Beginner Guide for Interloper

[MueckE]

This guide is meant for all who struggle playing Interloper, but want to play this mode regardless. This is not by any means the best way to do it, but maybe it will help some of you. There are a lot of diffrent playstyles. I have a more conservative, save playstyle. Maybe that is the reason why i didn't die in Interloper yet (two runs, test branch and release branch). I have the feeling, that a lot of players have a problem with Interloper because they do things that are not good or really bad in Interloper. I hope that this guide and the basics i am talking about will help a few of  them to find their way into Interloper (and stop them asking to nerf the mode ).  I am sure, that i will see some really cool things from you guys how you manage to handle Interloper in the future.

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The following points are basic requirements you should know to play Interloper. You don't have to be a "god" in these things, but if you spontaneously can say: "yes", you are good to go.

-You have to know the maps! This means you have to know all locations and what is the fastest way to go there from any place, any map. You also have to know where you find plants/saplings/cattails and what to expect to find in specific locations. Where is the next bed?, the next cave?, how warm is it there? You should know the maps to a point, where you can navigate without vision (fog/blizzard).

-You know the mechanics. I often see stalker players beeing surprised that you can use a flare to make a fire or that you can harvest sticks for tinderplugs, that you can crouch to get very close to an animal, how much weight you can handle, where to store food or that you can warm up a frozen carcass and so on ....

-You can easily survive outdoors. Staying outside in Stalker for more than 100 days right from the start is super easy for you. You feel that all archievments and challenges are just boringly easy.

Why are these things important?
Interloper always forces you to make a decision. The other playmodes don't really force you because you will most likely survive on way or the other. In Interloper, every decision leads to a situation of a high risk to die. No metter what, you are constantly dying but you still can make a decision to be rewarded with the opportunity to live on for another day. But on top, every reward comes with a high danger of death. To be able to value the risk-reward consequences of a decision/situation better, the things above will help you alot. Let's say you want to go to harvest a carcass but you are not sure if it is good to go right now or later or how to prepare and if it is worth the risk. Than the things above will help you to make the "right" decision. The alternative is to play and die over and over again - learning by doing.

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General Tips:
Like i said, i have a more conservative playstyle. This means i always want to have the opportunity to have a choice or that i can handle every situation and survive. Because you can heal up only 30% maximum in one go, i consider everything above 70% as good, everything between 40 and 70 as "dangerous". If your condition is below 40%, you are almost dead because really everything can kill you very fast and you basicly only can go somewhere to heal up. Therefore, i always try to stay at least above 50% condition.

Time is money
It is pretty simple, as more you accomplish within your time - as as better will your days be later. You are dying every minute a little bit more, so NEVER WASTE YOUR TIME! There is always something to do. Either you craft, harvest cloth or reclaimed wood, or you collect sticks or whatever. Really everything is better than doing nothing and wasting your energy. This means, NEVER pass time! In addition, i don't read books. The reward is not worth it for the first days. If you manage to establish yourself and have a proper base somewhere, than it might be a thing. But if you came this far, you have leveled your skills anyway to a at least level 3. If i had to make a fire and can have a 80% instead of 40% chance, i totally would burn that damn book

Good Night: One of the main things that seperates Interloper from the other modes is the use of the nighttime. You will not make it if you try to sleep through the night and only do things at daylight! Get used to maximize the use of valueable time you have. There is really no reason to sleep other than warming up(1h) quickly or to heal up. As soon it is warm, go outside and do something, regardless of the daytime or the weather. Even in a blizzard at 1am you can go outside and collect a few sticks.

I try to collect every stick that is on my way. I only go for all sticks when i have time for it. Coal is black gold! When you go to a mine, take all coal you canfind with you. If you are heavily encumbered, just drop them at the entrance. Next time you visit the mine, the coal will have respawned in addition to the pile you've collected before. Also you want to make a good use of a fire, especially if you used a match for it. So make sure to always have tons of burning material on you or close by.

The biggest threat is the cold. That's why i don't break branches or limbs. The reward is just too low for freezing and losing health. The same goes for cattails. I often hear that people running around collecting all cattails. Don't do that if you are freezing or you don't have shelter close by. Just take a few that are on your way, just like sticks. Or you have nothing to do and you can go for them without freezing next to your shelter.

Avoid building a shelter. There is no real use for it. In the time you build a shelter, you will freeze and lose too much condition. At almost every place it is better to go for the next shelter with a bed.

Try to be exhausted. Not beeing rested is actually a good thing. This allows you to warm/heal up whenever you want (or need to)

Every match counts. The only situation you use a match is when you have to. Either you have to because you will die within the next few hours-minutes, or you have prepared for it wisely. This means you use the fire to get food, boil water, heal up .. all in one go. So you have material for lots of hours. My "normal" fire burns often for more than 30 hours. To use a match to warm up your first carcass for the guts is always worth it. If possible, try to harvest everything, cook the meat and boil water with the same fire. But again, the guts alone make it worth.

Always have food, water, all tools and things for a fire with you. Basicly be prepared to do whatever you want. If you got caught by a blizzard, than you should be able to repair your clothes. A locked trunk? Maybe there is a lifesaving beefjerky inside? Instead of making a "base", your base is everywhere you go and you have everything you need with you.

Take you time.... to craft clothes and tools. The hacksaw is basicly the new supertool. It is as good as a knife and a hatchet all in one tool. The good thing is, that you find it in areas and places you want to go anyway. So rush for the hacksaw, not for the forge. Crafting clothes is ofc a good thing. But if you want it to fast, the danger of dying is too high. You will need enough food, condition, the hides and guts, knife ... more later.

Travelling: Travelling in Interloper looks like: You run from one house to another, quickly loot everything, sleep for 1h (or do something productive for 1h), run to the next place. Again, under any circumstances avoid freezing! This is very important for the first days, the days of the struggle.
 
Base, or Why Coastal Highway?
The ideal place to stay is a house with a high temperature inside, a fireplace, a nice bed that heals you up quickly, lots of animals close by, a fishing hut, a container close outside, a cave with a high temperature close by, rabbits infront of the house, short ways to the next shelter, an easy layout to not get lost in a blizzardand good weather all the time There are only a few places in the long dark that fulfill most of that. In no place you will find everything, but some are not so important or can be done diffrently. It is possible to stay at trapper's cabin for example, but all in all, nothing beats CH in that regard. I personally prefer Misanthropes Island over Jack Rabbit because you have no problems with wolves, a bear close by, rabbits and a fishing hut very close and you can go pretty fast to crumbling highway. I don't need to make a fire inside because i will fish, cook, boil anyway in one go and i can use the lens. In addition, i have no problems with cabin fever and if i really need to, i can go to the nice cave at crumbling highway. There i can sleep without making a fire. Just look at the criteria and chose your own place, where you feel more comfortable. For the first days/weeks i still would chose a place where you can fish. (btw, the best fish can be caught in CH, and don't forget beachcombing! so two more reasons)

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Strategy
There are three stages, the struggle, crafting, routine

1. The Struggle
There are 3 things to accomplish in that phase. The first thing to do is to find matches, bedroll, a hammer, a hacksaw, Magnifying Lens - preferable in that order. The maps you want to go are Mystery Lake and Coastal Highway. You can not stay in your map you've spawned. This means you have to run either to CH (from DP) or to ML (from TWM/PV).

If you spawn in DP: Check out Hibernia for matches quickly and than just run to CH. Don't loot anything except what's directly infront of you and run. You will not find everything you need there and there is not enough food to stay for a longer time. Use the mine to avoid the cold. Warm up at the basement at crumbling highway. If you are willing to spend a few matches, you can try to harvest a carcass before going to CH. There is most likely a carcass on the island behind the Riken and 1 - 3 at Crumbling Highway. Try to reach Misanthrope's island or Quonset after that.

If you spawn in PV: Try to run to rural crossroads, the barn, farmstead, radiotower, pick up cattails on the way, winding river, the dam, and ML. In ML go to Camp Office (almost guaranteed bedroll), trapper's, Lookout and back to the dam. The dangerous part is the way through the ravine to CH.

If you spawn in TWM: You will most likely find matches at mountaineer's cabin. So that's a plus. No metter what, jump down the cliffs and run like the devil to the hut! Don't hesitate to make a fire to warm up. Collect rosehips and cattails on your way. You will need that for your way to PV. Don't try to do anything else than reaching mountaineer's hut. Heal up as good as you can, drink something warm, take a brand and get outof there.You can warm up inside the bunker at PV, than the basement atskeeter's ridge, and than farmstead. btw, Fluffy is on holiday I would not go directly to CH because there is no proper shelter on the way to cinder hills and you miss possible itemspawns in PV. If you follow this and if you loot these "hot spots" on your way, you will find most of the items. If you don't find something, you will find it in CH. All this should happen very quickly, within less than 48 hours. Do not forget to visit Cinder Hills Mine! You will find at least one important item there. In CH you should be able to visit every interior without a problem.

Than you need to harvest a carcass to get guts to craft a snare and lines. If you are lucky, than you can harvest the carcass inside the cave to winding river. Otherwise try to at least harvest the guts and leave the meat and hide behind. Getting guts is very crucial to survive the first days in Interloper! Fishing is the best way to get calories in the beginning. If you are super lucky, try to drive a deer into a wolf. It is totally worth it to take the risk. Maybe there is an opportunity at crystal lake, at farmstead or in CH on the ice. But don't waste too much time on that or you will not make the trip to CH. You will need a snare for more guts that you can harvest better from rabbits (close by).

2. Crafting
You have looted all "hot spots", have found the important things, have harvested a few carcasses, have a few guts/saplings/hides curing and have a little bit of food and water stored at your base. Now it's time to prepare to go to DP to craft arrowheads. The nice thing is, you don't have to. You can also stay. So take you time and prepare well. In Interloper, it is more effecient to not to try to loot a map completly and than move on. So my approach is that i only go to DP to craft at the forge arrowheads and a knife. If i have enough time and health, i'll craft a hatchet too. I can go back to DP later again to loot. This means that i only take with me what i really need. I can wait for a few days to go at the right moment when the temperature outside only is -5 or so. That is why the first "struggle" phase is so important because now you have the time to do it with little danger and to have the choice when to go (or even not to go at all). Use the coal that you pick up on your way. You can also harvest a few reclaimed in the mine. Just try to pick up as much as wood/coal as possible on your way. To avoid freezing, i normally jump down the cliff in DP on to the road, run to the mine nr.5, go outside at Hibernia and than run to the Riken. If the weather is nice, you can ofc take another path or loot a few spots on your way like the church or harvest saplings, plants or whatever. Whatever you do, avoid a situation where you are forced to do something. If you take you time to loot and you have not enough food anymore, maybe you will have to start to catch rabbits or dangerously harvest a carcass and get caught in a blizzard ... So go in, craft, and go back.

3. Routine
You have everything you need. You have a good base, lots of food/water, a bow and a few arrows, tools, skills on a decent level and at least mittens/pants/boots. Now it's more or less like a harder version of stalker and you should be able to handle that. You have reached this phase when you have so much food and water stored, that you can eat not only to heal up but to maintain a good health, you can use time to read a book and you can sleep through the night. What i can't say yet, is how the weather and the wildlife spawns will be after 150/200 days. But if you have survived for so long in Interloper, you don't need this guide anyway anymore.

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If you have specific questions, feel free to ask. Suggestions and additions are welcomed too. I am curious how other players playstyle work out.

[thinair]

Good guide  Just to add, some beds are better than others, so it is known that trappers bed is the best in game, and will let recover 42% in 10 hours of sleep, and of course extra few % with tea right before sleep

Weather seems the same at day 75, and day 162... i do not really notice the difference.

 

[togg]

Useful! I had already figured most of the things out but it's good to know where to find that bedroll.

[mystifeid]

A bedroll is not guaranteed at the Camp Office. Been there quite a few times and not found one. Then usually start crying.

Alternates include cave below the dam wall and the hunters blind near Alan's Cave.

[Fluffy23]

13 minutes ago, mystifeid said:

A bedroll is not guaranteed at the Camp Office. Been there quite a few times and not found one. Then usually start crying. Alternates include cave below the dam wall and the hunters blind near Alan's Cave.

Items are preplaced.

[mystifeid]

Not sure I follow.

Anyway, what I should have said was unless this has changed from the test builds, a bedroll is not guaranteed at the Camp Office...

[Thurman Merman]

23 minutes ago, mystifeid said:

Not sure I follow.

Anyway, what I should have said was unless this has changed from the test builds, a bedroll is not guaranteed at the Camp Office...

I can confirm this.  A bedroll is not guaranteed at the Camp Office.

[MueckE]

In my current run, i am at day 57, have used only 4 matches and 1 flare so far, have stored about 20Kg of fish and venison, 8 cured deer hide, 9 rabbit pelts, 21 cured guts, 40 Liter water, more than 40 matches and enough wood/coal for a fire that will burn about a week. I didn't use the bow yet. I think i will just level up the cooking skill and than eat raw bear meat all the time

I  will just save the arrows and will start to travel and loot the maps and make small bases everywhere. BTW, i didn't craft clothes, had no use for it - maybe later after day 150 i will craft them.

[mystifeid]

46 minutes ago, MueckE said:

i didn't craft clothes, had no use for it - maybe later after day 150 i will craft them.

Good luck with that in Pv and TWM. In one of my first attempts I was humping it out of TWM on day one and got hit with a blizzard. Temp felt like minus 58 (my all time record). All I could think was omg this is only the first day and the weather is supposed to get worse.

47 minutes ago, MueckE said:

I didn't use the bow yet. I think i will just level up the cooking skill and than eat raw bear meat all the time

Like the deer and the wolves, the bears seem to be taking much longer to re-spawn. I killed a bear at TWM around day 60 or 70 and I only noticed it strolling about again around day 120 (and since I can eat them now, it did not last long). Maybe it didn't take that long to re-spawn but I know I gave up waiting for it to happen and genuinely thought it was never going to happen. Also it pays to hone up that archery skill - you will be surprised how often you see arrows bounce off bears or even see them dig in, splash blood in the air (but not on the ground) and then see the bear run off with your arrow, laughing.

[ChillPlayer]

Good guide @MueckE however I don't fully agree with the Snow Shelter part. I gather you found a bed roll early on? Because without it a Snow Shelter is worth gold and it safes me from catching Cabin Fever in the early days. I usually build one behind the barn at PV Farmstead and sleep there 2h at a time while constantly having a fire going. I then use 3-6h inside to trash furniture for firewood or craft something in the basement.

This of course is just for the early days. Once I am past day 10 or so and have enough guts cured to go fishing I base my camp at CH too and there you don't need the shelter anymore. I just go "home" on Jackrabbits to sleep for 8-10h (when I don't have a roll), the rest is spend outside either in fishing huts, near bunny/deer corpses or crafting at the outside table.

Also about the Cat Tails, if you just plan your route along frozen rivers you don't need to detour to gather them, just pickem up along the road. I for one am a Cat Tail junky until I get my fishing/trapping/hunting routine going at CH, but I won't risk dying for them - on the contrary, in the early days they often allow me to regain condition without putting myself at more risk by traveling around looting houses for food. In PV the rivers are also often the safest route concerning wolves, so it's a win:win for me

[MueckE]

Like i said, there are many ways to do it and beeing successful. I personally think it is a total waste of time to stay anywhere unless you have the basic items and the place is nice. Till that point it is more effecient and safe jto run from a warm shelter with a bed to another, quickly loot, warm up and go on.  You will find enough food like this to heal up if needed and you don't get cabin fever because you don't stay somewhere for more than 3 hours.

When i have the choice, building a shelter, this means freezing - losing lots of condition - using wood - burning lots of calories - danger of a blizzard OR just go to the next warm interior with a nice cosy bed - finding loot and only use up a maximum of 10% condition to do that (most of the time none), ... well than i chose the bed  

There are only a few paths that are tricky and you could consider building a shelter, like ravine or from the bunker at the rope in pv to cinder hills mine.

 

Lets say we both are staying right outside the barn. I bet, that in my way i will have looted the barn - travelled to farmstead - looted it - are ready to sleep for 1 hour and have more condition / better stats / more food+water in the same time you have looted the barn, collected cattails,  and have build your shelter. You totally can do it and you will most likely be successfull this way too. It is just not my playstyle. There is alsmost no situation where i can imagine it would be a good thing to build a shelter. Hell, even just making a fire in a windproof corner of a rock and using the 15 sticks for more heat would be more effecient and safe than building a shelter.

But you are right, all that considering you find a bedroll within the first 5 - 10 days. Without a bedroll it will be extremly difficult to avoid cabin fever without a shelter. On the other side, you will find the bedroll within that time if you loot-travel like i do.

[ChillPlayer]

I am at day 19 now and don't have the bedroll yet, but I graduate a bit slower across the maps as you do. My longer runs started out in PV and there I stayed until I had enough Guts and Hides for Fishing Lines and Cloths. Once I have enough of them plus the Hammer and Hacksaw and at least 2-3 traps I go to ML or CH, lately I prefer CH. There I craft my clothes and then I'm ready to go to ML and later (when the sapplings are cured) I travel to DP.

The Shelter for me was a good solution to not have to rush to CH, so I can take advantage of the many Cat Tails, Rose Berries Mushrooms and especially Deer Carcasses in PV. Sometimes I get lucky and can go for a deer/wolf combo. This way not having a bedroll is not a huge stress for me and I don't have to use the Shelter for too long, I find enough Reclaimed Wood inside the Farmstead to be able to sleep in the Shelter until I'm ready to go to the next map. You won't lose any condition due to freezing while building the Shelter if you have a fire going while you do it and there are so many Sticks and Cloth in curtains that material is no issue.

But as you rightly said, different people have different playstyles

[KD7BCH]

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

[ChillPlayer]

The best way in my opinion is to approach Interloper methodically with a clear plan when to do what and pursuing this, not living day by day as we are used to in Stalker. It's about limiting the unknown variables and work with what you have, hence my preference for building a Snow Shelter early on instead of chasing after a Bedroll (in PV - in DP you might often get lucky and find one right from the start ;)) or risk getting Cabin Fever by sleeping in houses which will end a run very soon if you're unfortunate.

[thinair]

13 hours ago, MueckE said:

I think i will just level up the cooking skill and than eat raw bear meat all the time

When you eat raw bear meat at lvl 5 cook, let me know, i will call 911 for you. I pretty sure that you will get parasites and food poisoning... because you do have to cook the meat

[MueckE]

did they fix that? It just says that you don't get sick anymore and someone tested it and ate raw meat. So unless they changed it, you can eat raw meat at level 5.

[togg]

I agree with the moving approach, building a snow shelter on PV to stay a few more days would scare me to death! I prefer to move from house to house.

But I really don't like the idea of staying on low rest, maybe for you it works but for not super pros it's extremelly risky. To refuel your warmth you need 2 hours of bed anyway so it's fine!

 

[MueckE]

here is a quick update

i started a new run to see how it's going - spawned in DP and you know what? NO MATCHES, NO NOTHING!! I've decided to just test it and not to go to CH.

I didn't find a single useful tool except for one flare. nothing to make a fire and nothing to drink. I looted DP completly (except harvesting saplings ofc) so i checked every corner, looked behind every crate (breaking down - reload) .... nothing. I can see the frustration some players might have with this. This only proves that my strategy generally is more safe (to loot-run).

I managed to go to CH and directly to coastal townside. I was almost dead and you know what i found? Matches! The funny thing is, i was ONLY in coastal townside and looted the 3 cars, both houses and quonset.

I don't want to talk about if that's a bug or if this should be diffrent, i just want to say that it is way better to loot-run untill you have your basic items like matches. So if you are one of the players who has difficulties playing Interlper, try to loot-run. That's your best option. If you are used to Interloper, you might take bigger risks and play diffrently.

 

EDIT::

I went back to DP to see if i have missed something and indeed, i found matches at Hibernia! Since everybody seems to find them there, it would be worth the visit if you spawn in DP. I now will continue to play my main run. That was just for the purpose of testing.

 

[Troxism]

You used to be able to eat raw meat at lvl 5 cooking (and I erroneously said that since I never tested it again since) but you can't anymore. You will get 75% parasites and Food Poisoning. To be fair with lvl 5 cooking and lvl 5 firestarting you can cook a steak with less then a stick's worth of fire if you do it outside so it barely matters.

[Thurman Merman]

MueckE, 5 boxes of matches?  I'm on day 95 of my Interloper run and have only seen 4.  Any tips for match finding?

[togg]

44 minutes ago, Thurman Merman said:

MueckE, 5 boxes of matches?  I'm on day 95 of my Interloper run and have only seen 4.  Any tips for match finding?

Personally I've found 3 just by checking a part of PV.

 

3 hours ago, Troxism said:

You used to be able to eat raw meat at lvl 5 cooking (and I erroneously said that since I never tested it again since) but you can't anymore. You will get 75% parasites and Food Poisoning. To be fair with lvl 5 cooking and lvl 5 firestarting you can cook a steak with less then a stick's worth of fire if you do it outside so it barely matters.

Cooking outside takes less time?

[KD7BCH]

On 9/29/2016 at 9:57 AM, MueckE said:

 

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

[Thurman Merman]

6 minutes ago, togg said:

Personally I've found 3 just by checking a part of PV.

 

I'm wondering if there were some in car trunks.  Didn't have a prybar in PV.  Got the one on TWM, 2 in PV, and only one on CH (and I'm sure about CH, as I have broken down much of the furniture/crates in most CH houses).  Didn't check all the bodies and caves on PV though, not the TWM summit/caves, nor the bear cave, scruffy cave and nearby car on DP.  I'm down to 12 matches, but still have a glass, a 52% striker, over 40kg of cooked meat, and around 35 liters of water.  Guess I'll go back to DP when my meat is down to a weeks worth or so and check the places I neglected.

Does anyone know if there are a set number of boxes that spawn on each Interloper sandbox?

[Troxism]

Outdoor fires spend less fire duration (I think it's based on temp but it's difficult to test exactly how much it is an exactly what factors go into this). You can test this by boiling water outside vs inside; it will consume less (up to about 40-45% less) fire duration, although it actually takes the same amount of 'real time' in game. Or just by sleeping next to an outdoor fire (note that back of cave is indoors, not outdoors), and note that per hour of sleep it's not 1 hour of fire.

And yes between this and cabin fever being so damn aggressive on Interloper, there is literally 0 reason not to cook/boil water outdoors on that mode 100% of the time, which means having a base with a convenient wind sheltered fire spot is extremely important (example: fishing cabin, the church in DP, top of the Riken in the control room).

On the topic of matches: it basically doesn't matter exactly how many there are past your first pack (you shouldn't use more then 12 matches in the first 50-100 days if you are doing it right) as you should be using the Lens 90% of the time (means constantly check for chances to use it and don't waste them, store up meat to mass cook ect).

[togg]

What would really interest me is to know if there's a fixed spawn for the lantern!