Having difficulty starting story mode.

[Supernautilus]

EDIT: I've changed the title of this comment from what it was originally because it wasn't helpful.

I am pretty baffled by this game at this point. I started a new game. Story mode, default difficulty. I can’t even get 10 minutes into it without dying. I have restarted it 10 times. I’m literally racing to pick up cloth for bandages, pick up sticks for fire, sprint to the cave, heal myself and light a fire as fast as I can, then sleep. Then sprint up to the crash site and eat and drink. By this time I’m basically dead. The farthest I’ve got is stumbling away from the plane a few feet and then dying. I mean, I’ve played Green Hell and that game was hard. But this game just starts you off with you literally seconds from death. I’m honestly not sure if this is a bug or not. Can anyone please explain to me what’s going on?

[SirunSong]

It gets better with experience. One small victory at a time.

[ødiµm«]

practice the game mechanics in survival mode pilgrim, it is much easier when you understand everything that affects condition and what you need to do to counter those effects

[IFIYGD]

You are rushing out of the starting area in Story Mode too quickly. You do not need to. There is food in the starting area. You can make water in the starting area by making a fire. On the second day. after picking up sticks and smashing crates to get what is inside them. Don't rush the objectives. There is a first aid kit in the starting area. With a bandage in it. Near the cave.

Check the dedicated Wintermute subforum for more threads about how to play Story Mode. The subforum you posted in here, general discussions, is used for talking about Survival and Challenge Modes. Which use similar mechanics, but do not work exactly the same way as Story Mode.

[야삐™]

may be you're dying from cold. fullstop.

[Mauro4691]

the beginning of the story is a must have sequence
the goal is to teach new players
if you do not meet the goals of the diary there is no progress but death

[Craton]

You don't really need to sprint around so much. Story mode items are plentiful; you really don't need to conserve materials like matches.

After the starting night just explore to the plane, loot around it, and find a nook to make a fire and warm up. Continue to the frozen lake, grab the cat tails and throw some rocks at the rabbits if you'd like (use the area between thumb and finger as a rough reticle). You can make another fire there to warm up and cook or you can just keep moving and go to the nearby cave in the area just past that.

But generally, it's not really a big deal to take damage from things like cold as long as you warm up before hypothermia or frostbite sets in. You heal by resting (more health from more hours sleeping at a time, maximum gain at 10 hours), so you can easily spend your HP and get it back later.

[SBlack]

Originally posted by Craton:

Continue to the frozen lake, grab the cat tails and throw some rocks at the rabbits if you'd like (use the area between thumb and finger as a rough reticle).

There is really no reason for that since Redux. The path from the plane to the town has been drastically shortened. You are there in no time. So after you nursed yourself back to health in the starting cave it's pretty easy to just keep walking.
Maybe make a fire if you get lost a bit can't find the path. But starving isn't a big deal. Cold is the real enemy in the game

[abonamente]

Originally posted by Supernautilus:

I’m literally racing to pick up cloth for bandages, pick up sticks for fire, sprint to the cave, heal myself and light a fire as fast as I can, then sleep. Then sprint up to the crash site and eat and drink. By this time I’m basically dead.

Did not heal, just stopped the bleeding. Try to heal (recover lost health condition) before leaving the cave area. What she said:

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

You are rushing out of the starting area in Story Mode too quickly. You do not need to. There is food in the starting area. You can make water in the starting area by making a fire. On the second day. after picking up sticks and smashing crates to get what is inside them. Don't rush the objectives. There is a first aid kit in the starting area. With a bandage in it. Near the cave

Also - must learn quickly to conserve resources (time, rest, food, firewood - everything). Just one example - can sleep one hour next to the fire, eliminating the hypothermia risk and some fatigue and recovering some health, run to gather some more sticks, sleep another hour while cooking venison and so on until you are out of the woods. Then you can afford to start assessing risks a different way. Like OK, now I have some food, water and firewood reserves, I can sleep 10 hours to recover health and remove fatigue close to 100%, Because I'll be fine even if there's a blizzard when I wake up, I can afford to wait for it to end.

[petteri.pitkanen.92]

Originally posted by SirunSong:

It gets better with experience. One small victory at a time.

True

[hinterland_community]

Moved to WINTERMUTE sub-forum. Also deleted a few posts calling the OP at troll. While not worded as diplomatically as we'd prefer the OP has a valid point of view and is asking for assistance. Either provide them with some or move on.

[Supernautilus]

Originally posted by hinterland_community:

Moved to WINTERMUTE sub-forum. Also deleted a few posts calling the OP at troll. While not worded as diplomatically as we'd prefer the OP has a valid point of view and is asking for assistance. Either provide them with some or move on.

Thanks. Sorry for the comment title. I was frustrated at the time I wrote it. I changed it to be less dumb.

I now realize what was happening. I didn't realize that breaking down items takes time. So I was running around the starting area breaking down all the crates and branches, not realizing my health was dropping the whole time. I restarted the game again with this in mind and have now figured out what I was doing wrong.

I appreciate the tips from everyone that commented. Thanks.

[Supernautilus]

Originally posted by 야삐™:

may be you're dying from cold. fullstop.

This is what the problem was. As I said above, I didn't realize that breaking down items takes time. So I was standing out in the cold trying to break down all the crates and stuff at the start, while my health was plummeting the whole time. Once I figured this out I was able to get past the starting area.

[야삐™]

Originally posted by Supernautilus:

Originally posted by 야삐™:

may be you're dying from cold. fullstop.

This is what the problem was. As I said above, I didn't realize that breaking down items takes time. So I was standing out in the cold trying to break down all the crates and stuff at the start, while my health was plummeting the whole time. Once I figured this out I was able to get past the starting area.

glad to hear that my guess was the answer.

[IFIYGD]

Glad you got it worked out Super. There will be more moments like that, as you learn new things. Story Mode is good for learning, since it is not permadeath, and you get do-overs. Make manual saves if you feel like you just accomplished something big, and don't want to lose time, by going back to a checkpoint save or auto-save. (Just keep in mind you have 25 save slots... delete older save points as you get further along, to always have free ones to re-start from, if needed.) Those manual saves come in handy, if you feel like you make a mistake, and want to try to do it again, a different way, too.

Welcome to The Long Dark. Looking forward to getting to know you better. And yeah, I think most of us have been there at some point, maybe years ago, but it's not an easy game to learn and master, right away. Always feel free to ask for help.

[Supernautilus]

Originally posted by JayXL:

this game has a high learning curve and not everything is readily apparent.

You can say that again. It really doesn't tell you anything. I've played lots of survival games so I should be used to that. But for some reason this game was really ticking me off. I think it was really the cut scenes where my character kept stopping and talking to himself while I was literally dying. That was super frustrating. I really hate it when games take away control from the player and force you to watch some cinematic scene while being completely helpless. I really hope there aren't too many more of those lol. Or maybe I just need to go play survival mode since I heard that's the same thing but no story. In any case, thanks for the encouragement. I appreciate it.