Survival Tips/Suggestions From Day 125

[Harken]

Alright so I managed to survive to day 125 - which was my target date. I could have survived even longer (having a solid carpet of supplies) but after around day 50 I ran out of things to do. Having explored and looted everything in Mystery Lake and Coastal Highway I stuck it out just for the hell of it.

I humbly present a few tips and survival strategies to help people last a bit longer..

Rifle ammunition is the most precious thing in the game at present. Each bullet represents enough meat to keep you alive for several days as well as emergency protection from wolves. Do not waste the ammo! If you injure a wolf instead of killing it outright (this includes when it drops you to the ground and you manage to fight it off) follow the blood trail and get that meat before a storm sets in and hides the tracks.

I never hunted deer. There is a better option that almost doubles the resources gained from firing a rifle shot.

Approach the deer in such a way that it runs towards a wolf. Then, when the wolf takes the deer down, you immediately shoot the wolf before it has a chance to feed. This way you get meat from BOTH the wolf AND the deer.

*Alternatively if you don't have a rifle, or are out of ammo. Follow the same strategy, scare a deer towards a wolf. Then cautiously approach and scare the wolf off with a flare. The deer is then yours for the taking.

Avoid choke points whenever possible. Wolves love to hide in congested areas and ambush you. Whenever you climb a hill or turn a bend, do so slowly while keeping an eye on your surroundings to avoid walking right into a wolf. Height is your friend, avoid walking into areas you haven't first scouted from a nearby hill.

Don't go out in a storm, when it's hazy that means a storm is approaching. Head back inside and sleep for an hour till it passes. Blizzards rarely last for more than three hours. Even with the best clothing at full repair, you won't last long enough in a storm to accomplish much.

Always carry at least 1.5-2.5 liters of water on you.

Always carry 2 or 3 energy bars on you for emergency rations.

Always carry a newspaper for emergency tender. The weight is negligible.

Always carry a flare, even if you have a rifle.

When outside, always have either the rifle or a flare equipped as protection against wolves.

Only carry a crowbar and a lantern when you plan to loot. They are unnecessary weight otherwise.

Leave the canned foods and can openers at your base. Don't carry either around if you can avoid it. Energy bars provide nearly as much food and weigh much less.

Eat meat first (base), then canned foods (base), and lastly the energy bars (travel rations).

Order your cooked meat by condition, create a pile for each percent stack at your base. Example, one stack for meat that's 50-59% condition, one for 60-69%, one for 70-79%, etc. Eat the lowest condition first to avoid spoilage wasting.

Never waste a campfire. Cook your meat, then when that's done use the time remaining on the fire to boil up some water.

Sleep to get warm. Don't build a campfire just to warm up. Campfires are only for cooking food and boiling water. You should never be caught outside and desperately cold enough to have to stop and build a fire. Always know where you're going and in which direction to head in the event a blizzard strikes.

Keep your clothing in good repair and take time to learn which clothing offers the best protection. By mid to late game, freezing to death is no longer an issue.

Watch your weight, do not carry unnecessary things. Plan your day out and only take what you'll need. Is today going to be for hunting? Is today about exploring/looting? The more weight means the more calories you burn.

Focus on your priorities. What is your greatest concern. Food? Water? Ammo? Wood/Tinder? Keep your stockpiles up.

Hunting should be your primary means of stocking food. You'll get more calories from a single wolf or deer than you will from an entire looted village. Use looted food as a starvation buffer.

Don't over hunt. This was my biggest problem. During the course of looting and despite my cautious nature I keep running into wolves (they love hanging around civilization particularly in the Coastal Highway map) and getting ambushed. I'd then harvest the meat and have such a stockpile spoilage became a concern. Bare this in mind. If you are looting, you will run into wolves, which means meat. Which means you might gather too much and risk losing ammo and not gaining anything.

Hope this helps.

[wynarator]

All of this sounds reasonable, thanks for sharing!

[snegec]

The problem I have at day 57 is that I have 21 bullets but I'm not firing any shots. Every wolf I meet I try to avoid, if not possible I wound it. Then I follow the blood and 9times out of 10, the blood trails ends with a larger blood smear and no wolf.

The other problem is the constant kneecapping the game throws at me. I get a supply of food/water at my base (In Coastal Highway it's one of the two houses near the eastern dock) and the game gives me a 3 day Snow Blizzard to make sure I can't go out.

[harobed1156]

Same thing here. If I wound a wolf rather than kill it, most often I'll never find the carcass. Arrived in CH 5 days ago, and accept for a few hours on day two, constant blizzards. Eat, drink, sleep, repeat is not entertaining game-play, IMO.

[Orwell 1984]

I am posting only to encourage similar topics and posts.

Thank you for sharing these with us!

[elloco999]

Great post Harken, thanks for sharing your experiences with the community.

Order your cooked meat by condition, create a pile for each percent stack at your base. Example, one stack for meat that's 50-59% condition, one for 60-69%, one for 70-79%, etc. Eat the lowest condition first to avoid spoilage wasting.

Or simply store your meat in a container. Not only can you sort the contents by their condition so the meat with the lowest condition is always on top, containers also slow down the degradation (unless this has been changed, haven't checked this since v.170).

[Ryan CM]

Excellent! It is great to hear stories like this! Thank you @harken !

[Harken]

All of this sounds reasonable, thanks for sharing!

No problem!

The problem I have at day 57 is that I have 21 bullets but I'm not firing any shots. Every wolf I meet I try to avoid, if not possible I wound it. Then I follow the blood and 9times out of 10, the blood trails ends with a larger blood smear and no wolf.

The other problem is the constant kneecapping the game throws at me. I get a supply of food/water at my base (In Coastal Highway it's one of the two houses near the eastern dock) and the game gives me a 3 day Snow Blizzard to make sure I can't go out.

There we occasions were the same thing happened to me. Blood trails don't always lead to a wolf/deer corpse, sometimes the animals survives when the wound isn't too bad. Is it possible this is why you aren't finding the bodies? I may be reading to deeply into the game, but it 'felt' as if there was a weather cycle; periods of fairly decent weather followed by blizzard after blizzard.

Same thing here. If I wound a wolf rather than kill it, most often I'll never find the carcass. Arrived in CH 5 days ago, and accept for a few hours on day two, constant blizzards. Eat, drink, sleep, repeat is not entertaining game-play, IMO.

It's a game that appeals to a certain type of person, personally I enjoyed it. The story mode I expect will add a bit more drama/reward to the experience.

I am posting only to encourage similar topics and posts.

Thank you for sharing these with us!

Sure!

Great post Harken, thanks for sharing your experiences with the community.

Order your cooked meat by condition, create a pile for each percent stack at your base. Example, one stack for meat that's 50-59% condition, one for 60-69%, one for 70-79%, etc. Eat the lowest condition first to avoid spoilage wasting.

Or simply store your meat in a container. Not only can you sort the contents by their condition so the meat with the lowest condition is always on top, containers also slow down the degradation (unless this has been changed, haven't checked this since v.170).

This is a good alternative, however the issue I had with containers is that they don't hold enough and my mentality was such that I prefer to have everything laid out and visible in neat piles versus scattered throughout multiple chests. I wasn't aware they slowed degradation so thanks for that tip!

Excellent! It is great to hear stories like this! Thank you @harken !

Awesome game dude, keep up the good work!

[Singular]

I've been surviving for 100+ days per gameplay, and eventually the thing that kills me is... Boredom!

I set up my base in the Trapper's Cabin in Mystery Lake, which btw has a locker that can store 66lbs that I use for meat and h2o, then I head to Coastal Highway and loot everything. I loot Coastal Highway in 4 or 5 sections, always bringing all the loot back to a house near the zone to Mystery Lake, then when all the loot in the zone is in the house, I take several trips to bring it all back to the cabin in Mystery Lake. Once that's done, I do the same in Pleasant Valley.

With a locker full of meat, I will sleep for 12 hours, making me dehydrated and close to starving. Then I'll sleep for another 12 hours, bringing my health to around 75%. At that point I eat/drink, and then sleep for another 12 hours which brings me back to full health. So basically I hibernate until reserves get low, then go hunt. It's a very affective long-term survival strategy, but it's just horribly boring...

As per hunting, the best way to do it imo is to track wolves, or sometimes push deer into wolves, and if you walk up to a wolf from behind while it's eating, it'll get scared and run away without even using a flare or torch. On one occasion I actually saw a wolf kill a dear, then run and kill a 2nd deer, and then I shot it and harvested all the meat and hide and gut with only 1 bullet.

Another hunting strategy is, if you have plenty of bandages and and antiseptic, just fight the wolf. Chances are you'll run into the carcase somewhere in the general vicinity after a nap, or sometimes a day or two.

[bethany]

Thanks for the tips! I haven't come close to surviving that long myself just yet, so I'll definitely be taking notes here

[snegec]

Blizzards rarely last for more than three hours.

I'd like you to present that to my 1-3 day blizzards I regulary get in Coastal Highway. Right after I get enough food to be prepared to leave the Highway and go to UNPleasant Valley.