TLD, Chapter 3, Crossroads Elegy, Brief Walkthrough +Now w/100% Completion

A walk through that won't spoil the story, but will provide sufficient spoilers to get you through Chapter 3. You do not need this guide, or any guide, to get through. But, if like me, you have some questions from time to time ... the answer will likely be contained herein. Enjoy!

Chapter 3 Overview - no spoilers

Before jumping into spoilers ... let's summarize where I finished:

Main Quests:
Aftermath 100%
Trauma 100%
Falling Star 100%
Coming Storm 100%

Side Quests:
Forest Talkers 100%
Tall Tales 100%
Joplin’s Bunkers 100%
Blackrock 100%
Molly’s Gift 100%
Church Artifact 100%

This was a nice chapter.

Good length (perhaps could have been longer – but not after the wait we have had between chapters). And no goofy BEAR SPEAR scenes.

Having played through it the first time, I warn you now ... don't carry everything and the kitchen sink with you. Try to keep your gear at a level that allows sprinting. You CAN carry all of the weapons with you and still accomplish this.

I think the development company, Hinterland, decided to use some full motion capture from an earlier an acquisition causing a delay in this release. They also used full voice acting, instead of the reading option. It felt more professional and polished. I felt more immersed in the game play. If it were my company, I would be quite proud of this release.

Side note: there’s no reason you cannot accomplish this Chapter with zero help. If you read further, you will spoil nice reveals that are best experienced in the game.

Chapter 3: Walkthough -- Spoilers ahead!

You start with a Molly having rescued you. She quickly leads you to a barn, and leaves you to the wolves. Later you’ll find out that she has done this before. And … she is hunting some of those escaped prisoners and shooting them with arrows. The first time through, I was always bit by the wolf. This time through, I killed it ... and the rest ran away ... no injuries.

After sending you to her barn, you will no longer interact with her in person. I never found a way back in to the main level of her house. I used the basement once or twice later on to warm up.

The priest sends me to the airplane to look for survivors (but mostly for ID cards and insulin for the one person in the group that needs it). It is convoluted to get there, and yes, you have to come in from the east, circle north and west around the airplane, and come back down south east again to search the wreckage.

However, there is a mid-span way out I might have missed while circling north to the plane. I used this way to get out. You will be carrying a survivor. It leads to a route down the mountain and some ruined shacks.

Molly will be ringing you up during as you reach the ruined shacks on your return path. The message sounded ominous, and I decided to avoid stopping at her place on my way back.

Side note: this place is a nice stopping point to warm up your patient. Next will be the barn. Then next, the town hall with the priest.

Side note: play through #2, this place is still a nice stopping point to warm up your patient. Next I overland in a more straight line to the town hall with the priest. I believe I am stopped once more on the way by wolves.

When you do the side quest for the Church Artifact, you are going to get a bunny hat. I love it; it’s the best warmth to be had for your head. I’ll write a poem about it later.

Side note: However, you never find dead rabbits in this game. So you never find a rabbit skin. As such, you may want to plan early about killing a rabbit (you’ll have plenty of bullets) or trapping a rabbit. I could never work out the stone throw thing. But once you have one, on the way out of the map towards Perseverance Mills, you can use that to repair your hat. I used my time questing at the pond for the big fish to save/reload on shooting bunnies.

Having returned from the plane with your first survivor/patient, you then need to talk to all of the survivors, and then finally to the priest; and he sets you about the tasks of rescuing 3 more survivors; and stocking the larders with calories.

Side note: the stocking of supplies is like playing survival mode, and I enjoyed it. However, it is combined with the quest for the 3 missing people -- both need to be completed to move on. So I left a few things out of the supplies until I was ready to move on.

I established a home outside of the town hall. It is the one with the truck in the driveway. You can walk onto the porch just where the snow piles up -- or use the side door by the truck. I store my meat outside on the porch, in the snow. The house’s layout is exactly like the one on Jackrabbit Island on the Coastal Highway map – a common home site for survival mode.

Side note: use a flare gun when you are in the “circle” of where the survivor is, and they will shoot one off in return. I forgot this two out of 3 times on my first playthrough. :/ On my second playthrough I learned to shoot high in the sky, as the survivor needs to see your flare. Their return flare may no be visible to you. I had to run to find one return flare just as it was burning out. I chose to shoot my second flare and found them after their return flare.

One of the persons that needs rescued will have a bear near them. My first play through, I had to kill it. I strafed about a fallen tree and killed it in three shots of the rifle. (My first time, two shots and he attacked me, I survived, picked up my rifle, and finished the bear off -- obviously I reloaded and did it right). My second play through, I found the bear before interacting with my survivor, I shot it, and it ran away. Never say it again. This made for shorter supplies on my second run through, but nothing to worry about.

After that, carrying this person back is all about avoiding the wolves. You cannot do so all the time. I think I averaged 1 wolf pack attack per person returned. And just the 1 bear encounter. But I did reload several times. When the wolves sound, drop the person and get your pistol out. They “know” when you are aiming, and will run goofy paths to avoid your aim, be patient, let them get close if you need. And feel free to shoot them on their retreat (whether your first shot got them, or they bit you).

Side note: the wolves do not seem to care or fear flares or the flare gun, or the burning spot on the floor. Even with the new blue flare. I used my pistol exclusively with them.

Side note: I was CARRYING TOO MUCH on my first playthrough.

Carrying too much: you never have to feed your patients; you sometimes get a chance to give them water. Most of the time I could not sprint TO MY NEXT QUEST in my first play through. This was a ridiculous load to be carrying. Supply up, leave most of your tools home. You are always going to be finding stuff. Don’t bring cloth (do bring bandages). Or extra clothes. You can find those. Of tools, I used handsaws or knives for slaughtering, I never needed both. Never used a hatchet while out and about. A knife “maybe” once in a fight … but honestly, I beat them upside the head with my gun vs a sharp object. Obviously you need a crowbar, and enough supplies for 1 – 2 fires, at most. Besides the final cave, I used matches when I REALLY needed some light, not a lantern.

When the storm hits, it lasts like 2 - 3 - 4 days. Repair your gear.

Snow storm is done. You do a quest up to the radio tower, where the building up there is now unlocked. There is a bunch of stuff to pick up, up there, if you haven't already raided it. It is here you will likely find your last "guide" either a Forest Talker or Pleasant Valley Collectible. There is a workbench here. I had enough deer skins from just the random dead deer I found, that I decided to make the deerskin pants. I could have made the boots as well, but not both. Both playthroughs had a storm after radio thing ... and I used that time my 2nd playthrough to make my deerskin pants.

If the collectible at the radio tower does not fill out your collectibles for the Forest Talkers and Pleasant Valley items, then you have likely missed one of the key points in your ransacking of the area. Which collectible you find and where you find them seems a bit random. But more on that in the next section.

Assuming you are done, and ready to leave ... head back to your house, repair your gear (which you should have done during the snow storm), don't forget to use that rabbit pelt to bring your hat back to 100%. Now ... off to the coal mine.

Chapter 3: The Cave

Side note: there is no short cut to the coal mine; follow the priest’s map. Anyway, there will be a group of 4 wolves up there. Boring. You will be fully loaded for this trip and not need anything from them. Handle them however you like.

Coal mine. I will be curious, at the end of the day, how many people will vote this even a positive part of the story. Anyway, you go in alone. You look around, eventually you find a small floor section covered with some wooded planks, and a
"cave in" starts.

Side note: you wake up from the cave in with sprains and pains. And no bed roll! They removed it from your inventory. I tried many, many times to be sneaky and leave it in a safe place ... but they really require you to lose this item. I eventually gave it up … having left it on the floor. I wonder if they would have given it back to me after I find the exit … had I kept it in my inventory? I doubt it.

Anyway, the next part is about an elevator, fuses, bolt cutters.

Side note: Like an idiot, I carried around 140 lbs of stuff, afraid they were going to "cave in" or “rock slide” my stuff away again. Mistake. Once you find the elevator … leave most of your stuff on the floor outside of this. It will truly make the rest of the effort go SOOO much quicker.

Side note: you need 3 good fuses, not two. Go searching.

Eventually, you will have two, but not three. You’ll find a fence that needs bolt cutters.

Side note: these are hidden down some dark, never lit passageway you probably haven’t felt the need to search yet. Grab them, and get your 3rd fuse.

The funny part is, it was never clear to me where the 3rd fuse went. I found it obviously, but cannot remember to tell you where. The first two are within sight of the elevator. The 3rd, I don’t remember, but not quite within sight. Anyway, you grab your stuff, take the elevator, and then you can see the exit.

The end!

Feel free to leave comments/questions; I'll check back and respond if possible.

Chapter 3: Collectibles

The order you find these will differ based on what order you do your quests and side quests. But the areas where I found most of these items should result in a collectible of some sort.

That is, it appears that you may find a collectible in the same place in each playthrough, but it may not be the same item ... or Part.

But below are where I found the items.

PLEASANT VALLEY COLLECTIBLE, PART 2

• Inside Town Hall on the desk in the office to the right of the front door.
  
• I also found a copy of this on the road north to the airplane, in the shack, just past the 2nd bridge.

PLEASANT VALLEY COLLECTIBLE, PART 1

• Inside the Church on the bulletin board on the back right.
  
• Another is on the bulletin board in the convenience store.

PLEASANT VALLEY COLLECTIBLE, PART 3

• I finally found this one after finishing everything else and was ready to go ... I remembered that I had avoided the barn near the Pleasant Valley Outbuildings. Normally inhabited by wolves, at this point, it was a completely clear run. And I finally found it on the floor, upstairs, near a metal bin.

CHURCH ARTIFACT

• I found as a note in the back left of the church, nailed to a beam.

The LOCAL LEGENDS -- GHOST STAG

• I found this item at the cabin in Skeeter's Ridge, on the first time up here heading towards the airplane.

LOCAL LEGENDS -- THE LOST CAVE

• I found at the convenience store, on a {hot plate or radio}? on the counter near a fridge (connected to where the cash register sits).

LOCAL LEGENDS -- THE BIG ONE

• I found in the second prepper's cache near the crossroads (see below).

MOOSEHIDE SATCHEL

• Is something you find when you explore the lost cave.

I found my first FOREST TALKER MEMO is in the backpack in the convenience store near the dead body. It starts JOPLIN'S BUNKER RAID quests, and the 1st PREPPER'S CACHE appears on your map up north. Inside a grate in that cache is a clue that opens up the next one, near the crossroads.

FOREST TALKER COLLECTIBLE, PART 1

• In a brokedown barn near where I viewed the GHOST STAG, was a metal crate where I found this.

FOREST TALKER COLLECTIBLE, PART 2

• I believe this was the memo I found in the back pack next to the dead man in the convenience store.

FOREST TALKER COLLECTIBLE, PART 3

• Found inside the first prepper's cache up north, on the bed.

JOPLIN'S BUNKER RAID 2

• Is located near the crossroads south of Molly's farm and west of the Town Hall.

JOPLIN'S BUNKER RAID 3

• This item is marked on your map, it is NOT above tree level as described, but it is below an overhang of a rock outcropping, and easy to miss the first time around.

[Fulp]

thank you. to answer your question about the collectibles i actually only found part two. I wasn't really focusing on 100% it seeing how it was already hard to move around with limited resources. To be honest i think the only solution right now is replaying the whole chapter and with what i know now i'll probably make better progress. but i'll have to take a long break from the game because i'm burnt out

[Max Payne]

Fulp, Hard does bump up the food requirements quite a bit. I did my play-throughs with very few quests to just "stock up." Instead, I always had somewhere to go, and looted along the way. If you are hanging around in survival mode, that would make this chapter more difficult. If you are not, I would note that I tried to eat bear meat and wolf meat vs canned goods. I found that NOT killing the bear made it quite difficult to get that survivor back. There is a spot to fish at Pensive Pond, if that helps. Some of the items are just left to the Random Number Genereator. I remember finding Pleasant Valley Part Two like 3 or 4 times, while I was looking for the other two pages. I wonder if you have gotten into a loop like this? Also, have you checked all of the the Bunkers? Just finding the collectibles means finding more storage bins. Good luck!

[Fulp]

i'm playing on hard difficulty and i think i'm actually softlocked trying to store the kitchen with supplies. this poorly adjusted segment is a poor excuse for a "hard difficulty", i'm extremely stingy with my food and sleep and i'm still consuming more food and fire starters than i'm putting, and for some reason 7-10 kg of meat that i got by exhausting my ammo disappeared from the storage ( the game literally sabotaging my playthrough), and i can't find lamp oil anywhere. I was kind of hopeful at first because i thought killing 3 wolf packs (1 for each person i rescued) would be enough food for me to roam farther but it wasn't. now i'm out of ammo on both my rifle and revolver (can't hunt for meat) and my resources as i type this won't even last me a day. I'm barely getting by each day. It feels strange how there are no discussions about how undoable this chapter is on hard mode.

[Max Payne]

Hey Twisted. It turns out that finding the "collectibles" has more to do with "where" you can find them. What you find is randomized. I think I had 3 or 4 finds of the same part 1 in my second playthrough. It doesn't list an extra copy, but you walk away knowing you have randomly missed a chance for the piece you were looking for. :/ That's the game though. I'm not terribly stressed about it. Increases the replay-ability actually.

[Fox McCloud]

I found the pleasant valley collectible part 3 in the radio tower, not the barn.

[Max Payne]

The ID cards are in the bodies. They are all near that crash, no need to look outwards. And yes, it is easy to miss one that you thought you checked. I found the survivor and was still missing one. I went to backtrack only to find it was a body near the survivor I had forgot to check -- in my hurry to provide help to the survivor.

[Xx_memescoper_xX]

just search every body in the plane crash

[briethebee]

I cant seem to find the last ID card. help?

[Xx_memescoper_xX]

you just walk around the mine to find fuses, not hard to transverse

[Xx_memescoper_xX]

i think you can find it when you do the side quests