Survival Retrospective: Ava Del Ray


RossBondReturns

Recommended Posts

Ava Del Ray is my most seasoned survivor at 118 Days.

Here is the Retrospective: Survival Retrospective: Ava Del Ray

And here is the post in full.

Survival Retrospective: Ava Del Ray

screen_57d80976-9af7-4417-afdf-1fd72a717fa3

About Ava Del Ray

I started playing as Ava Del Ray before I had even conceived of this blog. Ava was an only child who had to grow up fast because her parents were physically unable to care for her, and in the course of her young life she had to care for them. By the time she was in High School she was working multiple jobs in order to keep up with her own housing let alone all the medical costs for her parents. She was invited to church by a co-worker and after a few months came to believe in Jesus Christ and was Born Again.

The Church helped pay her parents medical bills, and were there when they accepted the Lord, and helped once again to pay for their funerals. After graduating from High School with the highest honors she wanted to travel, to be free for a few moments before heading to Medical School.

She purchased a ticket to Moscow, but while in the air the world entered the Long Dark. When she came too, she was alone, cold and found eventually by a frozen lake and Canadian flag snapping in the wind.

 

screen_6d22cb09-5c34-47f4-99c9-f9d5803f64ef

The Start

As you know by now my start point is always set on random and on this occasion I opened my eyes on the ice in Desolation Point. My initial plan was to search common areas for the Rifle and other handy survival items and then head through the Crumbling Highway to Coastal Highway. So this is what I did, in the back of my head I wanted to improve on my last two sandboxes. In one I had tried to push too hard and died in Coastal Highway on the way to craft deerskin pants, and in the other I had died in my sleep on Day 50 because I failed to take the right medication for an ailment.

My overall plan was to make it out to the Muskeg and back again.

screen_73fc532c-d509-40fb-97aa-dd6a2a067def

Surviving

I survived for a long time. However I still do not hunt very well (feel free to check out the 99 Commentary free videos here: Ava: There and Back Again (Playlist)

In fact it was only by God’s grace that Ava survived as long as she did.

I became more and more confident as the days and weeks went by. I crafted bows, arrows, for the first time I used the forge to successfully make arrowheads. I made every item of clothing, and as is my usual style I was often encumbered.

When I finally felt pretty secure I went into the Muskeg to finally give it the full look over, and maybe I just love the harshest places but I love it as much as I love Desolation Point!

screen_9c82337b-89fb-4848-a87f-35f6dc1484a1

I killed a bear here, and a few wolves, visited places throughout the glorious wasteland. And unlike other times I walked out healthy and still in good condition.

For the record I also “lost” 3 Rifles, I’m sure many players know exactly what I mean!

Other than that though I had zero technical issues.

To be honest by Day 90 I was very familiar with my territory, had even eventually found the Bunker on Mystery Lake, and I decided to make my way back to Desolation Point. So I made my way back through the Ravine to the Town on the Coastal Highway.

screen_507d9500-1239-4efb-9e09-b31bf5bf080b

Back Again

When I returned to Desolation Point I set up shop in the lighthouse. I placed two saplings for curing new bows on the downstairs table. And filled the drawers with tons and tons of stuff. I went on many very successful hunts and was never low on Deer or Wolf meat around the place.

Amazingly on my more thorough search of Hibernia Processing and the caves by the waterfall and broken trestle bridge I found two rifles! I am not much of an archer so I was grateful for that I assure you!

The only problem though was I soon ran out of ammo for them, because the game thinks I’m not much of a shot either. I became exceptionally skilled at cooking, harvesting, and use of the rifle (go figure)!

The Great Unraveling

And then the unthinkable happened. I hunted a bear badly, again, got mauled twice…again! And spent the night recovering in Hibernia. The outer-layers of my clothes were ruined, I left my sleeping roll somewhere.

I had to hunt using arrows again because my only Rifle with Ammo went missing!

Eventually I found my sleeping roll exactly where I’d forgotten I’d left it…at the old church.

I was running out of supplies and knew I had to get out of Desolation Point.

I had a pair of shoes in the gas station in the town in Coastal Highway…a pair of Deerskin Boots to be exact. And I was planning to use the fishing huts to raise my fishing skill level. Also I was looking forward to living on Jackrabbit Island and staying in Coastal Highway for a time and then making a push for Timberwolf Mountain.

screen_(1042, 17, 893)_a3a0d7a7-f43e-40f2-b11d-deeb507e43bc

(This picture shows how good I am at archery!)

The Unexpected Ending

So I spent the night in the Lighthouse, ate what few calories I had drank some water, and then I made the gamble. Sometimes there are wolves on the road, sometimes their are wolves on the frozen bay- I chose to take the bay thinking I heard deer. A good sign in my past experience that there would be no wolves.

Did I mention that I had no more arrows because I forgot my heavy hammer in the Trappers Cabin?

So I slowly move around the rocks and hear the first wolf…which promptly tries to eat my face. I fight it off and am down to around 30 condition, I slowly veer right hoping that there’s only one…when out of the fog…comes wolf number two.

118 Days.

screen_91a528a5-884f-405f-8115-590a5a905379

In Conclusion

This one hurt.

I had long term plans and had gotten to know Ava very well, I wanted her to live, for a long time.

Yet it slipped away so quickly and unexpectedly.

My first post Ava sandbox (Tony C.) lasted a whole 2 days…I played very angrily and aggressively.

I’ve finally started a new one that I hope will be long term even though I simply named it countdown because of the….countdown.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.