A Light in the Long Dark [Tips & Tricks]

A Collection of useful Tips and Tricks to the Basic Gameplay. Mostly helpful for beginners and people playing at medium difficulty.

Arrival

"Over a year I travelled through the frozen north. I met other survivors on my way, who shared their knowledge with me. And so I learned alot about the dangers in this wilderness and how to avoid them. In this tradition, I invite you to stay at my campfire. Let me tell you, what helped me, to survive the merciless nature of these days. And don't worry about 'Icy-Bob', sitting at my fire. He is not very chatty, due to a somewhat frosty temper." - (giggles crazily)


The 3 most important Rules to stay alive:

1. Know your Environment - observe it carefully - always.
2. Act, before you're in trouble - plan with foresight.
3. Do not feel secure, if there is no reason to feel secure. Expect the unexpected.


Have much fun and a lucky Hunt!


Tab. 1: Overview of the differences between easy (Pilgrim), medium (Voyager) and hard (Stalker) difficulty

Gamemode	Wolf aggression	Number of Wolves	Perception range of animals ¹	Clothing ²	Food ²	Calories / hour sleep	Calory burn from harvesting	Increament rate of stats ³
Pilgrim	none	normal	short	++	++	38 cal	low	slow
Voyager	normal	normal	medium	+	+	75 cal	high	normal
Stalker	normal	increased	high	-	-	60 cal	medium	fast

¹ Range at which Animals scent human presence
² Lootable Food and Clothing (i haven't recognized differences in the amount of Tools or Materials, except sewing kits, that are rare in stalker mode)
³ The increament rate of Coldness, Fatigue, Hunger and Thirst


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Note:

This Guide is an ongoing work. All content reflect's my personal experience and opinion. English is not my native language so be lenient with me. The Game is still in early development and therefore a lot of things may change. I have mainly played in v.192 - v.200, but I will try keep the guide up-to-date according to relevant changes.

Any Guide you are reading, may change your Game experience. Learning the game-mechanics by playing is part of the fun of a game. I recommend, not to read any guide or use a map, until you are sure that it will enrich your experience, playing the game.

Gamemode: Voyager (Medium Difficulty)*
Gameversion: Alpha v.215**

* most parts of this guide are as well applicable for stalker gamemode, with a few exceptions
** Guide updated (03.04.15) to the changes between v.200 and v.215

Please leave a comment, if you experience major differences between this guide and the actual gameplay (due to game updates)!

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Basics

Aye, staying alive is hard, right? And you haven't found the time, to get used to the menus and all that? No problem, you are not alone ;-) Here you get an overview of the basic stuff, without the time running against you..

The Survival Menu (Shortcut: TAB)

From the top section you can start some important passive activities:

• forage wood needed to start a fire: indoors and outdoors (!)
  
• heal wounds with your First Aid Kit: its displayed in red, if your are wounded
  
• place a campfire: only outdoors on non-wooden, flat ground (if the wind is not too strong)
  
• place your bedroll to get some sleep: when there is no bed around - be careful sleeping outside is dangerous.. always sleep in a bed if you can

Beyond that you can access your inventory and the log, that keeps track of your journey, what has purely informative purposes.

Health Monitor

On the right you can see how good you are doing, in keeping your body healthy, and what it demands to keep you breathing.

Condition

A parameter for your overall health. When its down to 10%, your senses will get blurry and you will hear your heartbeat. At that point its nearly too late. You must stop anything, that is lowering your condition, as fast as possible. Sleeping is no solution, until you have removed the cause of your injury and stabilized your health. When it drops to zero you are dead - Game over.

The bars below of the condition, show you what is needed, to stay healthy. In the moment, one of them reaches its maximum (changing its color to red), your condition will slowly go down. Before that happens, a warning state is displayed, informing you, that you need to do something or you are in trouble.

	Increased by	Decreased by	Warning state	Condition loss	Rate
Fatigue	Activity, Running	Sleeping, Coffee	Tired	Exhausted	Very Slowly
Cold	Felt Temperature ≤ 0°C	Felt Temperature > 0°C	Cold	Freezing	Very Fast
Hunger	Constantly	Eating, Sweet Drinks, Tea or Coffee	Hungry	Starving	Slowly (1%/h)
Thirst	Constantly	Drinking	Thirsty	Dehydrated	Fast (~2%/h)

Fatigue

The more active you are, the faster you get fatigued. When it reaches a certain amount, the maximum weight, that you can carry, without being slowed down (Encumbered) is lowered. When you are exhausted the max weight is 15kg (33lbs) and your movement speed is seriously slowed down.

Cold

The cold temperature will be a big problem in the beginning. Your thin clothing is not warm enough to resist the cold weather. Making a campfire or a fire in an oven is the most obvious, what you can do against the cold. Cooking food in the fire and eating it, while it is hot, will instantly heal a good amount of coldness and gives you a temporary buff, making you more resistent against cold temperatures. If you have a stormlantern, lighting it up, will warmth you a little bit. Inside a building, this might be just enough to shake off the cold for the moment.

Hunger

You constantly need food. How much depends on your activities. For a day of normal activity, you can calculate round about 2500 calories. You can surely die from starving, but it lowers your condition slower, than all other negative states.

Hint: You can eat until you reach the maximum of 2500 calories. If you eat food that provides a higher amount of calories than your body can "store", than you will keep a rest of the food, with an reduced calory value, in your backpack.

Thirst

You constantly need to drink. You can calculate a base of 1.5 litres per day, but surely you will eat and eventually activity increases the demand of water, too. Dehydration kills you much faster than starving. You can get water by melting snow in a fire. Boil it afterwards to avoid the risk of a gastrointestinal infection. You should alwas keep an eye on the amount of water in your backpack and fill it up as needed.

Recovery

Sleeping recovers your condition and lowers fatigue. You can sleep in a bed, a car or anywhere else using your bedroll. When you sleep your hunger and thirst will raise over the time. You can sleep 11 hours without getting dehydrated, provided you drink enough water to lower your thirst level to zero before you start sleeping.

Coldness will also affect your body, but a bed or the bedroll add a warmth bonus to the felt temperature. Inside of buildings this is normally enough to keep you warm over the night. Outside, even in a car, the temperature is much lower at night and will cool your body down.
When you start sleeping in the state of freezing, you will burn much more calories. Try to avoid this or sleep only for one hour to get rid of the freezing effect.

Sleeping outside

If you can´t reach a secure shelter, you may at least want to find a cave or a ruined building, giving you better protection. Be aware that you do not know how the weather might change while you are sleeping... Make a fire if possible. Be careful - fire can hurt you if you are to close. Sleep only for a short period of time (2-4 hours).

After all - do not sleep outside^^ Even in bad condition and fully exhausted you still can move - slowly, but eventually this is still better than sleeping to death. Try to find a landmark that leads you to a secure shelter like a street, a river or rails before it is totally dark.

Sleeping in a car

You can always sleep inside a car (via the survival menu), but you cannot use your bedroll to get the warmth bonus. It will get freezing cold in the car as it offers not much protection against the temperatures. Do this only as a last resort.

Staying alive

The most important thing is to always check the environment when you are leaving a building. Are wolves nearby? Weatherconditions, Temperature, Wind? Don't hesitate. Look around and observe.

In the beginning you may loose the orientation quite fast and often. Try to remember landmarks and also where you have seen wolves - they do not appear randomly on the map.

Areas frequently patrolled by wolves:

• Rails, Roads, Paths (especially near houses and settlements)
  
• Around Blue Trailers (!!)
  
• Around Larger Buildings or Settlements

Sometimes you have to do risky things, but try to avoid the following:

• Doing stuff in a blizzard.
  
• Travelling in foggy weather.
  
• Travelling in the night time.
  
• Sleeping outside.
  
• Going far distances with raw meat or fish in your backpack.

Dying

For me dying is the most fun part of the game :P Haha, but i know how frustrating it was in the very beginning. After the first hours of playing i thought to myself: "man what a waste of money"..., but i gave it a second try and i survived some days longer and next time some more days and so on..

So, my advice is to take it easy and enjoy the thrilling gameplay. Don't expect to stay alive for a long time. Explore, take the risks, be adventurous and discover the game and the nice environments. Highscores and crazy efficient, long term survial tactics can wait!

Weather

At 6 am during dawn it's freezing cold outside. But with warm clothing, it's no problem, to use the early hours to your advantage.

Felt Temperature

The felt temperature is calculated by summing up all boni. But the windchill resistance of your clothing removes only the negative effect, without adding a positive value to the result. Depending on the felt temperature your amount of coldness goes up or down.

Felt Temperature ≤ 0°C = Coldness goes up
Felt Temperature > 0°C = Coldness goes down

Felt Temperature = Air Temp + Clothing Warmth Bonus + Windchill (reduced by Clothing Windchill Bonus)

Temperatures at Night

Between 8:00 PM (20:00) and 8:00 AM (8:00) it is freezing cold outside. Even with the best available clothing you should avoid to be outside. There are some things that might help you to stay warm under this conditions:

• hot drinks (tea or coffee) and hot meals
  
• a stormlantern
  
• a campfire (the campfire can go out when it gets windy)

Weatherconditions

The Weather is a combination of 4 Weatherconditions:

• Cloudiness
  
• Snowfall
  
• Fog
  
• Wind

These conditions are changing quite often over the time, but you will recognize that there are patterns how the weather changes. On a sunny day with no wind blowing, the weather will not instantly change into the hell of a blizzard. It may get cloudy first, then it begins to snow, wind comes up, it gets foggy and bam - you are in a blizzard. This may happen relative fast, but you have a chance to recognize these changes before you are catched by the storm.

Hint: When you go out and the weather is bad (eg stormy), wait for 10-15 seconds. I have experienced that often (not always) a change in the weather condition is triggered by doing that.

Wind

affects:

• your movement speed
  
• the distance, wolfs can scent you (and what you are carrieing e.g. raw meat)
  
• the decay rate of your clothing (++ in a blizzard)

Hint: Watch out for flags on buildings. They give you an instant feedback of the wind condition.

Cloudiness / Snowfall

• it's colder
  
• it's darker inside of buildings
  
• you cannot start a fire with a magnifying glass
  
• footprints and bloodtrails disapear faster when its snowing

Fog

• fog is a silent killer..
  
• it's much colder and you can easily get lost even if you know the map very well
  
• the wolves ares still out there... uhh that´s scary^^

Blizzard

• combines fog, snowfall and heavy wind
  
• torches (craftable ones) will go out
  
• same with campfire
  
• lowers the condition of your clothing very fast

Hint: Avoid any activity outside in a blizzard. Camping outside in this conditions can be deadly


Good weather during daytime is a precious resource - do not waste it!

Fire

Foraging Wood

It's so important, but often overseen.. You can forage different Materials outside and inside of buildings; Use the Tabs at the Top to change what material to gather. The Wood you get outside is much better for fire making than the wood you get inside (reclaimed wood is needed for crafting)



Hint: Stocking up wood is a way to store calories without the problem of food decay, but don't overdo it - you cannot eat wood ;-)

Fire starting (Skill)

The Base Chance to start a fire is 50% + your Skill Bonus. Some items like the fuel used or accelerant additionally increase your chance. You can start a campfire anywhere outdoors on non-wooden flat ground. If it is too windy you have to find a windprotected place. Strong wind or a blizzard will make your fire go out if it is not protected. Inside houses you need an oven or another appropriate fireplace to start a fire.

Increament of the Base Chance

Item	Chance Increament
Accelerant	50%
Kerosene	50%
Softwood	25%
Book	30%
Firelog	12%
Wood Matches	5%
Fire Striker	15%

Hint: It takes 5 minutes to make a campfire (7 minutes with a magnifying glass). When the fire goes out it is still hot (you see it glowing) for additional 5 minutes -> You can still cook water in this time, although you do not see a timer for the fire.

Accelerators

Accelerant and kerosene decrease the time, needed to start a fire, and add 50% to the base chance. It is rarely needed to make a fire that quickly. Even if you fail it is no big deal to wait for a successful attempt.

Fire Starters

Wooden matches, a magnifiying glass or a fire striker can be used to start a fire. In the beginning you will have enough matches, but they decay relative fast. After 250-300 days all your matches are maybe ruined. You can use the magnifiying glass from now on, but it works only outside in sunny weather. Surely you have looted all locations carefully and found one or more fire strikers. Its a nice tool and you will be happy, that you have saved it for this time. The magnifiying glass and the fire striker are found in a random condition, but they do not decay over time. The fire strikers condition decreases 2% for every use.

Hint: You may save matches for later use by not looting all you see lying around. Preferable at locations that you can reach easily. Make a note to remember the position (250 days are a long time^^).

Tinder

You also need tinder to start a fire. You can always forage tinder in- and outdoors, but normally you will get enough from looting. Newsprints and Newspaper rolls can be used directly to start a fire, but its more efficient to harvest them for tinder. Another source are Cat Tail Heads, that you can collect at the shoreline of Lakes (read more about Cat Tails in the Herbalism section)

Hint: Newsprint Rolls weight the half of the tinder you can harvest from it. Harvest them only when you need the tinder.

Fuel

You can find wood inside of buildings and outdoors lying on the ground, but you will need much more to survive for a long time. Therefore you have to forage wood. Indoors you only get a limited amount of reclaimed wood with a short burning time. Outdoors you can forage soft- and hardwood from trees. Softwood (= Cedar Wood) gives you a bonus to start a fire (+25% chance), while Hardwood (= Fir Firewood) has a longer burning time.

Hint: You can forage wood anywhere outside, so there is no need to go far away from your safe shelter. Just do it standing in front of your house by the door.

Burning Time of Materials

1 Hardwood = Cook 4 pieces of Meat OR Melt and Boil 2.5 litres of Water

(Note: in Theory you can melt and boil 3 litres, but if only 1min is missing the water will not be boiled completely canceling the whole process)

Item	Burning Time
Softwood	60 mins
Hardwood	90 mins
Firelog	120 mins
Book	18 mins
Reclaimed Wood	30 mins

Cooking Times

Item	Cooking Time
Meat	20 mins
Fish	10 mins
Cook Tea / Coffee	10 mins
Boil up a Tea / Coffee	5 mins
Melt Snow (0.5 litres)	10 mins
Boil Water (0.5 litres)	5 mins

Clothing

Repairing your Cloth

You need a Sewing Kit to Repair your Clothing. Only the Bedroll can be repaired without it. Sewing Kits are most often found in First Aid Boxes and in the larger Houses at Coastal Highway. One Skill Use reduces the Sewing Kits Condition by 5%.

Try to repair your clothes only, when you get the max repairing amount, for one Skill use. The max amount varies dependent on the type of clothing (table below). BUT.. keep your overall temperature bonus as high as possible. It's an indicator for your resistance against the environment (weather / wolves).

Clothing
(C = Cloth, L = Leather, G = Gut)

Clothing	Warmth Bonus	Windchill Bonus	Harvest	Repair	Max Repair Amount
Basic Wool Scarf	1°C	1°C	1C	1C	60%
Thin Wool Sweater	1°C	1°C	1C	1C	30%
Heavy Wool Sweater	1.5°C	1°C	2C	1C	30%
Fleece Sweater	0.5°C	0°C	1C	1C	35%
Insulated Vest	1°C	0°C	1C	1C	25%
Down Vest	1°C	0.5°C	1C	1C	25%
Down Ski Jacket	2°C	1°C	2C	1C	30%
Basic Winter Coat	3°C	2°C	2C	2C	35%
Quality Winter Coat	4°C	2°C	2C	2C	20%
Mariner's Pea Coat	4°C	2°C	2C	2C	40%
Premium Winter Coat	4°C	4°C	3C	2C	50%
Cotton Socks	0.5°C	0°C	1C	1C	75%
Wool Socks	1°C	0°C	1C	1C	55%
Cotton Long Underwear	1°C	0°C	1C	1C	40%
Wool Long Underwear	2°C	1°C	1C	1C	50%
Basic Gloves	1°C	1°C	1C	1C	25%
Mittens	2°C	1°C	1C	1C	65%
Jeans	1°C	0°C	1C	1C	30%
Cargo Pants	1.5°C	0.5°C	1C	1C	30%
Basic Wool Hat	1°C	0°C	1C	1C	40%
Toque	1°C	1°C	1C	1C	75%
Shoes	0.5°C	0°C	1L	1C	20%
Basic Boots	1°C	0°C	1L	1L	25%
Work Boots	2°C	1°C	2L	1L 1C	50%
Insulted Boots	3°C	2°C	1L	1L 1C	30%
Bedroll	5°C	0°C	10C	2C	30%

Craftable Clothing	Warmth Bonus	Windchill Bonus	Harvest	Repair	Max Repair Amount
Wolfskin Coat	7°C	4°C	2C	2L * 2G	25%
Rabbitskin Mitts	4°C	2°C	1L	1L ** 1G	30%
Deerskin Boots	4°C	3°C	2L	1L 1G	30%

changelog v.212
* Wolfskin Pelt is now used to repair the Wolfskin Coat (instead of Leather)
** Rabbit Pelt is now used to repair Rabbitskin Mitts (instead of Leather)

Movement

• Strafing left and right helps to watch out for dangers while moving on
  
• Running burns more calories, but actually - i always run - it's not that much..
  
• Be careful when moving on steep hills. Running down a hill in a straight line may result in a sprained ankle. Move diagonal to avoid this.

Movement Speed

Slow down	Speed up
- uphills	- downhills
- against the wind	- with the wind
- encumbered / exhausted	- on streets / snowfree ground (not ice)
- wounded (sprained ankle or < 10% condition)

Combat

Encountering a wolf

The distance you can approach a wolf, without being recognized, depends on several factors listed below. There are more circumstances, like having a bleeding wound or other negative states (eg exhaustion), that may influence the range a wolf is able to detect you. But in this cases you will anyway want to avoid a confrontation, staying as far away from wolves as possible and find as safe place to recover...

Get close to him	Get his attention
- from the back	- from the front
- moving against the wind	- moving with the wind
- while he is feeding	- with raw meat in the backpack

Wolf Aggression

After a wolf recognizes your presence, he normally becomes aggressive and starts running in a straight line to your position to attack. Wearing the Wolfskin coat gives you a chance (a very, very small chance), that he is scared by your presence and flees instead of becoming aggressive. He may also flee, if you wounded him in an earlier fight, but don't count too much on it.

An aggressive wolf gets back to normal or starts to flee when:

• his condition drops to 10% (as marked on his combat health bar)
  
• he recognizes an other source of food (decoy)
  
• you land a lucky strike against him
  
• you enter a car or building (oh yes that's true, but he is still out there..)
  
• he is scared away, by a flare thrown at him (use RMB to throw)
  
• he is scared away, by swinging a torch (brandishing; use LMB to swing)
  
• he is scared away, by the bang of a shot

Fleeing from a fight

You can outrun a wolf under some circumstances. Hunting wolves always run at the same speed. No matter if they run uphills or against the wind. They will use the shortest path (line of sight) if there is no obstacle in the way. On flat ground (eg a lake) you move with the same speed as the wolf even if you run backwards.


Using Decoy's (Shortcut: 4)

By randomly dropping some food from your backpack you can draw the attention of a wolf away from you. Lootable food has mostly not the best chance. Raw meat on the other hand has a very high chance to work. When the wolf recognizes the decoy, he will stop running and move slowly to the decoy to eat it. He will also loose his aggressive state and you are out of the situation unless you stay in close range to the wolf.

(from my actual testing results it seems, that smaller amounts of raw meat do not provide the same chance as full pieces of meat)

Closed Combat

"uhh.. a wolf. Okay, what now? Let's take a look at the Informations provided... LMB... RMB.. Aha! What i am dead? Mother..."

In a melee combat you will automatically use the best available weapon. Build up power (LMB), until the bar at the bottom is completely full, for a heavy punch. After 3 hits the wolf will normally flee from the fight. Eventually you will need some practice (like me too), before this works for you. Rapid left - right - left - right.. combos will lower the opponents condition constantly. It's easier, but not as effective as a few hard punches are.

Weapon	Damage Bonus
Fist	0%
Prybar	10%
Hatchet	25%
Hunting Knife	50%

Ranged Combat

Accuracy and damage of your rifle directly depend on the distance to the target and the condition of the rifle. It's hard to be specific about this, but i believe, you start to recognize a difference, when the condition of the rifle drops below ~ 90%.

Rifle bullets are the most precious resource you can get. One shot can feed you for several days. So don't waste it by:

• shooting from a far distance
  
• shooting deer or rabbits :o
  
• shooting at moving targets

Positioning

Face to Face

Letting the wolf come close, firing shortly before you are in melee combat has the highest chance of an instant kill. It's just a matter of a good timing. Running backwards might give you some time to prepare or to move into flat terrain for a better line of fire.

Into the back

Shooting into the back has the advantage, that you can get very close to your target with enough time to aim. You will mostly do severe damage, but rarely kill the wolf.

From the side

Shooting from the side has surprisingly good results, if you aim at the front portion of the body. Anatomically the heart is located in this region. Several shots, I did from a medium distance, resulted in an instant kill.

My personal "rules"

• I always have the rifle active while travelling, no matter where i go or how short the distance is.
  
• I have always 3 bullets loaded. Not more - not less. No extra ammo in the backpack. This helps me to use the rifle with caution and foresight - planning every step, before i use up a bullet. I never needed more, not for self-defense and not for hunting.
  
• 1 bullet = 1 dead wolf + 1 dead deer. More is nice, but it's too much luck / time needed to actively force such situations. Less means i haven't planned well in one or another way.

Injury

After a Fight: Bleeding & Woundinfection Risk

After a fight, you are nearly always left with a bleeding wound and the risk of a woundinfection. Bleeding reduces your condition quite fast with a rate of round about 1% every 2 minutes until you use a bandage to stop the bleeding. There is a small chance, that the bleeding stops, without doing something. If the woundinfection risk is not treated with a portion of antiseptica, the chance of the infection will increase slowly over time (hours).

Always have some bandages in your backback!!!

Sprained Ankle

While moving on steep hills, there is a chance of getting a sprained ankle. Fatigue, a low condition and high movement speed may increase the chance, while diagonal movement is a way to avoid it.


Burns

Fire is hot... and it is still hot if it is only glowing without flames... don't touch hot burning things :P

Food Poisining

Food in low condition as well as raw meat or fish and water, you haven't boiled, may cause a food poisining. The chances are very low that it happens.* If it gets you in a bad situation you may die from this. You must sleep 10 hours or your condition will not recover. Keep that in mind before you take that risk...

changelog v.212
* Rebalanced Food Poisoning to re-introduce it as a credible risk.

Hunting

General Tips

• Wolves do not randomly appear on the map and they do not travel large distances. They "patrol" in certain regions. With this knowledge you can figure out save routes to travel. You rarely will see wolves on steep hills. Travelling over the hills is a good way to avoid wolves, but it is also slower and drains your energy.
  
  
• while travelling observe the distance you can move to a deer before it flees, from that you get a feeling about how close you can approuch wild animals - with wolfs its not totally the same, but it helps to get a basic idea of distances
  
  
• when you want to get close to an animal, don´t do it from the front, try it from the side or better from behind;
  
  
• if you see deers (not fleeing) you know there can´t be a wolf nearby - it´s mostly save to go in that direction
  
  
• if you can, chase the deer into your travelling direction. if there is a wolf around he may first hunt the deer before he hunts you, at least you feel a little bit saver..
  
  
• it is possible to temporarily depopulate an area of wildlife (wolves) if they are hunted too aggressively (introduced in v.212)

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Hunting Deer

The way you want to do this is by chasing a deer to a wolf. When you chase the deer you will see that it will try to break out to one side. Keep it on track, by strafing left or right. Let the wolf kill the deer. When the wolf is eating you may:

• let the wolf eat and later comeback to harvest what the wolf has left for you *
  
• fear him away with a torch (or a flare, but a torch is better!)
  
• lure the wolf away from the deer and drop a decoy to get out of his attention
  
• kill the wolf in closed combat (you should have the hunting knife and good clothing!)
  
• kill the wolf with the rifle

* it seems that this can be buggy, not always saving the state of the dead deer correctly. Sometimes the dead body just disappears, sometimes you get a good amount of meat - nice, but i don't think it is supposed to be like that. However check it out for yourself :)

Changelog v.212
* Properly simulate corpse decimation due to feeding when in unloaded scene. 

When you want to shoot at the wolf, approach him from his back. Move to him and start targeting until he raises his head and stops eating. He is aware of your presence, but you still have enough time to:

• shoot into his backside. This will at least severely hurt him and eventually kill him. If he runs away bleeding, you have a good chance to find is dead body later if you are in open terrain (eg a lake).
  
  
• or you wait until he turns around and runs to you. You then might be able to kill him instantly with a headshot. But there is always a chance that you fail. Therefore you should do this only, if you know that you can survive a melee fight with the wolf (having good clothing and the hunting knife helps alot..).

The Bleeding Wolf

Out of my experiences, i would say you have a 50% Chance to find the dead body of a wolf after you hurt him severely. If the wolf runs into steep hills, chances are high that you never will find his dead body (dead carcasses lying on hills slowly sink into the ground). Sometimes the wolf survives your attack. When you meet him again, he eventually will flee from you.

Looting dead Animals

• Axes are better (faster), when looting the meat from a frozen body; With gut and skin it makes no difference if it is frozen or not
  
  
• when you use the "wolf kills deer" method for hunting, then you will be happy when the looting location is near your base or another save shelter. Try to control that by careful observing and choosing the direction you chase the deer.
  
  
• if you are close to a shelter you may directly loot the meat before it freezes and bring it there, afterwards come back and loot the rest. If it is too far away from a save location, make a fire and loot the gut and the skin first, then the meat. Roast the meat afterwards.
  
  
• if it´s too dangerous or too late come back the next day - you can unfreeze a dead body with a fire, start with gut and skin when the body is still frozen. When you are done with that it will take less time to take the meat due to unfreezing the body by your fire in the meantime
  
  
• raw meat is a wolf magnet - if you are near a shelter bring it instantly to that location, if not roast it at the looting place

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Hunting Rabbits

A rabbit grave..

You cannot live from hunting rabbits alone. At least you need gut to craft the snares. But hunting rabbits can be a very good additional source for food if you do it the right way.

You need a location where you can setup the traps very close to your shelter and where you can harvest the meat without getting into any trouble with wolves..

Preparing:

• stock up some hardwood and water at your rabbit hunting camp
  
• you need some extra food ~600 calories in the beginning
  
• get a minimum of 4 traps, better 5-6 (it might be a good idea to farm gut before doing this to replace broken traps)
  
• you need the hunting knife and the axe

Daily cycle

• you have to wait 24 hours after placing the snares
  
• check the traps twice a day -> you do that because you want to harvest the meat before it is frozen; if the meat is frozen, use the axe to harvest it. That way it is faster and costs less calories.
  
• cook all harvested meat once a day (only this will consume 3-4.5 hours of your daytime)
  
• eat up your extrafood until you have stocked up rabbit meat
  
• eventually you may want to have some repairing materials at the location for bad-weather time ;-)

Locations:

• Mystery Lake: The lonely cabin in the North from the Unnamed Pond (my favorite spot..)
  
• Coastal Highway: Rabbit Grove is a relative hidden place. You reach it by following the frozen river down to the Lake. It's approximately on the height of Bear Creek Campingground.
  
• Pleaseant Valley: In front of the Farming House is a nice Rabbit spawn

Other Rabbit Spawns

Mystery Lake

1. Camp Office -> Frozen River -> Follow the River until the terrain opens on the right side
   
2. Camp Office -> Head in the Direction of Derailment -> Pass the Rails -> There is a passage leading into a small "valley"
   
3. Alans Cave -> Around the Hunting Stand that you can't miss when you go out of the cave
   
4. Trapper Homestead -> pass the broken hut to your left -> follow the flat terrain a short time
   
5. Clear Cut -> In the Northwest you find the Look Out

Coastal Highway

1. Below the Bridge directly near the Lake in the East side of the Map
   
2. Of course Jackrabbit Island and the lake around

After some month, you will get used to the idea, to have one or more secondary basecamps prepared for special activities

Fishing

Fishing is a fulltime job. You can live from fishing and if you do it efficient you can even stock up some food, but not much. Do not go fishing if your live depends on it - that's like playing russian roulette. The results are heavily unpredictable.. in my actual session 5 lines snapped on the first day. The next days not a single one.

In your fishing hut you are protected from stormy weather and blizzards, but your clothing is not! Avoid being out there during bad weather.

Preparation

• a minimum of 4-5 fishing tackles
  
• wood at the fishing hut (1 day ~ 2-3 Hardwood)
  
• the Hatchet (breaks the ice faster than the knife)

Day cycle

To get an amount of food that is enough to keep you alive, you must fish for round about 12 hours.

• Stand up early (6 AM) and go to your hut.
  
• Make a fire in the oven and cook the fish you got the day before *
  
• Only fish for one hour at once.
  
• If you catch a fish store it right away and continue to fish until the evening.
  
• Get back to your "fishing-basecamp" before 8 PM.
  
• Avoid fishing during bad weather.

* Doing it this way, you will not suffer from the cold temperatures in the early morning, you can cook all fish at once and you do not need to keep the oven burning all the time.

Locations

You need a fishing-hut where you can do it without being disturbed by wolves and a shelter nearby to sleep.

• Mystery Lake: the last hut on the lake next to the lonely fishing cabin is a safe place.
  
  
• Coastal Highway: I am not sure, but the first one i would try is the one that stands alone, near to the bridge over the frozen river.
  
  
• Pleasent Valley: Okay there is only one Fishing Hut. Follow the river near the Farmstead heading towards the Signal Hill. You will come to a waterfall (Lower Falls), go up the hill on the left side of it. Search for a lake there. I have fished there only for some days, but i think its almost safe. Unfortunately there is no good place to sleep nearby and therefore it is not really a good fishing-spot.

Notes

You can craft 3 Hooks from one scrapmetal and 2 Lines from one gut.

Don't forget to drink :D

Tools

Repairing your Tools

Simple Tools and Qualtiy Tools Increase the Base Chance and decrease the repairing time, but you can also repair your tools without these items.

Increase your repair Skill with clothes before you repair your Tools! The Rifle is an exception for this. The Rifles you find will be mostly in a condition below 90%. Before you use this weapon, you should repair it. Use Simple Tools or better Quality Tools, if you have them, to increase your repairing chance. Repair the Rifle until it has a condition of at least 90%.

Max Repairing Amount / Skill Use by Tool

Tool	Amount
Hunting Rifle	25%
Hunting Knife	35%
Hatchet	25%
Simple Tools	25%
Quality Tools	25% (?)
Storm Lantern	30%

Harvesting Tools

After some time you will have one tool multiple times. You may ask yourself: Keep the tools or harvest the base materials?

The only tool that you must keep in a high condition is the hunting rifle! Anything else can be used up until you have only one of it, that you will maintain up to the end.

Tools to use up and harvest when broken

• Hatchet
  
• Hunting Knife
  
• Simple Tools
  
• Quality Tools

Tools you need only once (1 item):
(harvest as soon as needed to reduce backpack weight or to get the mats)

• Prybar
  
• Can Opener (not really needed at all)
  
• Storm Lantern (you need to have a jerry can in your inventory to get the petroleum)
  
• Rifle (when there is ammo in the rifle it will be placed in your inventory when you harvest the rifle - you do not loose it)

When the condition of a Tool is red, there is a chance that it breaks with every use. When it reaches 0% it is definitely broken, but it still can be harvested.


=========================================================================

Simple Tools

Locations: Logging Camp, Carter Hydro Darn, Trappers Homestead, Quonset Gas Station, Forestry Outlook, blue trailers, fishing huts (?)

• increases the chances of repairing other tools (10%)
  
• reduces the time needed to repair tools (- 25% crafting / repairing time)
  
• nice to have especially when your repair skill isn´t maxed, but not needed to survive

Quality Tools

Locations: Quonset Gas Station, (Tool-) Bunker

• same as simple tools, but with higer values
  
• increases the chance of repairing other tools (20%)
  
• reduces the time needed to repair tools (- 50% crafting / repairing time)
  
• nice to have, but you will not find it in every session; a very rare loot..

Hatchet

Locations: Deadfall Area (ruins), Logging Camp (ruins), the Cave at the Lake Path, Forestry Outlook, Trappers Homestead at the ruined Hut outside, Fishing Huts, nearby frozen human bodies, at the shacks in Pleasent Valley (often sticking in a wooden wall)

• a must have - saves thousands of calories and prescious time
  
• the preferable tool to harvest frozen corpse (its faster than the knife)
  
• if you have multiple you can use them up until they break before
  you harvest the materials

Hunting Knife

Locations: Alan´s Cave, Forestry Lookout, Hunter Stands, Trappers Homestead, Lake Cabins, Carters Hydro Darn, Fishing Huts, very often nearby frozen human bodies

• highest damage bonus (50%) of all availabe melee weapons; a must have to defend against wolves
  
• the best (fastest) tool to harvest the meat from carcasses, but the hatchet is better when the cadaver is already frozen (Hint: you can unfreeze it with a fire)

Hunting Rifle

Locations: Trappers Homestead (sometimes behind it outside), Forestry Lookout, Carters Hydro Darn (lower section leaning against a wall), outside of the Carter Hydro Darn under the Bridge (image below), Behind Lone Lake Cabin at Mystery Lake, On the Lake path near a frozen body, Jackrabbit Island in the Sleeping room

• you can find 20-30 rifle bullets on every map; its mostly well hidden between crates or under furniture; single bullets are often found on the ground and nearby frozen human bodies
  
• don´t be too stingy with the ammo - it does not help you when you are dead!
  
• repair it at 90% -> if you wonder why you never hit something its probably because of a damaged rifle..

The rifle under the bridge at the Carter Hydro Darn. Not the most obvious location to search for it.

Can Opener

Locations: larger buildings (kitchen), bunker, fishing huts, blue trailers

• The can opener is only useful in the very beginning when you have no other tool to open cans. I even didn't used it when i had one stored anywhere in a container. Using the hatchet to open cans is absolutely okay...

Prybar

Locations: alot.. often outside on the ground eg near blue trailers

• needed for looting locked containers / trunk of cars
  
• not as good as a knife in closed combat, but better than nothing

Fire striker

Locations: Carters Hydro Darn, Fishing Camp, Quonset Gas Station

• always very well hidden and never found inside a container
  
• cannot be repaired
  
• condition lowered by 2% per use -> worth 50 matches if found in 100% condition
  
• + 15% Chance to start a fire
  
• save it until all your matches are ruined

Wooden Matches / Cardbox Matches

• relative high rate of decay; may last for ~ 250-300 days until ruined
  
• can be used to light a small area (shortcut: M)
  
• wooden matches add 5% to the fire starting chance

Magnifying lens

Locations: Camp Office on the ground in the entrance area by the oven (crouch to find it) and on the second floor under the bed or between crates, inside cars, fishing huts

• can be used to make fire outside in clear weather condition
  
• does not decay by use or by time
  
• useful on the long run

Strom Lantern

Locations: Camp Office, Carter Hydro Darn, Trappers Homestead, Forestry Outlook, Logging Camp (?), Quonset Gas Station

• very useful for looting -> you definitely WILL miss stuff lying around when you always loot without a lighsource!
  
• needs kerosene as fuel
  
• when harvested for scrapmetal, you need a jerry can in your inventory to get the kerosene

Fishing Tackle

Locations: you guess it - Fishing Huts, Hooks and Lines are also found in fishing Huts and lying on workbenches (camp office, fishing camp)

• read more in the fishing chapter

Materials

(Short on storage capacity? Not everything needs to be stored in a container..)

Wood

Sources	Indoor (reclaimed wood), Outdoor (softwood, hardwood)
Main Usage	Ah wait.. making Fire? :D
Other Usage	Hardwood is needed for Repairing Tools (Rifle, Knife, Axe)

Do not forage wood inside of buildings to fuel a fire - the calories are not worth the short burning.
(read more about wood and foraging in the chapter: Fire)

Scrapmetal

Sources	Random Loot; Harvesting Tools
Main Usage	Repairing Tools
Other Usage	Crafting hooks (1 scrapmetal = 3 hooks) for fishing

Don't be stingy with scrapmetal - you get really alot of it even in stalker mode

Cloth

Sources	Random Loot; Harvesting Clothing (not shoes/boots); Harvesting a Wolfskin Coat
Main Usage	Repair Clothing, Can be havested for 2 bandages (!)
Other Usage	Crafting Torches

At the moment cloth is one of the most important resources. You find alot but also you need alot.
Do not underestimate its usage for bandages (they are more important than repaired clothing).

Leather

Sources	Harvesting Shoes or Boots, Hunting (Deer)
Main Usage	Crafting Deerskin Boots; Repairing all craftable Clothing
Other Usage	Repair looted Boots / Shoes

At some point you may have enough stocked up so that you must decide if the calories and outdoor time is it worth to loot more leather.

Gut

Sources	Hunting (Deer / Wolfs / Bear)
Main Usage	Craftable Clothing (all), Repairing craftable Clothing
Other Usage	Crafting Snares for Rabbit Hunting, Crafting Lines for Fishing (1 gut = 2 lines)

Gut is a precious resource for repairing as well as for crafting. Try to loot it whenever possible!

Herbalism

Beside Cat Tails the Herbs, that can be found, are mostly useful to replace the lootable first aid items. When playing in Voyager Mode you will find tons of painkillers, antibiotics and anitseptica, therefore it is not that important to collect them or at least it's not worth a risk, in this difficulty.

Cat Tail

Can be found at the shoreline of Lakes and Rivers. A large amount grows at the island in the middle of Mystery Lake. Once collected you got two items from one Cat Tail.

Cat Tail Stalk

+ 150 Calories

The calories / weight relation make this herbs the perfect food for travelling. Use it only in an emergency, if no other food is available.

Cat Tail Head

Can be used as tinder to start a fire.

Old Man's Beard Lichen

Can be found on tree branches. 3 of these herbs + 1 bandage are used to craft an enhanced bandage that heals bleeding and stops the risk of a woundinfection in one use.

Rose Hip

Most often you find it near structures or buildings. Rose Hips can be cooked to get a tea with the natural effect of a pain killer. You need 25 of these herbs and 0.25 litres of water to cook a tea. The Tea is also worth 100 calories.

• +100 Calories
  
• Painkiller

Reishi Mushroom

These Mushrooms grow out of tree stumps and can be cooked for a tea with a natural antibiotic effect. With 3 Reishi Mushrooms and 0.25 litres water you get a tea that is also worth 100 calories like the Rose Hip tea.

• +100 Calories
  
• Antibiotic

Miscellaneous

Answers to common Problems and other useful Tips...

I am stuck on the map and cannot move away. What can i do?

Don't Panic - There is a simple solution getting you out there: Just open your gamemenu and load the last Autosave.

Note: If you want to help the Game Developers.. make a Debug Screenshot (F8) and report it at the Official Game Forums[www.hinterlandforums.com]

I am trapped by a wolf in a building or car and cannot get away!

You are never really trapped by a wolf, because they do not sit in Front of your House waiting for you.
In the Moment you enter a building or car with a wolf chasing you, the wolf will loose its interest and get back to the normal activity, walking away slowly.* So this does not mean that he is completely away or that there is no other wolf around. The worst situation could be that he patrols very close to the door, recognizing you nearly instantly when you go out.

Okay.., but what can I do?

Just wait for 2-3 minutes and go out again via the same door. Do not use a secondary entrance if there is one. When you are outside - stand still and prepare to turn around to the door if you hear the wolf barking. Just look around and observe the environment - no barking? no wolf to spot? - move away slowly into open terrain. After some metres turn around to check the terrain around the building / car - nothing? Run..

I have never needed more than 2-3 attempts to get away. Keep in mind that wolves hunt by scent and not visually -> hiding behind a tree is as helpful as holding a piece of paper in front of your face...

* You can check this for yourself by entering a car from the frontside with a wolf behind you.

The body of a dead animal has disapeared from the map. Why?

When a body is lying on a hillside, it slowly sinks down into the "snow". I don't know if this is a bug or by design. However it takes only some hours - the next day its mostly too late to harvest the cadaver.*

The body of dead animals slowly rottens over time. When the conditon reaches 0% the body disappears from the map.

changelog v.212
* Fixed issues with corpses disappearing on steep slopes after loading a save game.

(not sure if the fix addresses the described behaviour)

============================================================================

Did you know...?

You can chase a deer to a wolf that is already eating another deer. He will stop to eat and hunt the new prey. He will only eat one of the deers, leaving the other one fully harvestable for you. That way you can get food without using up any resources! You can even chase two deers to one wolf. When they are close enough he will kill both.. You need a good portion of luck for this.

You can switch between a torch and a flare by hitting the shortcut key (1) again.

Food stored in Containers (eg Corpse) outside degrade a little bit slower.

You can change the amount of items to transfer in or out of a container by using the mouse scrollwheel.

Birds in the sky, circling around one position, are a sign. They circle around a human corpse, that is lying at the ground.

The most valuable loot (eg ammunition, rifle, knife) is rarely stored in containers. You find it between crates, under furniture, on the ground near a frozen corpse, on the ground behind or at a side of a building, on the backseats of a car, behind a toilet and so on... keep your eyes open - search in every corner, crouch to look under furniture and use your stormlantern, if its to dark.

============================================================================

Things that may save your life when the situation goes crazy:

Coffee:

The only item that heals fatigue and by that the reduced max weight you can carry, that may slow down your movement.

Cat Tails Stalk:

The low weight per calories make this herbs the perfect travelling food, but use them only as a last resort when there is no other way to get food!

A Torch or Flare:

You can fear away a wolf by swinging (LMB) the torch or throwing (RMB) the flare into their direction. This is no 100% thing.. Torches have a higher chance, but you might not be able to light them up in windy weather, what is possible with a flare.

The Hatchet:

Dangerous situations often arise when you are running low on calories. Foraging wood for a life saving fire at a high calory cost makes the situation not better...

The Stormlantern:

Useful in the beginning, when the temperature bonus from your clothing is not high enough to protect you from the cold. Later on with better clothing there is no need to carry that weight all the time.

A Long Journey

Looking back at your footsteps in the snow... All the way you have come along - and you wonder: "To what end will my feet carry me?"

In the last chapter i will tell you how i started out my last long journey. It has turned out, that it was a good plan, so here we go..

Prerequisite for this is, that you already can travel on the Mystery Lake Map (knowing all looting locations), know how to hunt down wolves (+deer) and how you setup traps to catch rabbits.

Week 1

• get around the map and loot all locations, except hydro darn!
  
• loot all dead deer on the map along your way
  
• do not pick up matches you see lying around; make a note of the location for later reference
  
• at this point camp office is the preferable base camp
  
• craft the deerskin boots (If you are still missing leather, you can also harvest other boots for more leather)

Week 2-3

• start hunting at mystery lake
  
• don't forget to repair your rifle before hunting(> 90% condition)
  
• loot all gut you can get from the carcasses
  
• hunt until you have enough materials to craft the wolfskin coat
  
• craft some snares to hunt rabbits

Week 4

• leave camp office and head for the lonely cabin near the unnamed pond
  
• setup the traps at the cabin and stay there until you have 4 rabbitskins
  
• back at camp office craft the Rabbitskin Mitts
  
• now you are geared up to face fluffy -> clear the carter hydro darn

Carter Hydro Darn is a perfect travel base to the coastal highway.. You will get extra ammo and enough food for a looting trip to the second map to stock up cloth and scrapmetal.

Getting the craftable clothing as fast as possible helps to save other resources (cloth) for later use and increases your overall resistance and chance to stay alive greatly. Clearing the hydro darn is very important, before you start travelling between the maps, to have a safe shelter in a relative dangerous environment (on both maps). The matches you haven't looted are a nice bonus after ~200-300 days when all other matches are ruined, but you can also live very well with the magnifying glass as the only thing to start a fire.

Never give up!



This evil situation happened less than one day, before breaking my personal record of 222 days...After a fight with a wolf i used up my last bandage and followed the trail of blood from the wolf - a bad descision - he attacked me again. I was able to kill him, but down on 24% with a bleeding wound! I harvested my toque for cloth and used that to get a bandage. In this time the bleeding wound had lowered my condition to 4% and I was still high up in the hills - a sprained ankle could be my end now. Slowly I moved down the hill to the lake and to my safe shelter. And that's how I escaped the near death.

The End is near...

On the long run it is unlikely, that you die, because you have used up all limited resources. A bad decision, a moment of unwariness or pure boredom, are much more likely the cause of your death.

[MadTom]

i didn't know matches can be ruined before, that's just great

[Impatient]

forage wood? this game mechanic is longe gone.

[k.s.4722]

Outdated but still a great guide! I learned a lot even though ive played for 20 hours or so

[w-I-z-DO-m]

nice but this is not up to date, btw you forgot 1 usefull tip, always have wood reserv and water supply and make sure you organise your loot properly and set up a base somewhere that in order to survive minimum 1000days if thats what you re into

[cone]

I like how you said Hydro Darn

[chrgeller00]

i JUST STARTED GAME X2 DAYS AGO------lOVE IT ------- however I am now in Deserted mine, spent night--- all seems fine BUY I can not controls to WALK- or Sprint-- I can not mopve HELP

[stoic]

very helpfull manual thx
you can kill the wolves with your bow just before they attack you. a head shot kills wolves immediately. but it needs good timing otherwise they will hurt you so bad :). around the mystery lake l killed 7 wolf with bow (voyager mod) all of them killed by me with a single arrow shot :)

[KittyNoSkill]

The Hydro Darn XDXD

[Arcani]

I have found that if you happen for find shelter that has a refrigerator the cooked meat will last for a long time. In my case it slows down the decay/% of the meat. In PV and so far at 77 days on 3rd game. Lots of good info on this and very helpful!!

[6 Helpless Kittens]

A better formula for your felt termperature, better bieng mroe mathamatically correct, would be
Air temp+Clothing bonus+X, where x=Windchill+Clothing windproof, and x =/= <0