Interloper The Long Dark game mode can be played in so many different ways. You will hear this over and over in just about anyone’s stream if you ask the question. However, the most important part of Interloper is surviving the first 20 days, and to survive these first 20 days you need to have a solid game plan in place. The advice I provide below is based on more than 60 loper starts in a 6-week period being totally new to the game.
Let’s Go.
Learning from Experienced Interlopers
Learn from Experienced Interloper Players NOT veterans of the game with 4000 hours that have played pilgrim, voyager, and stalker.
Interloper is a different beast.
A beast that can be tamed and mastered contrary to the Bullshit an ex-mod from my stream had continued to preach eg You can not beat this game. The same advice came from the same person who decided to direct new gameplay from a Desolation Point spawn and the directions were to get the matches from Hibernia and leave the map.
Was this clear sabotage of a run? Lack of Knowledge/Experience?
Why not direct a player to loot all available areas including the lighthouse which has a stem that spawns in every game? What this was about I have no idea but during this period something amazing happened. I awoke to what was going on, the energy has shifted, 3 experienced interlopers joined my Twitch community, and the mod unfollowed the stream, and left we beat our personal best of 36 days and went on to survive for 56 days. A run that could have lasted 100 days if we went through Ravine rather than Unpleasant Valley.
Interloper The Long Dark Game Plan
Anyone telling any new interloper player to play the game how they choose needs the riot act read. The worse piece of useless advice you can give any new loper player. The first 20 days are the most crucial and you can not just go out there and play this mode how you wish. You need a game plan and here is a solid one for you if you wish to follow.
To survive you need a continuous supply of food until you have forged a Bow so you can hunt.
For this reason, your main objective and focus is to head to Mystery Lake by Day 4. This is not negotiable.
Here’s Why.
Food – Cat Tails
If you use the starvation method which means Astrid or Big Will only eats before bedtime you need 5 cat tails just before each 10-hour sleep plus water. In the Mystery Lake Map around the lake region only, there are more than 80 cat tails and another 12 or so next door in a ravine. This is enough food for 16 days. On top of this, the huts around the lake have enough firewood to last for many many days as well so keep this all in mind.
Your Food issue is now resolved for more than 2 weeks and no need to run around the Map like a mad person rushing to forge.
Camp Fires
Light as many of these as you can and make as much water as you can. The more fires lit the more skill points gained. The more skill points gained the longer burn time in your forge will be needed which means less firewood is needed.
Green Teas
If you find these in-game quick smart make Green Teas and do not leave raw green teas in your inventory. These degrade over time and do not provide the proper benefits they should as they degrade. Cooked teas are not affected and do not degrade but do get cold.
Birch Tea
The superfood run saver. Besides food, water, clothing, and matches this is the most important item and key to your survival in-game for the first few weeks. You need to learn how to use Birch Tea to your advantage.
Why is Birch Tea Important?
- You get a healing boost of 2.5% per hour for 2 hours for a total of 5%.
- Birch is an item that keeps respawning in-game.
- Birch does not degrade like Green Tea.
- You can drink tea while exploring and not only do you get a warmth bonus like the other teas in the game but you also get a health bonus of 2.5% per hour. During this period make sure all your Vitals are good so drink water and eat some food so these do not degrade your health.
- Within a 10-hour period, you can heal from 10% to 70% plus, and here is how.
Drink Birch at 10% overall health and do an activity for 2 hours.
As long as Astrid or Will is Fed and hydrated in a warm place this will boost your health by 5%.
Now refeed for enough sleep and drink a birch tea and drink more water and sleep for as long as you can. This will now give you a total health boost total of 10%. Drink another Tea and make sure water and food are no issue and make some arrows, for example, pass time or forge if you are forging. Now your health has gotten a total of 15% health boost.
By now I do hope you get the message I am trying to explain why Birch is so important.
Can Astrid/Will Drink 2 Birch Tees in One Go?
Yes, you can drink 2 teas in a row but will only receive 1 warm bonus lasting overall for 4 hours for a 10% health boost overall. So make it a priority to look out for Birch and include your run-to-visit areas that have this spawn in-game. Areas such as the back of Barn in Unpleasant Valley, Winding River, Myster lake in river past the bridge on the left-hand side, Ravine, Just before trappers, and so on.
Harvest Dead In Game Animals
The game provides without telling you and you just need to be alert to this fact. In desolation point for example there are 2 dead deer carcasses where hides, guts, food, and hides can be harvested. On Coast Highway, it’s the same. In the winding river, there is 1. In Mystery Lake there are so many over the map and so on. Check maps for these locations.
In Mystery Lake/Ravine region there are more than 5 that can be harvested. So during your run plan to visit these areas and harvest these animals.
Interloper The Long Dark Forging Items
Do I need to forge within 7 Days? For a run that includes Mystery Lake for the first week, the answer is no and the more fires you start the more forge time you will have where less material is required.
Now let’s put this all together.
Day 1 – Spawn in New Game.
Priorities should be:
- Get to the Match spawn location and pickup sticks then create a fire and make torches and boil water.
- During your run pickup lots of sticks and keep a look out for Maple and Birch Saplings.
- Loot vehicles including glove boxes for possible match spawn.
- Loot buildings, look in the kitchen for food and water containers.
- Visit the bathroom, and take the toilet water.
- Cut down as many curtains as you can.
- Harvest every dead in-game carcass you can drop while you sleep to allow some cure time.
- Kill as many rabbits as you can.
Repeat from points 2 to 7 and head directly to Mystery Lake as soon as you can.
As you can see from this. You can create water when you have matches, you have pieces of cloth for repairing clothes, you are harvesting dead in-game animal carcasses getting ready to make clothing, and so on.
Interloper The Long Dark Crafting Clothing
The first item you should craft is the Deer Pants, Mittons, and Bunny hat in no particular order. Deer boots can wait for a bit later unless you have no shoes.
More to be Added.
Forlon Muskeg Forge
Best forge in-game and players with limited experience will say otherwise. Lots of cat tails abound this map so keep an eye out for these and you will need around 35 for a 3-day forge avoiding most days the starvation method. This is an outdoor forge so you can kill off any Cabin Fever Risks.
You will need to complete at least 12 forges here before becoming an expert Forlon forger so be warned but once you get to that stage you will love this forge.
You also have the Broken Inlet Cave nearby where Astrid and Will can sleep before heading back to Mystery Lake once the forge is complete. Once you become an expert at this forge all you will need is lots of reclaimed wood (break down the boxes), lots of sticks, a few pieces of cedar, and 4 or 5 pieces of coal for a 3-day stay. You can pick up coal from near center train tracks cut left and head towards the forge and near the broken house near the path that leads you inland.
Tip: Make sure you collect lots and lots of sticks before you do anything on the way here, Start a fire in the forge wait for temp to rise then proceed if ok to break down boxes. Max Temp forge will rise to without coil and a good mix of wood is around 80 degrees.
Why Not Forge in Desolation Point?
You have the risk of getting Cabin Fever and If you head this way without a bedroll and you get Cabin Fever this is an issue you need to be aware that does happen. So if you are heading this way make sure you have 15 sticks and 5 pieces of cloth and set up a snow shelter near the Desolation Point Cave extract to Crumbling Highway.
The other issue is the lack of food in this region and you need to move and loot fast if you wish to head this way. Blizzards happen in games where you can be trapped indoors and so on.
What Kills an Interloper Run?
Limited Map Knowledge, Limited ingame Experience, Decision Making, and being Greedy. Have a stem but running low on health for example and your thinking I want to save the stem I can make it then the death motion starts, you panic, and it’s game over red rover.