Making Progress | How To Survive The Long Dark 

Thanks! I want to help old and especially new players get over that initial, frustrating hump without getting annoyed or lost. But I also remember the charm of my first few runs in the long dark. I want to preserve that so I'm trying to make sure I don't spoil things in advance.

Thanks! That was my biggest problem when I was new to the game and looking for guides... everyone said to stay away from spoilers and just enjoy, but I needed to know how to do certain things... And all the guides were very spoilery. As of the initiation of this series that was still the case, so hopefully I'm filling a very much needed gap with this series.

It is a hard balance to find because it's not always the same every game and every run, especially across difficulty levels. The primary factors to keep in mind are your long-term goals and your short-term needs. For example, your short-term need is staying full, but your long-term goal is getting tools crafted. You shouldn't starve yourself to 50% health just to get those tools per se. Maybe in some edge cases. Every game is not the same. You need to think ahead about what the potential roadblocks will be, and how to plan ahead and around them to accomplish your goals while keeping your needs satisfied. Sometimes you get curveballs thrown your way that slow you down, etc. Because the regions are so diversified and the loot is spread amongst them all, moving is good to collect it, but also brings many dangers with it. You've got to keep yourself safe and alive to accomplish your goals, but you've also got to risk a little just to get there. Err on the side of caution, albeit barely, and you'll usually move along at a decent pace provided you keep your goals in mind. I'll have a video coming out later about setting goals based on what mode you're playing and why you should have long-term goals. Hope you find that balance and good luck on your runs!

lmao went to LTD from anomaly

Glad you liked it! I'm still working on adding more and more videos to this list. If there's anything, in particular, you'd like me to cover, go ahead and let me know!

Lonelywolf Making arrow heads and improvised tools with the furnace and crafting in general would be a cool video!

Thanks mate! I'm glad it was helpful!

Well glad to know I've got all the necessary points hit!

Glad to help

You're not wrong... Pilgrim is too hard for me. Why? I CAN'T WADDLE AT 200 POUNDS OF GEAR GIMME SOME SPACE!!! Wait, you're telling me my house is bursting with goods? *sigh*

@@Lonelywolfofficial haha, yes, I should mentioned that 50kg (120 lbs) of meat is at home base in th locker, desk drawer, and trash can, not carrying around with me all the time. Because my character is full of food all the time. It got the well fed bonus that allows me to carry 10 lbs more stuff. Which I think stalker and Loper mode player will rarely see.

New fish too ! Sick of catching whites and sea bass !

A bit of knowing the maps, and specifically hunting them out, as well as crossing multiple regions. Depending on your difficulty there can be as few as 2 per region and as many as 10! per region, give or take a bit.

It depends on map knowledge, there is about a 20% or 30% chance for a sapling to spawn in each of the premade locations, kinda like guns. If you have enough knowledge your guaranteed saplings at some point of searching.

It's a bad loot area due to its size and the maximum available resources. A once-through for all the clothes and food and tools that are scattered about is good, but other regions offer far more, without the threat of a tight gauntlet to pass through to get in and out. Couple that with extremely limited hunting options and no fishing, with wolves in every spot of importance sans the Riken, it can be a downright mess navigating around. Don't get me wrong: I love DP and it's scenery and what it exists for. But it most certainly isn't a good spot for any form of long-term survival. There are only two spots for deer, a couple for rabbits, one moose, and one bear. Wolves and bear are out of the question for most of the early game usually, due to IP unless you're willing to contract it, and the deer are guarded well by the wolves. If you do get the deer before the wolves do, or before they get you, there's only a few of them and they take a long time to come back. The moose is in a bad spot to hunt him but it's possible, though that's only if he's hanging about on that run. All things considered, it's a beautiful region with scant in the way of survivability. It's far easier to survive in HRV or TWM than DP due to multiple hunting locations and availability of loot and shelter. Granted, these are just my opinions due to my playstyle. Things can be objectively bad but subjectively good, and vice-versa.

@@Lonelywolfofficial I spawned my first time in DP and I lasted a couple days, next trial I started out near Milton, lasted about 6 days, went to explore, got to close to a ledge, got stuck, had to result to suicide. I cant tell if I love this game or hate it.

Bedroll can spawn at the Mystic river picnic area or the cave near the rural store on Interloper. There are only the two spawns for the flare gun as it stands right now. Mayhaps they'll add another one in later but for now just the two.

Awesome thanks!

Aye no problem!

Cured gut

Depends on your difficulty level and what you currently have. And your playstyle as well as whether or not you choose to min/max or have multiple outfits. A good guideline is to keep the highest wind protection gear in the outside slots and the highest warmth on the inner or both, if the case may be. Sprint is a relatively needless mechanic for evading wolves or bears so I rarely take that into consideration. The protection mechanic is huge so if you can get to at least 25% protection you'll survive a wolf attack in far better shape then without it.

Lonelywolf Ok, thanks. These guides help a lot. Do you know the youtuber hadrian?

Yup! I've seen him around now and again. What makes you ask?

Lonelywolf You guys make similar the long dark content, for example, you have both made a lot of survival school episodes. There not a lot of youtubers who play the and you guys are definitely some of the best and most entertaining. Was just wondering if you had heard of him.

I've not really checked out much of his content TBH. I know he's kinda laid off TLD in recent months too. When I first started playing the game years ago he and LMG came up quite often, but IIRC neither had tutorials or guides at the time.

So they get bored by how easy it is on pilgrim and stop altogether. Nah, I say start on voyager and go from there. Beginners will still die but its much more forgiving. Then when this gets boring, go to stalker or custom game

That does depend on how you best learn the maps, but exploration and sometimes using the built in mapping function can help. If you're really struggling though, you can use maps that people have made online to help out.

@@Lonelywolfofficial thanks👑💯

If you are worried about running out of plants, fear not. Yes, beachcombing can net you new plants but in all likelihood you'll never exhaust the natural supplies from two regions, let alone all of them.

Lonelywolf I’d been drinking tea as a primary food source thinking it’d grow back. I think I must have chomped through at least 50 cups. If I hadn’t found out it wouldn’t grow back I think I really would have scraped the land barren.

You're welcome!

free bow everytime :)

The caves plus all the access to wild grown food and several predator-free hunting zones makes HRV a stellar place even in Loper, so I've heard. I've never been there in Loper myself but have visited it extensively otherwise. Size and access are the main differences, DP just doesn't have as much as HRV.

Yep, DP is probably the best starting region. The forge allows you to stock up on arrowheads and make sure that you have a knife and hatchet during early game. In interloper, it's better to start in another region and get to DP, with the hammer and some scrap as soon as you can. The abundance of wolves and unreachable spots allow you to improve your archery very quickly.

Every person plays games differently, even when I was new to the game and didn't know where exactly to go, I was able to mentally build a map of where I had been and see familiar areas and navigate back. It takes time to do so, and not everyone can do so or at the same rates of speed. If that's not something you can do well or figure out a way to do, this game will probably be a challenge for you. There is an in game mapping system but it requires patience to use and to build up the map over time.