Gravos

I just started playing the game again after a long break and thought I'd type this up as a fun exercise to generate discussion and maybe learn some new things. This will be for achieving a very long run. It might get long winded...If you don't want things spoiled read no further! Best start and route: for me personally a FM start with a hammer in BR is best. You get immediate access to guaranteed matches and a good clothing piece. You can pick up some coal and scrap metal on the way to the maintenance shed. For me BR is an extremely dangerous map with sometimes not much payoff, but it might have an elusive thermal or thin wool sweater. You can forge on day 1 and get the map out of the way. From here I make my way to ML, clear it, and go through the dam to PV. I hit the major loot hubs and check the downed plane before going to TWM. By now you should have a hacksaw and bedroll. I get some birch tea ready and loot the summit. Now I go to the town near thomson's crossing and to CH, then DP at some point. After building up at CH I loot the remaining maps. Best base: there are many viable loper bases. In my experience the major problem in late game loper is cabin fever above other things. CH garage (or nearby house) for me is the second best base. It has absolutely everything you need besides a cave to fight cabin fever (it has cars). Incredible amounts of coal nearby, close fishing huts, lots of hunting, workbench, bear/moose spawn very close. The garage is a great place to build up for the absolute end game. Craft your clothes, gather lots of wolf/bear/moose skins, level skills. With the right technique you can always avoid wolves there. Camp office is number one for me because with the warmest clothes and a bear bedroll you can fight cabin fever in a nearby cave without using matches. With how often blizzards hit in loper there's a decent chance cabin fever will hit during one. With good indoor/outdoor management it's a bit of a wash as to which is better. Probably CH with the abundance of coal. Best clothes: it depends what you're doing. Always have a wolf coat for the scare effect. The cause of death in late games is usually wolf attack so I wear a moose cloak with it. I know it's heavy as hell but it has great waterproof stat and defense. So.. Wool toque x 2, wolf coat, moose cloak, thin wool sweater x2, rabbit gloves, combat pants, deer pants on outside, thermals x2, wool socks (some don't wear socks on long runs), work boots. The mackinaw jacket is great, but I've never found one. Best wolf struggle tool: hammer. It's always my goal to survive the attack. Any thoughts?

I think a few packs of matches and a striker would be worth the trip out there alone. Maybe I'll go explore the zone a bit on pilgrim first before I go on loper. This is the first save file I've made it more than a few days. I'm a bit protective of it 😁

Good points about not settling in yet. I'm approaching 30 days with a fair amount of clothing left to craft. I'm hoping to get a little better equipped and make the journey to TWM summit, though it sounds daunting (very little experience there). There's just too many good things there to pass it up. Is there a certain point where the weather gets too bad to safely attempt it? Or a point that the items fully decay? Just trying to plan my time line. Also is it possible to travel to PV from Carter dam? I know it is coming from PV.

I posted these questions on reddit but thought I'd ask here too. I've been able to learn a lot by playing loper for the last few weeks, but there's a few things I'm unsure of. What do you think is the best tool to use in wolf struggles? I understand how each tool performs regarding bleed, damage etc. To me it comes down to the hammer or axe. I've heard a lot of people swear by both. I finally have all the tools I need to start hunting and settling into a base. I'm most comfortable with CH or ML. My first pick would be trappers. It has everything I need. The only cons I see are lack of a nearby cave to deal with cabin fever and getting bored. Camp office seems good. Fishing nearby, decent hunting, a cave somewhat nearby. Cons are less safe fuel than trappers, worse access to bears/moose than trappers. Jackrabbit seems good. Lots of wood, rabbits, deer. Several bears. Moose over at garage sometimes. Good fishing. Safe. Beachcombing. Cons are cooking in the fishing huts, no nearby cave, have to travel for work bench. You can mostly deal with cabin fever by being outside whenever possible and fishing. The situation I worry about is getting caught in back to back blizzards after a long crafting session or something similar. I don't like the idea of being forced to use a match in that circumstance. I believe a cave solves that problem with a bear bed roll and warm clothes, though I don't know how often this problem would come up. Can any seasoned interlopers weigh in?

I had a lot of complaints about this initially, but I feel it has been tuned well by the devs since then. It could be tuned down a tiny bit but I feel it's pretty good now.

I have a pretty good idea of how the sprain mechanic works now and I know how to alter my play style to deal with it. I think my issue is that the mechanic forces me to change my playstyle in a way that I don't really like. I think the sprain frequency does need to be tweaked a little.

I want to start by saying that this is the most fun game I've played in a very long time. I've put in a good 60-70 hours already. I actually made an account on here just to comment on the sprain system. I absolutely hate it. As it is now it serves no purpose but frustration. I appreciate the idea of trying to improve it, but it's far worse now. I basically assume that any sort of long trek on anything but a flat surface will result in 2-4 sprains. Every time. It's just not fun.