Tips for new survivors

[Doc Feral]

Wolves have dignity. Even an almost dead limping wolf won't let you simply come near enough to pluck your arrow from its butt and get away with it. Yes, I've tried. It will turn on you with its dying breath.

[Skavenger416]

I’m not sure if this has been posted yet but when you pull torches out of the fire, where you grab it from dictates the percentage that they are. So if you find that sweet spot you can pull out almost 50% torches.

[Hilayla]

3 hours ago, Skavenger416 said:

I’m not sure if this has been posted yet but when you pull torches out of the fire, where you grab it from dictates the percentage that they are. So if you find that sweet spot you can pull out almost 50% torches.

I had noticed different percentages but I didn't know this was the reason. Good tip.

[Klobberthon]

When traveling, try to chase bunnies (or deer...rabbits are easier) towards the direction you are headed and especially over ridges.  This wolf was waiting just over the edge of my line of sight and I would have been his lunch had my fluffy friend not taken the hit for me 

[TheEldritchGod]

If you find a cup of coffee or tea, warm it by a fire. When you pick it up, you will get a skill point. ONLY happens with found coffee or tea.

[Doc Feral]

On 1/30/2019 at 1:14 PM, Doc Feral said:

Hollow trees!

They aren't very common but sometimes you may run into one. And they're not a new addition. They work perfectly as natural fireplaces, you can light a long lasting fire in them and camp safely without worrying about wind. And wolves.

I've just tried it against a blizzard: a campfire in a hollow tree is totally windproof.

[hozz1235]

On 2/20/2019 at 1:14 PM, greatwhitegamer said:

Play it safe.

 Always. 

Care to expand on that? 🤔

[Mroz4k]

Just now, hozz1235 said:

Care to expand on that? 🤔

Why? It sounds pretty clear to me. Play it safe, always = dont take any risks. Which is not a bad way to play for newbies

[hozz1235]

Just now, Mroz4k said:

Why? It sounds pretty clear to me. Play it safe, always = dont take any risks. Which is not a bad way to play for newbies

What is a risk?  What is safe?

[Mroz4k]

Just now, hozz1235 said:

What is a risk?  What is safe?

Again, I dont see the point? Id say its pretty clear that within the game, it often comes down to a decision between two choices when doing something - the risky way, or the safe way. So, always go the "safe" way  

If you have to ask yourself whether it is better to stay indoors and rest up a bit, recover condition, or push through dangerous territory with animals while tired, I think it is pretty clear here what is the safe choice, and what is the risky one  

[hozz1235]

See, those are specific examples of how to play it safe.  I think that's what people are looking for in this thread.  If I was new to the game and I read that post, it would be meaningless to me.

[Mroz4k]

2 minutes ago, hozz1235 said:

See, those are specific examples of how to play it safe.  I think that's what people are looking for in this thread.  If I was new to the game and I read that post, it would be meaningless to me.

Gotcha, well, I think it comes down to personal preference. For me, that message was pretty clear and cut, if I was knew, Id understand exactly what it means.  

[Mroz4k]

Well, to add my 2 cents on the pile of tips:

Advanced tip on hunting by using stones.

Put only 1 stone, and the weapon of your choosing into your inventory. Find a deer that you want to hunt, and pull the stone out. Aim in the air above the deer, and throw the stone behind the deer. As the stone is traveling, hit "weapon" quickdraw key again to pull out your weapon.

If you did it correctly, the deer should now be running straight at you. Aim & shoot. A pretty good way to hunt deer with bows, it takes a bit of practise, but it is not that hard in the end.  

You can use this same thing to convince "rabbits" to start moving towards you instead of away from you. 

[Mroz4k]

Dont think the explanation was necessary  I really dont understand what the point of that remark was. Especially on a comment that has been two months old.

[hozz1235]

@Mroz4k, I fully understand you don't understand my point.  For the sake of others, I won't continue discussing this.  Let's agree to disagree and let it lie.

[Kitsune_Wizard]

I always carry a fresh gut. One gut can be used as a wolf distraction without having to worry about losing calories. 

Useful if you need to get somewhere and don't have time to play cat and mouse with a woofer. Just drop a gut and he completely loses interest in you. It saved my life a few times, when there's been a wolf between me and an indoor building in a blizzard and I don't have the condition for a struggle.

[Doc Feral]

2 hours ago, Kitsune_Wizard said:

I always carry a fresh gut. One gut can be used as a wolf distraction without having to worry about losing calories. 

Useful if you need to get somewhere and don't have time to play cat and mouse with a woofer. Just drop a gut and he completely loses interest in you. It saved my life a few times, when there's been a wolf between me and an indoor building in a blizzard and I don't have the condition for a struggle.

Using a small piece (the 0.1 kgs or so harvesting leftover) of cooked meat is better. While effective as a decoy, it doesn't smell as bad as a gut and won't draw so many wolves to you. It does smell and attracts them, just not as much and from a smaller distance. Check the hud: a single gut gives you a full stinkpuff, a small piece of cooked meat doesn't.

Edited May 2, 2019 by Doc Feral

[Doc Feral]

Concerning perishable items: apart from food (the only eternal ones are water, crackers and cat tail stalks) you should store pills outside containers. When items degrade to 0% condition they disappear from containers if they can't be recycled (clothes for cloth or leather, torches for sticks, tools for metal and so on, not sure about canned food for cans). I suppose 0% pills don't work anymore (never tried), but pills make a wonderful path marker, especially in caves. Dropping a single pill will create a pill box (I know it doesn't make sense but it's ok for me) which is quite colorful and easy to spot. When the tunnel forks I put two pills (one for each "doorway") to mark the correct path. I use antibiotics even if they're still good, since they're almost useless, unless you're unlucky enought to get parasites before raising cooking skill to 5. Water purification tablets are even more useless and create larger boxes, but they're not as plentiful.

If you loathe using such vile exploits of graphics you can use tinder bundles or cat tails heads, which you can spin and arrange in place to create nice arrow signs. Stones work too, but you may be confused by the naturally spawning ones you find in caves. Pills are the best because of their negligible weight.

Edited May 3, 2019 by Doc Feral

[peteloud]

Doc Feral,

" Using a small piece (the 0.1 kgs or so harvesting leftover) of cooked meat is better. "

Thanks for that info.  I assumed that was the case but have never got around to checking it out.

[ManicManiac]

Practice throwing stones at everything.  Rabbits... Wolves... Bears... Deer... doesn't matter.  The more to pitch stones the more naturally your estimation of the throw will be.  We all know by now that a stalking wolf will charge as soon as you aim... well you don't have to aim to pitch a stone.  If you are practiced, you can always send them running any time they start to stalk you with a well placed throw.

Also, pitching stones to annoy bears is funny  

Edited May 5, 2019 by ManicManiac

[Stone]

Deer parking: you of course know that you can startle a deer sending them in the direction you want. But note that when it stops running, it will tend to turn to face you and slowly wander back toward you. This means you can fine tune deer positioning for a head shot in a more convenient place. Such as your camp (office):

Good

Trip hazard

[Lurve]

Something I learned recently: the stink bar indicator not showing up doesn't mean you don't stink.  Carrying any meat at all gives you a sizable aggro radius for wolves and a wide one for bears.  On voyager animals are still sparse enough to avoid, but on stalker there's just too many wolves who mosey your way as soon as you get within a half a kilometer of them, while bears home in basically as soon as you can see them.  But drop all the meat and you practically have to boop them on the nose before they'll notice you.

Which means that baiting with a sliver of meat is not a *defense,* you don't want to carry one around just in case. It can bribe off a stalking wolf, sure, but odds are the wolf wouldn't have noticed you if you didn't have it.  Instead it's an offensive maneuver to work around an explicit game mechanic. When a wolf or a bear is stalking you and you aim at it (with a rock, a gun, anything), it'll charge you while dodging sideways, making it hard to hit.  But if it's going for some meat you've dropped instead, it's no longer stalking you so as long as it stays outside the normal attack radius it won't mind you aiming at its head.

The same attack behavior is why people say you should practice throwing rocks without aiming - if you can hit a wolf it'll scare him off - and hunt by driving a deer into a wolf - the latter won't mind you lining up a headshot at a distance you'd be charged otherwise.

[Crakkerjakked]

A few things I've discovered playing over the past couple years...(started when there was only chapter 1 of storymode)

First, I will only ever carry 2 recycled cans at a time. When you start a campfire, there's only 2 cooking slots. It's completely illogical to carry anything more than you can use. Cooking pots are great to have in your base, but not on your person. Too much weight. And, if you're on the move, you need to pack light. Cooking pots don't facilitate that.

Moose are worth killing. Bears are not. If it's a dire emergency and you need to craft the bear skin bedroll, then it's iffy at best to attempt to kill a bear, but the meat is not worth risking trichinosis over. Moose is the same calories, but it's an herbivore so no risk eating, and the hide is far more valuable than a gun (in my opinion). The moose satchel is always #1 priority for me.

Don't set up your base somewhere that can't easily access 1)A 6 burner stove, 2) A forge, 3) A workbench, 4) Other areas to explore. I've lived, and died, hundreds of times. HUNDREDS. My most common deaths are from lacking the ability to cook large quantities of food and water at a time, having no ammo or arrows, not being able to make arrows or clothing or a bow, and not being able to find the gear I need to replace.

Starting single stick campfires is a great visual queue for where you can safely cross the ice. I spend quite a bit of time traveling around Forlorn Muskeg, and falling through the ice is not fun. To take the thinking out of it, I use a magnifying glass (if I have one) and start a single stick campfire when I safely cross the ice. This leaves behind a burned out campfire that marks a pathway for me. No second guessing, no more falling through the ice. The added touch of using the magnifying glass means I'm not burning through all my matches. This also got me the 1000 fires started badge pretty easily, so now every sandbox starts out with level 3 fire starting and I no longer need to carry around tinder.

Don't be afraid to drop your gear in a pile and come back for it later. I've often, and frequently, dropped my guns, tools, etc. to bring my weight down in order to get large quantities of whatever back to my base. Moose meat, firewood, whatever. I like to keep my main camp in Mountain Town, and I'm frequently climbing ropes going to and from Forlorn Muskeg or Mystery Lake. Sometimes, I need to carry 80 lbs of something up a rope, so carrying 50 lbs of tools and gear with it is an impossibility. Drop your gear, carry the load.

The bow and arrows are your best friends. If you're shooting off all your rifle and revolver ammo early on, you're not going to make it very far. I prefer using the bow and arrow to hunt in the first 200+ days. I've even killed a moose with a bow and arrow. Wasting your ammo early on in the game means when it comes time that you really need to fire your gun, you're already dead. Treat your ammo and guns like they're your children. Protect them. Save them.

 

Edited June 27, 2019 by Crakkerjakked

[UpUpAway95]

I usually carry 1 cooking pot and 1 tin can... why?  That way I can boil up a full day's supply of water while I get a hearty 2-hour nap by a warm fire without boiling the pot dry.

[UTC-10]

I get apprehensive about boiling a pot dry. Normally it takes me 84 minutes to make two liters of water. I have tried making pots of water in succession while sleeping one hour at a time, but I could see the benefit from that short sleeps was rather limited. I have also been surprised (I don't know why) when a blizzard rolls in and the rate of cooking food/making water can increase up to double normal (42 minutes to make two liters of water).  I have left a pot on a stove with enough burn time to make boiled water and, since it was inside, not worried about it boiling away.