The Long Dark: Fishing Guide | How To Survive The Long Dark 

This is the most stressful yet relaxing game

Remember to bring at least 30 stones so you can create a trail from the fishing hut to base in case of a white-out ;)

You can fish for 30 minutes by hitting cancel half-way through the hour. Can be a pain, but you can catch fish in that time while you cook.

I got my level 5 fishing at Jackrabbit's island. It work pretty good. The bunnys will cover you for food if the fish are keeping at bay. The nearst fishing hut is realy good because it is far out and close to sea. You dont have any problems with wolfs if you stick close to the sea. And the sticks that respawn will cover you for fuel. Oh btw Lonelywolf i think that the longer you take with fishing in one go will give you more fish per hour. So it might be better to go 4 houres per fishing session than 1 hour per time.

from my experience, fishing is more productive if you fish for longer increments of time. when i fish hour by hour i notice far less fish caught. still, hunting rabbits is better since your not as exposed and doesn't cost resources if done manually.

Fishing saved my life a couple of times in Interloper. Having killed all nearby game, I was starving, exhausted and freezing with near red health. With enough fuel to camp for a few hours, I fished for 3 hours, caught three fishes (one well over 1300 calories), had time to sleep for a couple of hours after filling up, brought back a spare fish and was able to recover really well. It might not be the go-to survival tactic but It's the most ideal hunt during bad weather.

Using a hatchet or knife to crack open the ice causes decay. Especially for the improvised versions. Hammer or prybar are best and by the time you fish you won't use the prybar for anything else

"You NEED a fire to stay warm!" >>Feels like: 50C Riiiiight.

A skilled player can live nearly INDEFINITELY inside a fishing hut (especially one with a door!) including on late periods of Stalker/ Interloper difficulties. The only time you need to leave is to collect firewood peiodically. Preparation in this game remains paramount. Requirements are proper clothes, heavy hammer, 2x toolboxes, 6x fishing tackle, bed roll, hatchet, magnifying glass, and cooking pot. However, this is not challenging.

Also before you plan to fish for awhile bring enough wood. I always drop wood I collect next to my hut of choice. It's nice always having a wood cash when those blizzards blow in.

Using the starvation strategy makes fishing worth it. Your condition goes down during the day and right before you sleep you eat a big meal enough calories to sustain the night to regain your condition back. I'm on day 30 on interloper and I've been using that tactic every day. I also supplement fishing with finding deer and drawing the deer into the wolves and then scaring the wolves away from the carcass to get food.

I have a fishing cab with a door. When I'm inside, regardless of having fire I can stay warm

My way to fishing is to spend a few days collecting sticks and logs to pile inside the fishing hut. I like the one near the fishing village in CH as there's a bear that walks around there. If the bear is active near Qonset, then prepare accordingly closer to there. You can use Bunny Island as your indoors to cure stuff (explained later). There are also deer that can spawn nearby and wolves on the lake. So what I do is get enough wood to spend a good 3-4 whole days fishing (it helps if you have Fire Starting 4-5). Next, I wait for a clear day when the deer are around the fishing hut, then run a deer close to the hut and shoot it down. Next, you start your fire (if too cold), throw a pot with water in it and start harvesting that deer. With some luck you'll get three smell lines. That will drag all 3-4 wolves and the bear towards you. Kill them near the door, quarter the bear, harvest the wolves but leave a bit of meat on the wolves carcasses so it takes 3 days for them to disappear and delays the respawn counter. The bear might take more than one arrow, but as long as you keep yourself loaded with meat, it will return to sniff you out and will bleed out by the hut. Next, you drag all the hide and guts into the nearest house in the fishing village and leave them to cure. Return to the fishing hut and keep cooking water while you harvest big chunks of meet from the bear quarters. You should have a good amount of water and plenty of meat to cook now. Drop all the meat outside by the door. Cook a big slab of bear or wolf first for your first night. You will only be able to eat predator meat safely every few days before your cooking is level 5. Then you cook the deer and the rest of the meat while you fish. Keep the permafire rolling, use the bedroll to sleep in the hut, and alternate fishing/cooking until you run out of tackles. If you need safe food for the next night, cook some of the fish. After you're done, you should have a TON of food (most of which you will only be able to eat sporadically before you get cooking to 5) and you will have a TON of guts to start crafting your new tackles. Also, 3-4 wolf pelts (get yourself that wolf coat) and a bear hide (craft that superior bedroll). This is a great way to obtain some important items in Interloper while also working on your skills, stocking up on food and fighting off the risk of cabin fever. WARNING: make sure you know how to shoot with the bow, though. Or else you'll become wolf chow.

Lantern fuel yield depend on fish specie. In my experience, Bass provide the around 0.10 L. White fish, like trout, provide around 0.02 L. As I recall Salmon yield similar amount to Bass, if not more. My last 6 hr fishing session, in 3 hr increments, yielded .33 L of Lantern fuel from 2 bass and 5 white fish(lvl 3 icefishing). ps. sometimes I like to fish for a while, get all smelly to attract a few predators onto ice. Hunting is easier on flat ice, as target positions varies less. In addition, you have shelter and stove near by. If too many predators around, can put out bait and shoot from inside the fishing hut. So perhaps it's good to combine food gathering strategies.

Fishing is usually why I late game settle in the TWM hut. The fishing on the lake is made very easy with all the local firewood and the local weather patterns are very ridged. Usually I find the downsides are worth it but I’ll list them. Distance to forge Local wolf and sometimes a bear wanders over, however sometimes this is a boon more than a hindrance. Distance to beach combing It’s freshwater

I personally love fishing, especially when I find a hut with a door. When that happens I tend to bring a bunch of supplies and stay in that hut for days collecting oul and leveling up

Also did anyone know that you can leave your cooked food on the ground out side and it will only drop 1 condition per day? Instead of food rapidly wasting if you put it in a container, it might be something to look into lone wolf

they should make fishing similar to the snare where you can just leave the line then come back and add a fishing rod where the player could make a hole in any form of ice to fish wouldn't that be cool Xd

On a day like you were dealing with, fishing is THE most efficient use of your time for food production. Just try and hunt or gather ANYTHING edible out there in that mess! Depending on your clothes, you'll probably freeze to death while harvesting anything bigger then a bunny, if you can even see anything let alone hit anything in the blinding blizzard. By fishing, you have the option of a shielded fire not affected by the wind, you're sheltered from both the wind and the snow, if if you're gear is warm enough, you don't even need the fire, except for short periods while cooking something or to warm up for a bit, and if you're successful at fishing, you can combine the 2. Also, you may have to choose 1 hour increments, but if you look in the lower right corner, you'll see this button you seem to have missed labeled "Cancel" and by clicking on it, you can cut your fishing time short, useful if you want to fish for about a half hour and cut out before something burns/boils away. Any ways, I just came across your videos and I am learning new things about TLD that I didn't know before so keep them coming!

Fishing is the most efficient. Material wise and with your tools. You dont have the damage to knives and or hatchets from harvesting. Aside from that you can run the fire on sticks. On console i do it in 30 minute increments so im constantly cooking fish. I have caught 12 fish in three to four hours and no damage to tools.

For the record, you fished a little over 2 hours, not 4. :-) Also, you burn fewer calories just sitting there, as opposed to hiking around after game.

It doesn't make a sense. In real life you would spent a far more time and energy on hunting rabbit then on fishing. Fishing would be the most energy saving way to get a calories in such a situation.

I guess my fishing 🎣 days are a lil different. I go early morning laure evening with firewood to cook. I go with 3 fishing lines and only my revolver and minimum weight of my supplies. I use the hut with the door so I stay warm like 80% without a fire. I'll make a day out of it some of the fish get me like 1100 calories EACH give it like 5-6 hrs and boom lots of food collected safely 😎

Tonight is bloody cold, and the sound of the howling icy wind isn't helping XD

I have line and hook to fish with but game tells me I don’t have fishing tackle. Any suggestions why that is? I’ve fished before in the beginning

I've found ice fishing to be very rewarding early game in stalker mode. If you haven't obtained a proper weapon you'll be unable to down deer or moose yourself, and I think fishing is the easiest way to get a hold of calories besides cat tail stalks and looting. Surely your skill-level must be the most important factor when out ice fishing. It is hard to fish when you're at skill-level one, but you need just one book to level up, and then you're pretty much set. I don't know if I'm extremely lucky or if the fishing-mechanics are different now, but my line has only broken once during my entire stalker run and I am currently in ice fishing skill-level 4.

So how to get the fishing tackle? I made hooks and fishing line so I dont get it

I think that longer fishing time generates catching streaks sometimes. If you're fishing for lantern fuel in the late game, bring a fuel canister. The fish oil will be stored directly in the canister instead of making lots of small portions.

Can you make a hole in anywhere as long as it's above a lake to fish?

love your vids man!

If you have food and water to cover 8-10 hours of fishing you will have food for 3-4 Days, and I say this from my personal experience where I only had level 2 and 1 of Ice Fishing and i did it in Mystery Lake. Just be careful with the wolves and you will have practically infinite food! For me, this ability is completely op, change my mind.

Fishing for two hours always gives me three to four big fish, but fishing during a storm usually gave me no fish at all or just one

Haha if only I could actually shoot anything

I just downloaded this game a week ago and I'm kind of curious where you guys learn the in game mechanics (like the fact that temperature deteriorates the longer you spend in the world, etc) because the game doesn't make mechanics like that common knowledge from what I can gather. Is their a community of people who gather that kind of info or is it compiled by the devs somewhere? I really want to get learn this game and your guides really help, thank you man.

Does Voyager difficulty get harder over time? I played on Stalker and got to day 22 which is my best so far, then I set up camp where a f-ing bear spawn was and got mauled 3 times in a row, I had such good gear as well... Just hoping that voyager isn't going to be too easy compared to Stalker.

I only play interloper and I think fishing is a risk/reward activity. it takes at least 5 days to get the line for tackle and gathering fuel for the fire can be dangerous with the extreme cold. but I found if I can safely come that far I can gather about 5 days worth of cals (about 4k cals) in just a few hours. also the fishing huts keep you safe from wildlife.

Some additional factors: If you're a kind of person who ends up spending a lot of time indoors, and catch cabinfever often, fishing could be an easy way to increase your outdoor average while also allowing you to do a low stress activity in parallel. Skill 5 cooking increases the cal yield, but it would certainly be preferable to have a greater cal source to start with. On Voyager, my typical cal requirements are 3-4k a day, but bringing in 2 big fish (1500 each say) in addition to whatever I pull off a trap line, would level out fairly well, with a little surplus. Bring in a big haul during a calm day, and process it over the blizzardy days, that can get you fairly far.

Please do a revised guide on fishing with the fish tip-up 🙏

Hi. Long time no see! Awesome video and have a nice day 🤗!

Did they take the skill meters out of the game, or is that just in story mode?

Other game, aside from rabbits, has an ammo cost, as well as weapon degredation. Those two factors alone make fishing better when you have limited resources

I play stalker and I personally like fishing a lot since I have a lot of really good gear, as long as I have a door on the fishing Hut to protect me from wolves, I can survive the cold and stuff and I don't waste a fire when I'm fishing to I only do it after I'm fishing, in the mid game I find fishing a good alternative when it's just a bad day to hunt plus Lantern fuel is a good Plus

Late af but you weren’t necessarily wasting your time, there’s literally nothing you can do while in a blizzard… technically you could read books but that burns away calories. Also worth motioning is the oil. Oil is a finite resource that you find while in artificial refuge, when you have a Jerry Can with you, you can slowly but surely refill it. Yet another thing are the snares. On coastal highway there’s Jackrabbit island with TWO bunny burrows. placed snares will net you lots of bunny hides and guts (at point in the game the hides and guts are the only thing worth keeping are those let’s be real) you can use the meat for decoys.

I only fish when I have tackles at 5-10% from mending AND I'm grounded. That be from broken ribs to cabin fever or other afflictions or illnesses.

New player here. Any advice on where to find a hatchet? I’m at the same lake that’s shown in the video, and need a hatchet to get wood and stuff to prepare. Thanks in advance.

New player here do i need a fishing rod or bait in order to fish or can i just use the hook

Pretty good informative vid. If I had a critique at all it would be that it was too short - I know, quick training vid not an indepth guide lol. For what it was, you did a really good job of packing a LOT of information into a very short time.

I fish during fog and blizzard when it's to hard to track game that doesn't fall immediately. I'm gonna get 500 calories everyday no matter what. Plus spending time in the fishing huts reduces cabin fever. Yes there are faster ways to obtain more calories but it's more of like a last resort to burn energy so you can sleep through the night when you've been stuck inside to long

Another cool guides

You need a door dude 😂🤣

some good gear for day 3 bro!

Thank you for your videos and replying to those who disagree with your video. When you fished in this video what was your level? The game is unforgiving and until you gain experience it is an uphill battle.

I get plenty of fish on my difficulty. 6-8 in a day. Plus i use a hut with a door. I stay warm. No fire needed.

Actually a larger net loss, as you use 46 calories waiting for the food to cook.

Every fish I catch weighs 0.0 kgs, and it's keeping me from getting that survival deed.

Good day man stop spinning the heck around I'm getting sick trying to watch this !!!

Lantern fuel, nuff said.

my favorite way to get food because its very safe

I think they should add cross country skis, and a sled for dragging deer in this game. Not complaining, I just think that would be fun af . . . .

Petri, nice Trout men, does it improve when you fish 5 hours without break? Or has it no impact on fishing?

Read all the skill books you can, make more than enough tackle and fish more than one hour at a time. Plus you get lamp oil, that unfortunately you don't get yet from hunting, I would love to see that change. IRL people make very useful deer tallow CANDLES from the excess fat they do not consume. I've seen guys haul so much fish they couldn't carry all of it. You can also hunt from the fishing huts, if you keep a hunk of meat on you

Hey lonely can you make more videos like this, Maybe fishing has got buffed maybe you should do another video on this

I better not need a moose hide in order to fish.

Fishing for longer periods of time gives U a higher chance of catching more fish. "Each fishing session is treated individually, so longer sessions will typically catch more fish than two or more shorter sessions." Edit: I've survived stalker runs for a couple weeks at a time by just eating fish.

i’m in the same location as him and i’m stuck in front of the fire because if i move i’ll die and i cant go out and get warm clothes and it’s just an endless cycle what do i do?

Lmao for a second I thought he said "Ear Rats". I had to freaking rewind and listen to it again afterward.

That... is probably the greenest survivor I have seen. Green pants, green coat, green everything. If only there was something to camouflage with :P Oh, by the way, your fishing effectiveness increases by the hour, so if you plan on fishing for, say, 4 hours, do it in one full 4-hour shift. Of course, that may be a poor option if you're scared of bears or your fire dying, but if you aren't that'll increase your odds.

The oillllll you have to fish to get oil!

You can survive forever at mystery lake.

Did I understand it correctly, that the game progressively trends towards colder and colder conditions? That can't be right.

thats not true at all ! At end gmae day 200 to 1500 interlooper mode i was most of the time fishing and get my calories from it !

What about fishing when your skill is maxed, you ever try that?

In one of my worlds I used to fish like 4 fishes in 3 hours and they gave me 900 calories some of them. I was playing in stalker. Sorry if my english is bad xD

u forgot to also say the hirer the fishing lvl bigger the fish u get and lot less time inbetween fish u catch to so low lvl fishing isnt worth it but it is worth doing cause hirer lvl fishing is worth it. just pain to lvl

Fishing op

Not to mention that a large fish with around 1500 calories will weigh about 10lbs if you’re hauling it back. Compare that to a MRE that weighs 1.10 lbs and has 1750 calories.

I spent forever in front of a flaming garbage can to get my heat bar back to full. I walk out a door and it's dropped to zero. In a second. I stopped playing right then...

I find fishing is most worth in 3-4 hour increments rather than 1 hour at a time.

choose a fishing hut with a door..... dont need a fire.

Dude...Look at that blizz. 😆 Yeah, I get it. Fishin is fun but not really worth it.

iv just fished for first time and got one everytime but im on normal

I spent six hours and got no fish! I was on the second easiest mode!

There's a few things missing here: 1) You catch more fish for a longer session 2) Your line has less chance of breaking from a single 6 hour session than from six 1 hour sessions. 3) The other part of the equation is the difficulty of gathering enough fuel to support a fishing session 4) The different fishing locations and what kind of fish they give (salt water is better than fresh water) 5) It would be useful to have given advice on how to judge the tradeoffs involved to decide whether fishing is worth it. Many interloper players rely a lot on fish in late game, but trying fishing in early game on loper is a great way to kill your character. Sorry, but you'd be better off reading the wiki article than watching this video tbh.

please oh please fish in 12hr times. if you do not you have lower chance to catch fish.

Fishing is subjective, there are fishing spots that are better than others just like real life fishing, I will only fish when the weather is good, and I have some time to kill, I have caught some good ones though. And I disagree, I fish 4 hr inc and yield a lot more fish per difficulty level of course, and the line breaks less.

I just caught 5 fish in an hour

I love your vids but please stop swirling your mouse around it makes me feel sick 😂

Why not just read books or craft in the mean time?

You are really bad at fishing. I spent 120 hours recovery from a moose stop fishing at lake pleasant. On stalker. Ran out of wood at the cabin before i ran out of fishing

I always cook while fishing, why wouldn’t you cook? Non logical at all

thats not a guide. it's the NRA vs Rapala :p jk. I just want to know how to make tackle.

This is not how you fish and he is dead wrong about fishing. Do not listen to this guide if you’re starting The Long Dark even though it’s an older game by now. To start off, you are least likely to catch a fish in your FIRST hour fishing then the next several. Why he caught one fish in four hours is due to this. If you fish 6 hours at a time, I average 6 fish in that time frame at level 1. This is optimal because any longer and your water gauge runs out from full to zero and taking damage the hours over 6 you fish in one go. Next, yes, you will likely have to have a fire going. You will not be able to boil water if you’re fishing 6 hours at a time. Yes, this sucks but you gain more fish this way. Now we will talk about modes this is viable and why. It is time consuming and produces a small amount of food in all modes. However on Interloper, before you have your heavy hammer, materials, and gear you plan to take for your first forge, it provides days worth of starvation diet food. 750 calories per day, 2 small fish or one large fish will get you through a night and get your 32 condition healed on a 10 hour rest. Deer, bear, moose provide a LOT of meat, but Interloper has no guns, you have to cure birch and maple for a bow and arrows and then forge the arrow heads. 12 hours of fishing, two six hour sessions, just stopping to drink provides six to nine days of starvation diet calories. You may spend the day hunting rabbits and warming up then hunting again and turn up with five rabbits in a day. This averages out to about three and a half days of food. In interloper you need to be ready by your first 50 days to deal with extreme cold. A day of fishing will provide ample food and stave off cabin fever in those first critical 50 days. If you take anything away from this, it should be, fishing IS viable. You should NOT fish in 1 hour sessions. Fishing is more important in the first 50 days of interloper then any other mode.

Fishing Guide: 1. Dont Fish

Stalker is way too easy

but ice fishing is FKING EXHILERATING dude

Obsolet

Looks boring as all ... I don't like looking at timers as a game

jeez dude this was repetitive we get it

Kept rambling on, not getting to the point. Thought I was listening to a woman for a moment there. Also, many mistakes in the video per the comments, so it appears he's just biased against fishing. I'll have to verify for myself. Waste of time watching this video.