Beginner Guide for Interloper

[ChillPlayer]

9 hours ago, togg said:

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

not that I'm aware of, there are however places where chances are very high to find one. Most likely in the transition cave between CH/DP or CH/PV (not PV/ML though) or in the Abandoned Mine in DP. Sometimes you only find a torch instead of a lantern but some form of lightsource will be there. The only true fixed spawn points for anything I can remember are the matches in PV and the Emergency Stim in DP.

[mystifeid]

On 29/09/2016 at 9:54 AM, 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?

Upstairs in Hibernia look on the desk in the room with two filing cabinets. Can also be on the shelves next to the three lockers in the next room or on a benchtop in the room with the beds. Sometimes the corpse sitting on the end of the awning has a backpack with a second box and one time I think I found some in a crate in the single trailer outside. Downstairs it is worth going up inside the pipe and looking under the boats - don't forget to look inside the upside down boat.

On the way to DP check in the cave under the Arch.

[MueckE]

50 minutes ago, mystifeid said:

Upstairs in Hibernia look on the desk in the room with two filing cabinets. Can also be on the shelves next to the three lockers in the next room or on a benchtop in the room with the beds. Sometimes the corpse sitting on the end of the awning has a backpack with a second box and one time I think I found some in a crate in the single trailer outside. Downstairs it is worth going up inside the pipe and looking under the boats - don't forget to look inside the upside down boat.

On the way to DP check in the cave under the Arch.

Like i said, in my run where i spawned in DP there were no matches, firestriker or anything else useful (except a 1 flare and prybar). Also in crumbling highway nothing to find. But than i found all boxes at coastal townside, so basicly all in one place for some weird reason. There are 3 cars, two houses and the gas station and i found matches in each one of them. Also, i found a lot more in PV, ML Winding River (cave) and Ravine. I now have 9 boxes, and one or two with 24 matches (not 12) + a 95% firestriker (in the cave above camp office). Oh, the bedroll was again at camp office and the magnifying glas at forestry lookout.

I never found matches at corpses, lots of times in cars and caves! So i recommend looting all cars and check caves for matches (in addition to the obvious indoors). I also always found matches at mountaineer's hut in TWM and at Farmstead PV.

[togg]

I've died on my second day (7th run) in PV after a concatened wolf attack after harvesting the wrong dear Damn, it was a beautiful run, I had harvested the two guts in the first three hours of game time.

Now I've done this segment (direction CH, never ML) so many time, that I know all the strategy in detail, I should make a map guide.

 

2 hours ago, ChillPlayer said:

not that I'm aware of, there are however places where chances are very high to find one. Most likely in the transition cave between CH/DP or CH/PV (not PV/ML though) or in the Abandoned Mine in DP. Sometimes you only find a torch instead of a lantern but some form of lightsource will be there. The only true fixed spawn points for anything I can remember are the matches in PV and the Emergency Stim in DP.

 

Perfect, as I thought, is brilliant that you can find light source inside the caves.

I think I've always found an emergency stim in PV outbuildings, just near the health kit on upstairs.

 

[mystifeid]

On 30/09/2016 at 4:31 AM, MueckE said:

Like i said, in my run where i spawned in DP there were no matches, firestriker or anything else useful

The chance of a firestriker is in a crate in the middle of No. 5 mine and you need a light source to find it - at least a brand.

I keep spawning in DP trying to duplicate not finding matches. After about twenty attempts I still haven't managed it.

In working on an exit strategy for DP I'm starting to realize that instead of being the hardest place to spawn it seems to be by far the easiest. I am finding an embarrassing amount of gear and am escaping to CH which is far more temperate than spawning in TWM then having to go to PV.

Just the last three times, by the time I got to Misanthropes I had:

1. Bedroll, lantern, (used) flare, torch, 2 x boxes matches, 2 deer hides, 4 guts etc

2. Hacksaw, Prybar, 2 x boxes matches, 91% firestriker, (used) flare, 2 deer hides, 4 guts etc

3. Prybar, 4 x boxes matches, (used) flare, torch, 2 deer hides, 4 guts etc

So I've been looting Hibernia then going to say Hi to Scruffy before returning to sleep at Hibernia. In the morning I look for the firestriker in No. 5 mine, keep going through it then go to No. 3 mine and CH. Sometime in those two days smash crates and harvest two carcasses.

I kept going with the last one but here, let me try again. I really would like not to find matches.

Nope, sorry - they were upstairs in Hibernia in the corner of the bunkroom on the benchtop - one of the three places I cannot stop finding matches. This can be a very dark corner and if you do not move close, you may not see them (as with the desktop). Hacksaw was downstairs hanging up close to the safe - an even darker place and tricky to find even when you know exactly where to look.

How many times would it take, I wonder, to prove that there is at least an extremely high probability of finding the matches? Ten? Fifty? A hundred? Because so far that seriously is twenty out of twenty.

But because, and I might be repeating myself, I really would like not to find matches, lets try another ten.

1.  Matches on shelves near three lockers.
2.  Matches on desktop.
3.  Matches on desktop.
4.  Matches on benchtop.
5.  Matches on desktop.
6.  Matches on shelves near three lockers.
7.  Matches on shelves near three lockers.
8.  Matches on benchtop.
9.  Matches on desktop.
10. Matches on desktop.

1. Matches on shelves near three lockers. The only location easily visible in low light.

2. Matches on desktop. Invisible in low light. In slightly higher light levels the matches appear to be part of the book.

3. Matches on benchtop. Very difficult to see in low light until you move close to them. Desktop can be seen behind the bench.

[ChillPlayer]

That's what I thought also, although there is not a fixed spawn point for the matches like the Cellar in Farmstead I always thought that Hiberia as a whole is guaranteed to have matches somewhere, because I always found them there. This was true in the test_build and as far as I can tell still is.

[AZHockeyNut]

nice guides and stuff but if you are constantly reloading your game then you really aren't surviving for X days. You are gaming the game and while that's fine if that is what you choose to do, it makes what you are saying you "accomplished" far less applicable to someone who actually plays it the way it is designed. Meaning, you don't kill the game and reload when a bear attacks you or right before a wolf hits, or to go check out some crates and what is behind etc.

Not gonna knock any player's particular style, we can all do as we please, just putting out a bit of a warning to others who read "I'm on day xxx of Interloper.....here's how I do it" when you would long ago have died but are alive because of reloads.

 

[KD7BCH]

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

[mystifeid]

9 hours ago, AZHockeyNut said:

nice guides and stuff but if you are constantly reloading your game then you really aren't surviving for X days. You are gaming the game and while that's fine if that is what you choose to do, it makes what you are saying you "accomplished" far less applicable to someone who actually plays it the way it is designed. Meaning, you don't kill the game and reload when a bear attacks you or right before a wolf hits, or to go check out some crates and what is behind etc.

It sounds like you might have considerable experience in this area yourself.

In a thread that so far seems to have been primarily concerned with providing spoilers for those unable to survive a day or two, I can't see that you have done anyone any favors by promulgating these ideas here.

This is a game played for fun and if you are having fun then I could care less what you do.

But if you would like to be the arbiter of ethics, then that's fine too. I just haven't seen the need here for anyone with that job description just yet.

[AZHockeyNut]

@mystifeid I am not the arbiter of ethics nor do I claim to be. As I said, "that's fine if that is what you choose to do" (see I don't care) and if that is your idea of fun, then so be it. When newer players are reading other's tips on how to play it makes things a lot clearer to read that a player reloads the game over and over versus one who says they are on triple digits in the most difficult level then make it appear that they find it easy or are easily able to last that long. To each their own style.

[mystifeid]

After over 800 hours playing this game, I still hadn't thought of doing some of the things you mentioned and frankly I'd rather you hadn't told me.

I played the test builds pretty well full time from when the first one was released. I may have mentioned elsewhere that by the time v364 was released I had lit 360 fires in interloper and my longest attempt had lasted 44 days. It was probably my 50th attempt.

Since then I have made it past this milestone and I can tell you this: when you make it past 50 days the game does get easier and you should be easily able to make triple digits. In fact, once I made it past 50 days, tedium slowly began to set in and now when I see someone report a number higher than that I actually feel sorry for them.

[ChillPlayer]

4 hours ago, mystifeid said:

Since then I have made it past this milestone and I can tell you this: when you make it past 50 days the game does get easier

this is not what I experienced on my last run which sadly ended at day 60 although I had all deer/rabbit cloths, bow&arrows, mag glass, fishing tackles, lots of matches, cured guts and hides and medicine for various ilness. But after day 50 - and this might have be completely my fault - things began to get tougher. Living in DP I was constantly on the brink of Hypothermia and Cabin Fever (had even both for 24h), my food ran out and then I thought I go back to my cozy hut on Jackrabbits. At first it all looked well, I made it through Crumbling Highway without a Ninja Wolf attack (my test_build run ended there at day 47) and was feeling really happy about myself. I was low on calories but who cares, I will soon catch fish - or so I thought. After 5 hours of fishing I finally catched a 450cal fish and managed to just not die at 1%, people went crazy in my stream and so did I.

Puh okay, just escaped death once again, continued fishing for a whole day worth of food and regained condition to about 60%. Fortuna offered me some deer on the foot of the island but she didn't bless me with good archery skills and so I broke all my arrows without hitting a single deer. My cal reserves began to decline again rather rapidly for I had to trash some more furniture for firewood. Once I had enough wood I decided to craft more arrows as someone in the stream chat offered a hint on how to hunt the deers. I made a fire by the outside crafting table and then facepalm... forgot the guts in the hut. Bummer, so I went back to my home at Jackrabbit's, got the guts and returned back to the crafting table, fire was still going. But due to freezing in cold weather my condition was now somewhere around 30% with no cal reserves. I stuck to my plan and crafted some arrows, then I got exhausted and had to sleep. When I woke I was down to 14% and realized that only gaz station (still unexplored) can save me now.

So I ran towards the station, feeling secure from wolves because the pack was on the frozen sea. But wait what's that? A wolf coming right my way near the Frozen Finger (that one rock formation on the frozen sea near the road). I knew the wolf wouldn't go up to the road if it doesn't see me so I had to wait. 14%...13%...12%... he went away and I ran again, right into a blizzard. I made it just past the car between Log Sort and the station when I faded into the dark...

In the test forum there was a question (I think posted by Scy) asking if we noticed the colder weather past day 50. Now I can answer it: yes! And not only that, around day 30 I used to catch at least 1-2 fish every two hour and every 5-6h a salmon. But after day 50 I was out of fishing luck although my fishing skill was at 3.

I was and still am thinking about what I did wrong, I can't pinpoint "The" mistake that led to my demise (which is why I didn't try it again yet) but when people told me in the chat that I was doing really good I would always answer: yes but it's getting really tough now after day 50. Firewood was a huge issue, due to cold weather I think I haven't foraged a single limb outside and so I lived only off Reclaimed Wood and Coals. Every means to get food needs a hot fire burning (>10 logs of Reclaimed Wood) or I would freeze before I could put coals in it. And when I managed to do so the wind would blow it out an hour later.

Another mistake I was thinking about while I was still alive: darn bow&arrow! Once I had it I tried to rely on it and got lucky 2-3 times by shooting a deer in DP, where it's easy to chase them into a wall and shoot when they return, running straight through you. But in CH on the frozen sea they run for ever but I was so fixed on the idea that I have to kill it with an arrow that I completely neglected my Maasai Hunting skills for hunting deer without a weapon, just chasing them into a wolf and scare the beast away from it's prey, after all there was a whole pack of wolves on the sea. From a psychological view point I found it rather interesting how a supposed advantage put me into a real disadvantage, which I only noticed when my faith was already doomed.

So for my next run I will have to be more cautious about calories and fire wood, travel across maps only if I have food for some days in my pack and enough firewood. The main reason for my not-so-well planned-out survival late in the game though was the constant risk of Cabin Fever and lack of Firewood to stay outside. This is something I will have to factor in more consciously and make it my constant primar objective (as opposed to craft bwo&arrow and hoping for hunting/fishing luck). My mindset was definitely not well prepared for day 50 and beyond and it definitely didn't get easier :\

[Scyzara]

As a general reminder to everyone here:

Please remain polite and refrain from calling other players "cheaters" or something along these lines if their only "crime" is to start new games to check item locations. That's not cheating, but simply spawn location verification. The only thing I would ask for is to please put a spoiler tag ([.spoiler] without the dot)  in front of all comments that somehow reveal specific item locations or "gaming" strategies. Like this other players who may not want to know these spots (or techniques) don't read about them accidentally. Would be very nice if everyone in here might edit their previous posts with spoiler tags if necessary. Thank you!

 

1 hour ago, ChillPlayer said:

I was and still am thinking about what I did wrong, I can't pinpoint "The" mistake that led to my demise (which is why I didn't try it again yet) but when people told me in the chat that I was doing really good I would always answer: yes but it's getting really tough now after day 50.

Hm, hard to say, but I don't believe your death had a lot to do with the time point in this case. It's already freezing cold on day 30, doesn't matter much whether it's a felt -20 or -30 outside imo. Your outside time until you start freezing is extremely limited no matter what and once you're freezing the precise temperature is irrelevant. 

I thus rather believe your homing and food strategy led to your demise. (Why the heck did you stay in DP anyway, there's not particularly much food running around on this map unless you got cooking 5 and can eat up the bear.^^).

What seems to work quite nicely regarding late-game scarcity (remember that fish, rabbits from snares and all kinds of wildlife are supposed to become scarce at some point according to the patch notes?) is fishing, at least I have this impression. I'm currently playing a day 60 game and I'm catching way less kcal/hour than I caught in the same game on day 15 - it's usually not enough to sustain myself, actually. However, I need to test if this is map-specific (as I've already fished quite a lot in CH) or if it's the case on other maps as well.

With regard to your situation I would thus guess that your "mistake" (if one wants to call it that way) was rather a combination of A) staying in DP for too long where you had no propper chance to build up food reserves and B) trying to fish instead of chasing a deer into a wolf. Both deer and wolves are (and remain - to my great dislike, btw) plentiful after day 50, so hunting deer (either with a bow or the help of a wolf + fire) seems to be by far the most efficient way to survive on Interloper in my experience. Fishing in late-game is rather something you may do if you're sitting on a pile of deer steaks and merely seek a way to stretch out your reserves. You shouldn't bet your survival on it if you're out of food. (But as a side-note: Spending time fishing nicely reduces your indoor time, so cabin fever is hardly an issue for me at all to be honest. I usually also craft outdoors at the fishing cabin crafting table - with a nice little campfire nearby - so that probably also helps a bit.)

Oh, and @ChillPlayer : You might definitely want to learn how to bow-hunt deer (without chasing them into walls xD), I guess. 

 

Spoiler

Have it walk towards you, crouch, wait until you are almost in its detection range (10steps or so), aim the reticule at the lower part of the chest, stand up and immediately shoot your bow. If you're shooting fast enough, the arrow usually hits the neck/head this way and the animal drops dead instantly. If you're too slow, the animal will turn around and you might miss it - but sometimes you're also hitting the back or butt and can thus still get your meat once the deer has bled out.^^

It's also possible to go for a chest shot by approaching the deer at a diagonal angle, but I personally am much worse at that strategy so that most of my deer don't drop dead instantly but rather run away. Which doesn't matter that much, but it's a bit less convenient.

Alternatively (and much easier from a coordination point of view) just use wolves and a campfire/car/fishing hut/house, etc...  

[ChillPlayer]

I wasn't that long in DP, according to my Journal I entered it at Day 46 and left at Day 56. The beginning of my downfall was at day 50, after 4 hours of playing and streaming (it was almost midnight) I began to get sloppy. First I tried to chase a deer into a wolf near a cliff - and it worked! So I crouched up there and wanted to shoot the beast but my bow wouldn't fire, only the annoying "dong" sound was playing. Well, I thought, guess I can't shoot when I'm freezing or am too tired so I aborted and circled back to the lighthouse (only later I realized that I couldn't shoot because I was crouching )

On my way back to the Lighthouse - it was already night - I noticed a wolf stuck on a wall, running against it. Semi scared/euphoric I tried my luck and shot 5 arrows from a distance, all missing for I didn't dare to get closer, I was afraid it would become unstuck out of a sudden. But I was already freezing then for some time and weather was near blizzard, in the adrenaline rush I neglected this and boom, became hypothermic. So I made it to the lighthouse and was at shock to see that my risk for Cabin Fever was already at 44%. This caused me to burn all the wood I have outside on top of the Lighthouse.

But I survived and even got my condition back to almost 100% during the next two days. I also hit a deer (after losing 3 out of my 6 arrows which would later become a factor in CH) which gave me food until I left. Because of what happend at day 50 though I was in an inbalance regarding my resources, wood I planned to use for harvesting a deer was gone and hence I had to spend coals I've collected that I wanted to use later. Honestly I thought I could make it for quite a while in DP with all the deer nearby but I yearned for the (supposed) safety in CH with all the fishing huts - which suddenly failed to provide when I most needed them to.

That's what I love so much about Interloper. In Stalker I usually died only of one big stupid mistake, like running into a wolf infested area all cocky with my gun and failing to shoot an attacking wolf, or falling down in Winding River. Not so in Interloper, it's the little things that kill you, small mistakes which (as a Stalker player) you neglect but those mistakes build up when ultimately they begin to fall like domino stones and lead you to a predicament you barely can get out of, if at all.

But TLD is about learning by dying and if there's one thing I've learned then it's that I can't rely on fish anymore past day 50. Would I've catched the same amount I was used to I would've been golden even with all the previous mistakes.

So after this Sunday morning reflections on myself I think I'm ready to give it a new try, but tomorrow, today I have to watch how (hopefully, please dear universe) the Panthers kick the Falcons into their behind

[EDIT] oh just saw your hidden text: yes that's exactly what someone suggested in the stream chat and why I chose to craft more arrows...

[mystifeid]

You can also hunt rabbits and wolves in exactly the same way. One thing about the rabbits is that they don't run away with your arrow and die somewhere where you may never find them. Killing the wolves stops them from eating your deer (and you) and with level five cooking skill you can eat them instead. But it is a risk and I've died a lot of times doing it. Usually after I shot too slowly or from too close. In Stalker I would also just let them charge me before putting an arrow into them at the last second but if you miss an Interloper wolf there are no happy endings. The practice however, has been invaluable.

 

Spoiler

When you have the chance to make multiple long distance shots check what other on-screen feature is at the same horizontal level as the reticule before you shoot so that if you miss you can easily adjust the aim of your next shot.

Everything you do hit raises your archery skill - as does crafting arrows so it is not a bad idea to plan on making quite a few as soon as possible.

Check your arrows before you go hunting and harvest any that are below 15-20% - that way you'll get 3 crow feathers back instead of the 2 you get from harvesting a broken arrow.

 

Quote

I'm currently playing a day 60 game and I'm catching way less kcal/hour than I caught in the same game on day 15 - it's usually not enough to sustain myself, actually. However, I need to test if this is map-specific (as I've already fished quite a lot in CH) or if it's the case on other maps as well.

In TWM I would try to wake up four or five hours after dawn then on a blue sky day if I had plenty of meat, water and wood, I would light a fire in the fishing hut and fish and cook fish until there was 3 hours of darkness remaining. On a reasonable day I would catch maybe two whitefish (600 cal each) and a bass (600-1100 cal)

 

[Scyzara]

1 hour ago, mystifeid said:

In TWM I would try to wake up four or five hours after dawn then on a blue sky day if I had plenty of meat, water and wood, I would light a fire in the fishing hut and fish and cook fish until there was 3 hours of darkness remaining. On a reasonable day I would catch maybe two whitefish (600 cal each) and a bass (600-1100 cal)

Yeah, that sounds more or less similar to my overall CH numbers at later time points (ca. 1500-2000kcal/12h). On day 10-20 on the other hand I usually caught about  5000-6000kcal/12h, sometimes - if I had luck with salmons - even considerably more.

As I refuse to starve my character on purpose (and she has an appetite like a bear, consuming almost 3000kcal/day on average), catching ~2000kcal wouldn't be enough for me as a sole diet. But as said, it works very well to mix it with deer meat to stretch the reserves. 

Did you try snaring (on a more than occasional scale) yet? I for one have never been much into snaring (not on Stalker either), but I'm curious if the chance to catch rabbits decreases in a noticeable way post day 100/200.

[KD7BCH]

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

[ChillPlayer]

Well said. I am pretty certain that Interloper can not be learned from reading on the internet because even if you follow what @MueckE said, unexperienced players will lack the map knowledge to survive when inside the game, won't know where to look for certain items and how to get there, don't know where to expect wolves or how to avoid them, need to learn the mechanics in and out first and also don't have a routine to fall back if things begin to go south. So yeah your description fits, it's like giving a 5 year old a drivers license.

And this is how it should be in my opinion, I would've been quite disappointed if I would again survive for hundreds of days after the few runs I made in Interloper. It still feels like alot of work to survive and I enjoy that very much, on an average evening I bring maybe 8-10 more days on the clock whereas in Stalker I would often make 20-40 days each evening. It truly feels like "the good old times" pre v200 while being even much tougher then it was two years ago, when we still had a rifle for our comfort for example I can understand that some people are always going for the toughest challenge and thus do not even try Stalker or Voyageur first but it escapes me then why said people ask for a lower difficulty. There is already an easier Interloper in TLD and it's called Stalker.

[mystifeid]

Actually, I agree with  @KD7BCH- I would be happy to see this thread blink out of existence but this was always going to happen somewhere and perhaps it is best it happens here. Also I would prefer it if Interloper was slightly harder. For example, if you are used to hunting with the bow, when you achieve level 5 archery skill, it starts to feel 2x easier than Stalker and unless conditions worsen at 250, 500 or more days, if you have planned for it, I do not see why 500-1000 day stints are not possible. (This will not be me - at an average of 3 days per hour for me, it would take a mind numbing 300 hours).

Even worse, when I start a new game now, I have so many new strategies available that I can push and punish my character remorselessly while I race around the maps. So yeah, a harder version soon would be good. Interloper is not the be all and end all (I hope).

15 hours ago, Scyzara said:

Did you try snaring (on a more than occasional scale) yet? I for one have never been much into snaring (not on Stalker either), but I'm curious if the chance to catch rabbits decreases in a noticeable way post day 100/200

Mainly just for the mittens and spares for repairs. When I hunted them with the bow it seemed to stop them being available for the snares but am not sure about that. I preferred using the bow because you can wait for a blue sky day for your mag glass fire to keep you warm while you harvest. Also, it adds to the archery skill, while snaring does nothing.

[KD7BCH]

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

[togg]

Died *again* on around day 6@9th attempt because of wolves. They're the real problem now. I can manage the cold and the hunger and I had found 6 pack of matches in first 4 days.

Those wolfes are hard, I was first attacked by one in the dark and I couldn't have avoid this one. The prybar kicked in and I stayed decently well at 50%, I keeped playing and sleeping in that zone and now I'm realizing that maybe sleeping 12h is not the best to regain condition, maybe I get thirsty and starting to loose it I don't know.

The second one was the day after, I had use him by sending a dear in his direction. Then I harvested the dear and made the mistake to try to push it to cook all the meat with the same fire when the wind was going up. The wolf was still in the zone in the loop "scare of fire/coming back", are they always like this? He attacked me and the prybar didn't kick in, maybe I was crouching, and died from the shock even if I was at 60%. Soooo sad. I'm starting to consider to do the trip to the furnace just to have the knife ready asap. I really don't know how to deal with them at the moment. They spot you, run a lot, and deal a lot of damages.

[Fuarian]

You can easily get from PV to CH. The rural crossroads can provide shelter and a place to heal and then you can just book it to the mine. If you play your cards right you should only start freezing (if you leave nearing mid-day) by the top of the hill into the mine.

Also, you can use the Aurora to light your way through the mines or any other place requiring light.