trick with fire barrels!

Sorry if i offended someone by calling it nerdy, the word is not super offensive where I live. I suppose I meant that when you have to know a lot of details in advance and sort of game the engine (example, starve yourself all day without issue, eat minimum calories and sleep tons), it becomes more calculated, less immersive and so not as fun.