Best way to start a warm fire?

[Silver]

In higher difficulty levels, fire temperature becomes more of an issue and throwing in a few sticks wont do much. So I was wondering, especially towards the beginning of the game when your fire starting skills are low, using a book (+2°C) is probably the best way to ensure success and throwing in a lump of coal (+20°C) the fastest way to warm up, but since you need coal for forging, throwing in some reclaimed wood (+3°C per unit) is the most economical way to do this, right?

Save the cedar wood (+6°C per unit) for when you run out of books.

On the other hand, 3 sticks raise the temperature by the same amount and last for roughly the same time as 1 reclaimed wood, 6 sticks the equivalent of 1 cedarwood.

[pickle]

For a quick warm up fire, I normally throw a coal in if it feels like -8C or lower.

For an overnight fire, I would have collected a ton of sticks anyway so I would save the coal and throw in the sticks instead.

But really though, just use coal whenever you can since there are plenty of them around if you know where to find them. There's no need to save coal unless you're playing extremely hardcore custom modes like purist OuterNOGOA / NOPE where you are only allowed to pick up outdoor coal.

[konzacelt]

If you don't want to use coal, sticks are generally the best bang for your buck in terms of warming up fast. Fir is too rare and heavy for a a quick warmup. Reclaimed wood doesn't burn that hot. And Cedar, while technically hotter than sticks pound for pound, burns longer and may take time to get. Plus I think sticks actually raise the campfire temp faster than a cedar equivalent, I could be wrong on that though.

For the fastest hot fire, use coal. But I save those for emergency fires. Sticks are really your most common daily fuel for a quick warm up. They are so ridiculously plentiful too. I always carry 5-10 on me at all times.

[David]

I think "use coal whenever you can" is great advice on many maps. For e.g. I always do the bulk of my crafting at the outdoor workbench in CH with a coal-fire nearby because every 2-3 weeks you can get like 40 pieces of coal in the nearby mine. This defeats cabin fever when crafting all my skins.

But on some maps that are very cold with few coal spawns nearby you can run out. (ahem: I'm looking at you Forsaken Airfield!)

If you're not levelled up on fire starting, always start your fires with a torch so you get multiple shots at success, and start your fires earlier than you need them. Then it matters less what you use. Even so, I'd use books first, then sticks.

When feeding a fire, what to use depends on your situation. Sticks are the least weight-efficient, so I'd use them up first (sometimes I keep one to start the next fire). That is unless I anticipate needing fine-grained control of my fire time or temp, in which case I might throw on reclaimed or firewood as a base and top it up with sticks.

If I need to warm up fast, I use a stick/coal combo, but I always look at my temp before throwing fuel on the fire to know how much I need to put on. One stick per degree down, or one coal per 20 degrees down. In celcius the math is easy.

If I'm going to be at the fire a long time and it's well-sheltered, I'll put just enough on. If it's a warming fire on the way somewhere, I'll way over-commit, like by throwing almost all my sticks on there to get 2-3 arrows up. Then when I'm mostly warm, I'll look at my temp in celcius and pull basically that many torches. I then break down torches in order from worst to best condition until I have the number I'd like to carry for my torch-walk.

Oh, and don't forget to put your teas down to warm up.

This strategy nets me some pretty good 40+% condition torches, and lets me recycle many of my sticks for the next fire.

If I'm traveling as light as possible, I'll take sticks and coal, but I'll try not to use the coal, since coal is the most weight-effficient and you can burn through 4-6 pieces easy if you're weathering a blizzard outside with just a tree for shelter (due to wind shifts). I'll pick up sticks along the way and try to make do with just them. If I do have to use a coal to warm up, when I pull torches I'll just get that many more sticks, so will be primed for the next "stick-fire".

Hope that helps.

[David]

Oh, one more strange thing: When you're fire level 5, you can create sticks out of nothing by throwing sticks on a fire one at a time and pulling off torches immediately. Pretty cool in theory, but in practice usually a waste of time since sticks are plentiful.

One benefit of level 5 though is that if it's sunny outside, you can create a fire with maglens and stick, then immediately pull that stick out as a torch, then get the stick back later by recycling the torch. I do that often to light a fire inside when it's sunny but cold outside.

Oh and one more thing (sorry): there is a demarcation line in every cave where it goes from interior to exterior. Light your fire right on that line. If you're on the exterior side, you can use a maglens if it's sunny, then you can move to the interior side and enjoy the extra warmth. If you put enough on the fire to warm on the exterior side, you can enjoy the burn bonus time by staying on that side (even if the fire is outdoors, the burn bonus depends on where *you* are, not on where the *fire* is.)

[Bobywan]

Coal is renewable, so not much of an issue to use 1 once in a while if you need the +20°C.
Otherwise sticks are fine. Just grab them along the way and if you gets overburden just drop them in a safe place.

Always use the torch first to waste only 1 match

[darkscaryforest]

Originally posted by David:

For e.g. I always do the bulk of my crafting at the outdoor workbench in CH with a coal-fire nearby because every 2-3 weeks you can get like 40 pieces of coal in the nearby mine.

What route do you take to the mine? I've gotten close calls with the wolf that guards it

[Silver]

i've figured the fastest way to warm up is to heat some tea or can of peaches. only takes a few minutes to do so and the heat bonus not only slows down heat loss for the next 45 mins or so, but also instantly refills your heat meter by a third or so. considering how slow your heat meter refills in interloper, this insta-bonus is that much more worth it, allowing you to spend less time at the fire.

[David]

Originally posted by Silver:

i've figured the fastest way to warm up is to heat some tea or can of peaches. only takes a few minutes to do so and the heat bonus not only slows down heat loss for the next 45 mins or so, but also instantly refills your heat meter by a third or so. considering how slow your heat meter refills in interloper, this insta-bonus is that much more worth it, allowing you to spend less time at the fire.

True, great point!

Originally posted by darkscaryforest:

Originally posted by David:

For e.g. I always do the bulk of my crafting at the outdoor workbench in CH with a coal-fire nearby because every 2-3 weeks you can get like 40 pieces of coal in the nearby mine.

What route do you take to the mine? I've gotten close calls with the wolf that guards it

I just head over to Log Sort, then straight up from there. I haven't seen that particular wolf in a long time, but if I do I deal with him like any other wolf.

[PowerOn]

Since coal is a precious commodity, I use sticks - I always carry 35-40 in Interloper.

After lit the first fire - the mostly cost one waste 5 matches; using the torch "perk" lit fires is no more an issue. Books seems speed the process, but they are heavy.