I really truly hate Balboa

[Soondead]

Recently reinstalled the game after the 1.0 release and started a new game. Made it to Balboa and I'm just as stuck as I was before; it's absolutely impossible to find anything. There are signs leading nowhere, no visible trails or tracks so I never quite know where I'm supposed to go and after spending more than a day (real life day, not in-game day) I still can't find the machete and can't progress. I'm playing on peaceful, so the bears that respawn literally faster than you can kill them are of no concern. I have installed a mod that disables hunger and thirst so I don't constantly die when I get lost and can't find my way back to the raft every few minutes. I can just wait out the darkness rather than stumble around like an idiot.

And still, I'm stuck. No matter how many hours I waste on this stupid place, I'm completely stuck and I hate it. There's just no landmarks and every path looks exactly like the other so I never have a clue where to go on this nightmarish island. The "map" is absolutely worthless; the only time I know where I am is if I'm standing next to one of the relay towers; again, because there are no paths or trails. I've found some wild berries, put them in a tray and mama bear came over, the only trouble is I have absolutely no idea where that was and the only cave I've found had a few mushrooms and mounds of dirt in it. I've collected meat, leather, bees and enough honeycombs to last for weeks. No machete, no blueprint. No relay tower 4, no code.

This island continues to absolutely ruin the game for me.

[.augis]

The machete blueprint is located inside the same cave the mama bear was.

For the navigation, the island paths aren't that weird, they just either branch to a dead end or towards one of the towers. I would suggest looking at one of the towers from anywhere and just move towards the general direction until a path appears that leads towards the the tower. Personally, the signs scattered around were good enough to separate the three corners of the island for an easier time

[Anonymous Helper]

Maybe Balboa section of this guide will help:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1648718375

Or this video walkthru:

https://youtu.be/bnXYfSU4-Hs

[T9]

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[Camaro]

If OP hates Balboa, it will get worse. I love the game, but some areas were frustrating compared to Balboa. I would watch videos, tips and tricks. If you set to Nobody can join, at game load. It allows pausing the game. That helped me get through some areas

[T9]

Originally posted by Camaro:

If OP hates Balboa, it will get worse. I love the game, but some areas were frustrating compared to Balboa. I would watch videos, tips and tricks. If you set to Nobody can join, at game load. It allows pausing the game. That helped me get through some areas

Just take your time and explore methodically.

[Derpykat5]

Balboa is definitely my least favorite island - it's way too easy to get lost in that place.

Originally posted by Marc Remillard:

Yeah I didn't find Balboa too bad, bit annoying, but Caravan has caused me to lose the urge to continue further, just tedious navigating that place.

I actually found caravan island to be better, in large part because it's smaller.

[Soondead]

I was finally able to find mama bear and the *correct* cave, and move on.

Caravan City was a breeze, I always knew where I was in relation to the raft so the place could be searched quite efficiently.

[Smeagol with a Deagle]

tbh I found most locations a chore to play through, cruise ship, Balboa esp (thankfully I had 2 friends with me and it still took over an hour), Caravan Island.

Tangaroa was probably my favourite but it turned into a chore as well hunting down tape.

In fact only the oilrig was not too bad.

[Soondead]

Caravan City was the least annoying one in my opinion. I finally made it to Utopia and after trying for a couple of hours now I give up trying to make it past those idiot rotating contraptions. Why are they even there?? This has absolutely nothing to do with rafting and it makes absolutely zero point zero logical sense. Just build a damned ladder or a bridge or something!!

[McCrazy]

I play in peaceful mode and am truly annoyed at Temperance. My character died to some bugs and at the moment I see a room full of them and even though I have weapons with me, I need to go back to the raft, because the weapons will be destroyed before I kill all these bugs. Not my understanding of 'peaceful'.

On Topic: I lost my way in Balboa too, but making some short trips in daylight helped a lot to find my way. On my second visit I went really fast through everything.

[Soondead]

I finally gave up and uninstalled the game for good. Even if the ending came with a gift certificate for a free bl*wj*b from a celebrity of choice, it's not worth the frustration.

[Deus]

The irritating and stupid fetch quests can be bypassed with enough wood and scrap. You can build vast networks of ladders and poles from the raft to navigate to the correct area. Then if you come across a locked room then you can place a bed on the end of one of the poles and wait for the swaying of the raft to carry you inside the room, then stand up. I bypassed the cruise ship that way the moment I saw a wooden door with "keycard required" while I had a perfectly good axe in my hand that it would't let me use. I built my way to relay station 6 the same way. I never even saw the mama bear, nor the cave you speak of.

[XIII]

Honestly, I might be the contrarian here, but I liked Balboa. Really gave me the feel to land at an island and actually do a larger expedition.

It wasnt perfect and there were some annoying bits for me too, but it was an interesting break imo.

[Derpykat5]

Originally posted by Deus Ludo:

The irritating and stupid fetch quests can be bypassed with enough wood and scrap. You can build vast networks of ladders and poles from the raft to navigate to the correct area. Then if you come across a locked room then you can place a bed on the end of one of the poles and wait for the swaying of the raft to carry you inside the room, then stand up. I bypassed the cruise ship that way the moment I saw a wooden door with "keycard required" while I had a perfectly good axe in my hand that it would't let me use. I built my way to relay station 6 the same way. I never even saw the mama bear, nor the cave you speak of.

Well, I mean, if you don't want to actually play the story islands...

[Alaskan Glitch]

Originally posted by XIII:

Honestly, I might be the contrarian here, but I liked Balboa. Really gave me the feel to land at an island and actually do a larger expedition.

It wasnt perfect and there were some annoying bits for me too, but it was an interesting break imo.

I would have liked it more if I could harvest any of the trees. That was the most frustrating and annoying part about the island for me. All those trees that were completely immune to any axe.