Hunted


Ohbal

Recommended Posts

(sorry, really long post!)

Finally managed to end the Hunted challenge. It was awesome! It took me almost 6 days, as I had to recover from near-dying three times. That freaking bear...

The begining was interesting, I wasn't expecting to start the challenge getting eaten, but hey! I got inside the basement and made sure to loot all clothes (harvesting all I didn't need), the flaregun, eat some food and rest. 

The day after it was a clear one, although really, really cold. I was freezing fast. I walked out, found my way down to the river, and managed to reach the Red Barn (by the way, thanks to a bug* I'll talk more about later). I start a fire, prepare a stack of water. Food, drink, rest in the truck. 6 hours left in the day, let's head out. My plan was to take the road and try to find the cave to Winding River. But the bear is waiting for me outside of the barn. It doesn’t attack me right from the start, but walks behind me, stalking. When I hear his roar I start running for the car in the road. Made it, but it was freaking cold and surely I wasn’t going to stay there for much longer. I can see the bear through the car windows, waiting for me to come out. Let’s give him a surprise. I ready the flare gun, load it and take the door out. The bear comes running at me, I shoot and he gets scared. Time to run for the river. I lost my way (I’m not used to getting lost, but the thrill of the moment made me careless and I wasn’t paying much attention to the landmarks). After a lot of turns, and another flare wasted on the bear I get to the Pensive Pond, near freezing. I start a fire in the stove, have a nice one-hour nap while warming up, take a brand and head out. I’m so close to the cave that I’m just going to run for it. But I was close in my head. It took longer than expected, but I made it, without any sign of the bear. I cross the cave, find my way to Winding River, harvest a few deer carcasses that give me 3k meat and head to the dam. There was a wolf in the lake but he was busy eating rabbits, no need to bother him, I’ll have to deal with Fluffy real soon. Following the path to the upper dam I start freezing again. By the time I reach the open window I was losing condition fast, down to 40%.

Inside the dam is cold but nothing that the sleeping bag can’t fix. Get my condition up by a few points and head on. Before crossing the door that will take me to Fluffy I take my clothes off (I couldn’t allow losing any more condition on them or else I couldn’t walk 10 minutes before freezing to death) and, berserker mode on, I take the fight to Fluffy. We have a fight, I win quickly, barely any loss on my side, and retreat to the stairs to rest and wait for the wolf to find his death. After a 4 hours rest, my stat screen is not showing any Wolf Kills, so I start wondering if something could have changed. I go berserker mode again. Fight Fluffy again, but this time I don’t change zones. I wait, and I wait, and I wait, and I wait… and suddenly, I hear the wolf cry and drops. Now I can eat and I’m safe. The next 16 hours is just that, eating and drinking and resting.

And now is when the best part begins. I had reached Mystery Lake through the Winding River, with two flares left in my gun. When I came out of the dam, It was a misty day, couldn't barely see 50 meters away. No problem, I tell to myself, I know this map as the palm of my hand.  

I see the Bear at the end of the bridge following the train tracks, so I take a left towards Alan's cave. Right after passing the cave I hear the freaking bear closing in, and he is not stalking, he is coming full brawl! I shoot... and the flares goes slightly up his head. He ignored the flare and I got mauled near the river. Woke up, so close to the end… but luckily I was able to threat the wounds, inject a adrenaline stim, and light a normal flare. Decided to get to Camp Office to pass the night. But the freaking bear is nearby, so I’m not sure if that route would be the end of me.

I start following the river... and I see the new climbing ropes! I'm a lucky guy, I tell to myself. I start climbing, and to my surprise the adrenaline stim made me a super hero. I don't get tired! Climbed both ropes in a sec, circled the mountain from the left side, but failed to calculate where would I be close to the downhill to the camp... and landed on the frozen lake. The stim effect ends. I heard a wolf. I can't run. I'm at 5% condition and all I can do is keep moving forward, staring at the burning flare, hoping for it to be enough. I can’t see the cabin yet, but it should be in front of me. Have I missed a turn? Could this be the end? The wolf keeps on hauling behind me. Maybe the bear is already behind me again? I still have one more flare, but I need it to get to Trapper's... I get to hear the crows flying in circles around the dead man that usually rests in front of the office. I start to see the building, if I could only give a few more steps… The wolf decides to move on, now it’s a race, but I can’t run. My heart starts pumping heavily… the closer I am to salvation, the more it pumps. Would I pass out in my room from a heart attack? No way! Breathing heavily, both my character and myself, get to the porch hearing the footsteps of the wolf closer and closer, reach for the door and… its done. I’m safe.

I climb up the stairs, wave to the dead guy sitting in the corner and head to the bed. Make sure to drink and eat and then I have a 6 hours rest. It’s looking better now. Well, it’s dark, so I can’t see anything, but my condition is back to 25%. I take another sip of water and rest another 6 hours. At dawn, I start repairing my clothes, getting ready for the last push of this adventure. The Trapper's cabin is now at reach. I eat and drink and rest til the next day. My condition is now above 60%, so I should survive a wolf in a worst case scenario, maybe even another encounter with my big, angry and psychopathic flurry friend. I light a torch and head on.

The day is clear, a bit of snow dropping but no visibility problems. I’m not super cold either, could perfectly take a few hours outside. I take the straightest route through the Dead Fall area… and here I made a terrible mistake. I usually get to Trapper's crossing the small hill from Dead Fall, but this time I decided to take the less rocky path. I got lost (how the hell did this happen? I know this map as the palm of my hand!) and ended up on the top of the mountain close to the Unnamed Pond… and I start hearing the bear again. Damn. Let’s get that flare gun ready. I hit the weapon key and “you have no weapons in your inventory”. I panic. Hit it again, same message (of course! XD). I panic more. Where is my gun? Did it fall when I was mauled? I looked at the floor when it happened and I didn’t see it. Damn. So no flare gun! The beast is right behind me. It’s the cliff or the bear… I take the cliff. I hear the frustrated growls; he is clearly angry by losing his lunch again. Now I have to find a way down without killing myself. After a lot of crouching, I get to the unnamed pond. From this point is should be easy, so all I do is run down to the cabin. Half the way there I start hearing the freaking bear again! Will he ever give up? Nothing to do but walking / running forward. I gave some peaks behind just to see the bear stalking, from a distance. He is not running yet, there is hope. The final 10 meters are here and I already know that I’ll make it. When I enter the cabin, I yell like a madman, in full joy. I did it! Now, where is that damn riffle?

 

To be continued…

PS: the bug I was referring to is basically that the bear dissappears. I had it behind me on my way to the barn in pleasent valley. I had the flare gun ready to shot, but then suddenly the bear just vanishes. I can still hear him, he is clearly behind me, but the model is invisible, and he can't interact with me (I would have been eaten). It got fixed after I got out of the red barn, possibly the loading screen fixed it. Couldn't reproduce it during the rest of the challenge. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I want to know is how the bear climbs up a sheer cliff face to Timberwolf Mountain to follow you.  :) He showed up very shortly after I climbed out of Pleasant Valley, but he seemed only limited to the transition area. I never saw him when I stayed 2-3 days in Timberwolf Mountain.

And, yes--good story!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Morgan le Fay said:

What I want to know is how the bear climbs up a sheer cliff face to Timberwolf Mountain to follow you. He:) :) He showed up very shortly after I climbed out of Pleasant Valley, but he seemed only limited to the transition area. I never saw him when I stayed 2-3 days in Timberwolf Mountain.

And, yes--good story!

Interesting choice you made! But the Old Bear knows its way around pretty well. :durbear:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Patrick Carlson said:

Interesting choice you made! But the Old Bear knows its way around pretty well. :durbear:

Well, it didn't work, LOL! That was after about the 5th time I (unsuccessfully) tried to make it down to the Pleasant Valley Farmstead, so I decided to change it up. My rationale was I could find some better clothes, since all I had on were gloves, pants, a vest, and a wool hat--that must have been a sight to see. :) And I was hoping the bear couldn't follow. Unfortunately, I just ended up freezing before I could get to the dropped cargo containers I wanted to loot.

I am really loving this mode, though. It's suspenseful to be stalked by the bear and never know where he's going to turn up, so bravo to the dev team!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i LOVE this addition! it took me a good few tries, even for someone as experienced as myself (totally bragging right now, did you notice? xD )

my first try, i didnt even make it past the basement part. i got in, took about 5 minutes and almost bled out trying to figure out the new interface, but eventually healed, then slept. i slept for 6 hours, and decided to get a move on after i looted everything from the basement. was immediately charged by a wolf upon exiting the basement. that put an end to my first run pretty quick :P

on my second run, i spent the night in the basement. got up to 80 percent condition and repaired all my clothes to 100 percent, boiled a bunch of water outside while it was clear. then i got a move on. i decided to take the long and dreadful path straight to the road, instead of inching my way down the hill. thought it would be faster at first, but.. not even close. I wasted all my flare shells, because every time i shot the bear he would turn around, run away, then run right back at me to attack! it seemed he just would NOT go away. then eventually he finally got me. i got up at 9% condition once more, limped off to the abandoned cabins, just a ways off the main road. aaaaaaand i looked over my shoulder and there he was again. (slenderbear, much?) i went into one of the burnt out cabins, crouched down beside the dead body, and prayed that the bear didnt see me. well guess what? he did. he came straight up to me and had himself a good snack.

my third run had the most interesting and heart-pumping death, at least.
i did it the same way as last time, boiled water, repaired clothing, etc. but one thing i didnt plan on - an all-day blizzard the next day when i planned to move out. had me stuck in that basement alllll day long. so i had to boil more water and eat through nearly all of my food supply. after i rode out that day, what do i wake up to in the morning? ANOTHER BLIZZARD. my luck, right? well that one only took about 4 hours out of my day. i decided i had to move, or starve in that basement. even though it was extremely cold and windy when that blizzard ended, i couldnt stay there another night. so i headed back down the same path. the bear got to me pretty early on, somewhere near the point of disagreement. i wasnt anywhere near any suitable shelter, and i just had to keep moving. i had no choice. i collected sticks as i went to build small fires every once in a while, keep myself warm from the harsh wind still blowing straight to my face. build fire, sleep, move. build fire, sleep, move. build fire, sleep, move. every once in a while interrupted by the bear, but he wasnt such a big deal as long as i still had flares. i was at 9 percent for 3 hours, at least. i used an emergency stim at around 7% while freezing. just to get on my feet, cover as much distance as possible. by the time that stim wore off, i was at the same spot as before. the burnt out cabin. and freezing, exhausted and starving, my 7 percent condition was dropping rapidly. i kept blacking out, couldnt see much of anything. i was too determined to give up, though. i built a stick fire right in front of me, so that if the bear spotted me in the cabin maybe the fire would discourage him from charging me. put my sleeping bag down, slept for an hour, then went out to gather more sticks. by the time i was back, i didnt even have enough sticks to make another hours worth of flame and i was already at 5 percent. i was too exhausted to look for more sticks. i'd die of sleep deprivation and hypothermia before i'd be able to gather enough sticks to have another hour's rest. so i just lost all hope of surving. grabbed up a brand from what was left of my fire, and walked out following the trail to the road. i dont know why. but after a few minutes i just laid down in the snow at 2 percent condition and waited for death. i honestly thought i could have survived the night, if i was determined enough. but it just would not happen.

but my last run. its not as interesting. i beat the challenge, sure, but really i just fired a lot of flares (5 to be exact) and ran a lot. drank some coffee here n there. i followed the same path i had been taking in my previous attempts. went through the mine to ch, went from ch to ml following the railroad. turns out, 5 flares was JUST the right amount. used the last one just before i went into the cabin to complete the challenge. it took me 4 days and 7 hours, i believe it was. not a bad time, i suppose, but i'm definitely gonna try again soon. i bet i can beat my last time :P

buuuuuut anyway. sorry for such a huge post. just thought i'd share my own personal experience, i really REALLY enjoyed playing this challenge

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.