Miserable Hopeless Rescue

[stapeliad]

This is the most miserable challenge EVER.
The suspense of getting through nearly killed me when the cold, wolves, and the freaking bear weren't trying to.

[Khan_Drichthyes]

What would you say held you up the most?

[stapeliad]

4 minutes ago, Khan_Drichthyes said:

What would you say held you up the most?

Do you mean the main thing i did to get throughh? Urgency of time. Keep going.  Dont loot much. Dont stop unless absolutely nevesaary. 

[Khan_Drichthyes]

I found that coffee helps.  I was able to cover quite a bit of distance thanks to coffee.  I think I found a tin in the camp office and there was plenty in the tail section.  Brew several cups and drink one after the previous one wears off.

[stapeliad]

I decided that I'm gong to run this miserable challenge again because my accomplishment of 6 days 2 hours and 23 minutes clearly sucks.
So.... I did a little speedrun.  Here's how it went.

1 stim, 1 tin of coffee both in the Camp Office.
Made it to the Farmstead in pretty decent time despite the wind.  This was my first stop. 

Got some toilet water, made some coffee, hoped for another stim or more coffee, nothing.

So I moved on and encountered one of Pleasant Valley's Finest Blizzards.
Nevertheless, I persevered thinking, ok, I can do this.

Made it to Timberwolf Mountain in pretty good time, but still thinking no way to reach the summit in 13 hours.
 

The blizzard and the cold were killing my condition so I decided I had to stop at the Mountaineer's Hut.
By the time I got there, I was a mess.

 

THEN I GOT HYPOTHERMIA and my health went into the red while trying to start the fire, WHICH I COULD NOT DO DUE TO THE LACK OF A  TINDER PLUG.

So I had to stim, go back outside in the blizzard, and find a stick to make a &%(#)^&#+ TINDER PLUG.

Then I had to sleep for 8 hours. I'm still in day 1 and I have 0 stims and 1 coffee left.

But things were looking slightly better.

I left the Mountaineer Hut and it was a cold but lovely day out.  I went up the stream to the left and heard........ BEARCROWS.

So I tried to avoid and be very quiet but it did not work.

I put my only bandage on, stood up, and wouldn't you know, he came back for more.

 

And that is my speedrun.

But you can make it to the Hut Timberwolf Mountain in 10ish hours.
13 hours to the summit?  I think you have to not get a blizzard, find more stims and coffee and just be really lucky. I just don't know how to do it.

[Khan_Drichthyes]

I got a blizzard in PV, which I had to brave while transiting from the homestead to Draft Dodgers.  As for the cold, I found enough clothing at Trappers, Camp Office, and an abbreviated looting of Carter dam, to slow my heat loss.  I still had to make fires to warm up, on occasion, so I was always picking up sticks and harvesting materials for tinder.

At TWM, I "mountain-goatted" my way down from Crystal Lake to the lower clearing with the jet engine, near Cave D.  I never encountered any bears until I made it to Coastal Highway, and had to detour around the Misanthrope's Island bear.

Now for the TLDR version:  Pickup sticks.  Loot, but don't spend all day looting.   Don't sew, but replace inferior or worn out clothes whenever you find something better.  Food is abundant with moderate looting.  Drink coffee whenever possible, but don't be afraid to sleep when necessary (herbal tea helps, if you can find any).

And don't forget to pick up your bedroll after you're done with it. 

[CoffeePilferer]

I've only completed this challenge once but I did two more runs tonight to see if I could shave off more time. Both failed unfortunately but I reached TM region both times before day 1 was over. Start time can make a huge difference. Clear visibility helps. Fog not as much of an issue if you know the route. Usually I get blizzards in PV and TM. Coffee helps a bunch. Don't repair anything. Don't loot apart from coffee, emergency stims and flares, as well as better clothes. You don't need much food because you're going for speed. Couple of cans of accelerant helps too and some painkillers. Don't waste loads of time looting and only grab what you can find quickly. Always have some sticks for the next fire. Firewood you will find at places you are going to warm up, PV Cave transition, Signal Hill, Mountaineer's Hut, three way cave. Usually a good coat at Signal Hill.

You can skip stopping at Camp Office and just go straight to the dam but it might make things a bit rough.  Shimmying down the side of Echo Ravine is another faster and quite cheesy way of doing things. I brewed up about 18 coffees for my trip and made the summit in my second run with 5D 18H remaining. I know people can do it even faster but for me that was pretty good. Loot distress pistol, better clothes, medical container for possible stims. Skyrim slide down the mountain for more even more cheese and extra speed. 5D 2H remaining and I'm halfway through Coastal Highway and ended up near Quonset by accident and was done in by multiple wolves. Was gutted so close to beating my previous time. Not in a rush to try again, this challenge is seriously draining and stressful.

[MarrowStone]

This was my favourite challenge. Sometimes I start a survival run in broken railroad and give myself 7 days to make the journey for even more difficulty. It's entirely possible and I'm not particularly quick (I get lost between the homestead and the climbing rope and I dont know any good routes up the mountain).

Slide down the mountain and onto the lake, it saves a bunch of time, also just cook all your coffee in advance. That way you have it ready to drink cold or able to be very quickly heated up. Coffee works best if you drink it over half exhaustion but not when you're fully rested. (coffee both replaces exhaustion and reduces its drain so its sweet spot is where it can fully do both while also being at where your carry weight is unaffected. If your carry weight is dropping and you aren't within distance of your final goal it is better to just go to sleep and recover it fully. Yes, coffee could jeep you moving, but not very quickly, and being exhausted is in my opinion more deadly than being unarmed. It is the underrated threat of TLD.

Focus on windproof/light clothing and dont lug a rifle or way too much water around.

[Goodzilla]

Hi @stapeliad

I show you my not very successful try from yesterday. I was not on the way for a new record, but probabley under 24h, however I was hitted by a moose at the end of TWM in the dark and died later on.

1 pic: Leaving the farmouse after cooking 20 coffees . 7 hours (not very good)

2pic: entering TWM  2h later with stim and double climb

3pic: top at the ariplane 15h (very bad weater coditions in TWM!)

[Goodzilla]

I never carry a rifle, also I drop my sleeping bag and do not carry flares. Full oil lamp only.

I never collect sticks or wood (except in the locations where I make fire and in the cave bevore last climb)

This is a pictuer some days ago, here I will drop one empty can and the flare to optimize my weight.

 

[Goodzilla]

@stapeliad

or here another run very lucky and heavy with coffee

[stapeliad]

@Goodzilla you have the most amazing RNG fortune!!!

[DaveMcD]

Was going to make a post about my own go a this that I did today then found this thread so thought I would tack it on here.

I gave this challenge a go for the first time today after having it put it off for ages and managed to do it 3 days 14 hours 39 mins. Full disclosure I watched someone do a speedrun the other day (~21hrs) and had seen some threads on it so did have some ideas of what to do tactic wise, but I threw away some of their ideas as I was pretty sure I was't up to their standard so pretty much just wanted to do it my way. I found sod all coffee until I found one tin in PV farmstead and I think I only used stims a couple of times to get up the ropes. 1 from PV rope to TWM and another to get up the last rope to the plane. I also got blizzarded in a couple of times so did have to sleep a few times anyway. 

I did find the rifle and keep it, as I'm not super confident in avoiding wolves apart from just scaring them with fire. I had to unload the rifle into the bear on the lake in TWM to get him out of my way. No coffee in the containers near the ravine.

At the plane I think I got 3 tins of coffee which I cooked all of them then, drank about 8 of them to get me back to something good enough to mountain goat my way down the face of the mountain. scared off a wolf with a gun shot on my way back to the hut then hightailed it through a partial blizzard back to the barn in PV but a quick sleep in the preppers cache on the way as it was super dark and snowing and I couldn't see a thing.

Had to dodge between the bear and the moose near the PV barn and had an annoying pc blue screen crash after avoiding both wolves and almost at the cave to coastal hwy. On reload I dodged the wolves but got completly shut in a tiny cave near the exit as a full blizzard hit.

getting from the cave through coastal, crumbling hwy etc was super quick. managed to kill a wolf on the ice in crumbling hwy with the longest range shot I've ever hit in this game.

I had a lot of bad weather as far as I could see. lots of snow and headwind as well as blizzards / almost blizzards. 

I think I got to the TWM peak in a little under 3 days and from there to the lighthouse powered by coffee and a short nap in about 16 - 18 hours.

I enjoyed it and happy I got the badge, not sure how soon I'll try to better my time. 

[Goodzilla]

19 hours ago, stapeliad said:

@Goodzilla you have the most amazing RNG fortune!!!

Thank you, you just need to know that I tried 30 to 40 times already and I aborted probably 60 times since there was no chance to beat 24h (weather, coffee, stim, bear or moose or even too many wolf attacks)

@DaveMcD wow 3days 14 h for first try, this is extremely good!

[DaveMcD]

6 hours ago, Goodzilla said:

 

@DaveMcD wow 3days 14 h for first try, this is extremely good!

Cheers. I think because I've been playing (as well as watching other people play) the deadman challenge I was a bit prepared for it and dues to moving quickly and being risky.

I just jumped on and did the Hunted Part one for the first time. I died terribly the first run (died somewhere near pensive pond in the dark officially from falling off small rock, but really fallout from a second bear mauling)  but then second go managed to do it in 3 Days 3 Hours and 37 minutes but I got to say I found it really hard. That bear was always on me, barely any break, followed me from near draft dodgers all the way to signal hill ( no farm stay for me. Lost him once under a bridge and scared him another time with a fire in a hay shed on the way)   He was waiting for me outside signal hill after a nap and I had to scare him  with my fire.

I even ducked into the ravine for more shells and good thing I did. As soon as I entered back into ML the bear was right there by the trailers and I had to cap him. Then I had to put one (maybe even 2 flares) into the wolf that was waiting for me as well. Had to chuck another flare into the bear as I made my way towards the Lake Office. He found me up on the ridge beside the tracks, No way he had line of sight, and then another flare into him near that secret cave between the cabins and the rail tunnel. I waited each time to make sure he was definitely charging not just bluff charging. From there I sprinted to trappers and just as I was getting to the door he came barrelling over the hills again. 

After doing my run I checked out some other videos and some people were only encountering him a couple of times. He was on me like a bad smell. Is it just random how persistent he is or has it tweaked harder over time?

[Goodzilla]

On 17.11.2018 at 10:33 PM, stapeliad said:

13 hours to the summit?  I think you have to not get a blizzard, find more stims and coffee and just be really lucky. I just don't know how to do it.

@stapeliad yesterday I made it to the summit after 14h (even little faster since I made this screen shot later (I arrived freezing and on the picture my temperature already normal) and finished the challenge after 21h 38 min

[stapeliad]

That's amazing!!