My first interloper..

[The_Materialist]

I started playing TLD again after the story mode launched. After I died the first time in story mode and my safe was stuck in a blizzard I started playing sandbox again and got stuck there. I mean sandbox is really great and has had some cool additions to it. I played a voyageur sandbox and got to 60 days already I have a lot of gear and am looking forward to climbing timberwolf mountain in the next 40 days =). So I start to feel confident, which is never a good thing for long term survival. So I start to take preventative measures. 

I started an Interloper run..

And although my long dark virginity has been taken years ago.. This was completely different.. Usually when I die I did a mistake. But Interloper just raped me.. I could not do anything against it. I spawned in pleasent valley it took me only a few seconds to recognize where I was. The farmhouse was pretty close and the sun was already setting so it was time to go inside. I stumbled through the farmhouse and found a t-shirt and peaches. Since the lighting was super bad and I searched the house blindly I decided to go to sleep. I had pleanty of water from the toilets but no food, but I had some reserves from the start so I could regenerate some of my condition. I woke up 4 hours later during an aurora. GREAT! The house was lighted so I could start searching. I found a prybar, a hacksaw and quality tools in the basement as well as a normal touque in bad condition. After sleeping a little I searched the house again and found a sewing kit, since there was a blizzard outside I spend my day searching for food or a ligth source in the house, but no success. In the evening the weather cleared and I needed to venture out since I was ravenouse. I haven't eaten the peaches yet but I will have to at night. I got to the barn but had hypothermia risk. I got inside at dusk but the temperatur was near zero inside and i still had no means to start a fire.. Condition around 70%.. Oke lets eat and sleep to warm up. I banged open the peaches and los nearly half the calories.. I slept a few hours until the moon stood up high on the sky and then I started searching the barn. The light was better then before and I found quality tools and a can opener.. well fuck you game just what I would have needed before but I couldn't see shit then so I couldn't have found it. oke condition is still okeish 50% or so. Lets try to make it back to the farmhouse were it is warmer and then get the fuck out of this blizzard valley int the morning into mistery lake. I got out of the barn and walked a few meters when I heared the barking of a wolf. My mind went: fuck fuck fuck fuck.. and I ran back to the barn but since it was dark a hell I couldn't find the door and the struggle began. My prybar fended him off very quickly. I didn't even lose condition I think. And I found the entrance to the barn after that so I had hope.. I slept in the car in the barn until the morning and made my way back to the farm house when a blizzard started rolling in and i bearly could make it inside before hypothermia. I searched the house again desperately in the hope i had missed somethings in the dark. There was nothing there.. oke it is starting to look mean.. down to 30 % condition and no food available.. but the blizzard is still there to go outside is suicide.. Well lets wait it out. After 3 hours the skyies cleared. I went out and searched some cars at the road and tried to stone a bunny (kind of despearte since I still didn't found means to start a fire). My condition started to fall dangerousely low 4-6% I guess.. I made it into the farmhouse and just went upstairs to at least die in a bed..

 

That summed up my best interloper run 40 hours or so.. I at least managed to starve to dead and not get eaten or freeze but it was pure rape.. I couldn't see shit, I couldn't start a fire, I had nothing to eat and constant blizzards at day. I found a hacksaw and two quality tools but only one food item and nothing to start a fire with. Clothes are worthless outside since you instafreeze anyways. I cannot see the mistakes I made I just had bad luck.. You may say i should have moved but going out in a blizzard is guaranteed death and you know that. I wouldn't have made it to the next shelter in time.

Then I loaded my voyageur run and was happy not to play interloper. I ended up having a great day hunting. I first wanted to hunt the bear near the trappers cabin but he didn't want to go towards the stones i threw.. So I was like: fuck this lets hunt deer. I one shoted one just next to the cabin when I saw the bear coming toward the trappers cabin. He must have followed my smell. I ran up the hill and crouched next to the cabin until the bear was close enough I hit him with the bow right into the neck he ran and died within an hour. I harvested both the deer and the bear and I am swimming int meat right now. I really enjoy not beeing raped by this game but I now appreciate it. Measures succesfull! I successfully treated cockyness.

 

[dead frozen dude]

Here's another Interloper initiate's story... I'm 9 days into my run - well, it's my first of dozen or so where I lived past day 1. It's in Pleasant Valley too... Currently I'm working up my nerve to climb Skeeter Ridge. Once I'm ready I'll set out to TWM, to pillage containers there and live off fish and cattails... I spend a crapload of time on the Mountain playing Voyageur so I hope I'll know my way around... Many kudos to @Drifter Man and other forum mavens out there - reading about your exploits was priceless experience.

I'm off to TWM - the weather in the valley is murder, the cold it just saps away my condition and coupled with starving yourself I'm unable to reach the level it was on previous day... I've even resorted to run around inside Farmstead building to drive myself into exhaustion so I could sleep and recover some more... There's usually a wolf lurking on the Ridge so I'll need some luck... Their detection range on Interloper seem so much broader and your means of defense here are really pitiful, but decoys work wonders... I had 2 wolf encounters and been able to get away in one piece both times! There ought to be a bunker spawn on the Ridge, too - I think I've checked every other place and did not find it.

Weather aside, things aren't that grim and I don't complain... Clothing loot have been very poor so far though - besides the tuque and ski jacket at the Farmstead I found an earwrap at Signal Hill, work gloves at the Barn, a tee and a sweatshirt and some other rags at the Rural Houses. No footwear, my current leather shoes are at 24%. Sadly, Radio Hut and Rural Store were virtually empty - no meds, no matches even, although I've found 3 boxes so far, got around 25 left... By the way, the matchbox on the mantelpiece at the 'stead - I believe it's a guaranteed spawn? What is important I've found a bedroll - in the cave back in the woods behind the Rural Store... I have a prybar and a hacksaw, and an emergency stim...  Already made rabbitskin mitts and been able to procure 3 deer hides which are curing now...

The craziest thing I did in TLD so far (and funniest at that) was stealing a deer kill from the wolf... You know the wolf that spawns in the orchard at the Farmstead (not behind it but in the front). Driven into recklesness by hunger, I herded a deer from far side of the orchard... my wolf buddy took it down fo me, I made a huge bonfire of reclaimed wood and sat there slicing it piecemeal with the hacksaw... winds could have risen at any moment and I would have been screwed for sure but I decided to go for it and also took the hide... Then, the moment the wolf got spooked by the fire once again, I grabbed all my plunder and bolted like crazy to the 'stead... The whole thing, man was it hilarious!

Interloper sure keeps you on your toes. You falter, you die... you start again, just persevere and learn from your mistakes.

[Ruruwawa]

On 10/2/2017 at 1:59 PM, dead frozen dude said:

You falter, you die... you start again, just persevere and learn from your mistakes.

Interloper in one sentence, I salute you.  I believe I made every mistake possible before I got a decent run going on Interloper.  I even died of thirst on my first loper sandbox searching for matches in out of the way places.

Both recklessness and creativity play a big part in surviving Interloper, especially in the early days.  For example:

On 10/2/2017 at 2:20 AM, The_Materialist said:

You may say i should have moved but going out in a blizzard is guaranteed death and you know that.

As @The_Materialist mentioned you start to freeze almost immediately on Interloper.  But think about it -- that means -10c or -60c really doesn't matter.  So you can turn blizzards to your advantage.  Say you need to loot an area with a lot of wolves, like the quonset hut, but you don't have any way to defend yourself.  Visit during a blizzard when the wolves and bears are hiding in their dens, and move on before the blizzard ends.  I use blizzards for travel a lot, and to move big stacks of raw meat (like a bear's worth).

[cekivi]

Definitely try, try, try again. My first interloper run I also spawned in Pleasant Valley. I made a bee line to Mystery Lake, looted it, ran straight to Desolation Point (there was no Forlorn Muskeg at that point) and crafted a knife and a bunch of arrowheads. With interloper you need a plan (in my case get a knife) so you always know what to do regardless of weather/animals/loot etc. 

[JAFO]

On 02/10/2017 at 7:20 PM, The_Materialist said:

I cannot see the mistakes I made I just had bad luck..

It wasn't "bad" luck.. apart from being in PV, what you had was plain ol' regular Interloper luck.. which is to say, none at all.

Your mistake was not getting the hell out of Unpleasant Valley as soon as you could.

In the early days of an Interloper run, you can't afford to play it cautiously like you would in other modes. Taking large risks will either pay off, or kill you. There is no middle ground.

 

But congrats on curing your cockyness!

[The_Materialist]

2 hours ago, JAFO said:

There is no middle ground.

I love the quote! I see what you did there ;-)

[Riotintheair]

On 10/9/2017 at 1:20 AM, JAFO said:

In the early days of an Interloper run, you can't afford to play it cautiously like you would in other modes. Taking large risks will either pay off, or kill you. There is no middle ground.

This is by far the best advice I've seen for Interloper. I finally have a run passed day 100 (Interloper Try 34 is now at day 165, knock on wood) and all the first runs were plagued by not spending enough condition to travel, or spending a ton avoiding wolves in the first hours, when really I needed to be moving out of my spawn region (especially if it's FM or PV).  

As much as I hate PV, I think it's a good start position because from the Farmhouse you can go anywhere and it's about equally hard. I usually go to radio control next, even if I'm heading to CH rather than ML, because it's one of the places good clothes can spawn in Interloper, has a stim (I think I've always found one here but maybe it's random), and it has a good chance of coffee (I got 2 cans on my 100+ day run!). If I get coffee the summit of TWM is opened even without a bedroll. Either way I can then head to ML via the dam or to the Barn and then onto either Skeeter's/TWM (coffee and hacksaw) or to Crossroads/CH/DP (hammer). I usually do one of the Barn options as those lead more quickly to things that I think are good early goals but I know lots of people love going to ML (I think CH and DP offer more early game opportunities - ie canned food and clothes - than ML and FM).