The Long Dark – TLD Learning The Basics
The key to having successful runs in the Long Dark is dependent on your full understanding of how the conditions bar works. Not understanding this will end your game play. So always keep these in check.
One of the most important is your warmth.
1. Warmth – Temperature
This is your key indicator of how cold your character is in-game. If you have a down arrow near the temp gauge it means your character is getting cold. So keep this in mind especially if you are harvesting an animal carcass. If you speed up time and your temp already has a down arrow then your game may come close to its end. Because if it takes an hour to harvest a carcass when you speed up the time your character is only going to get cold and can freeze to death. The solution is always to build a fire near the carcass and harvest slowly in portions and monitor the temp gauge.
Though you may have a fire, a blizzard can always put the fire out so harvest slowly for example not passing time by 2 hours or so.
2. Fatigue
This is your indicator of how much rest your character has. The only way to fully recover is from having sleep. In an interloper run it’s no more than 10 hours and you must eat beforehand by eating at least 5 cat tails which should give you enough food to last till the morning. You will need to either find a bed in the game or have a bedroll.
Drinking a coffee will help reduces fatigue for a short period of time.
Time in this game will kill any run.
3. Thirst
This is indicator tells you how thirsty you are. The only way to find water is by boiling it on a campfire or oven etc.
Time in this game will kill any run.
4. Hunger
This is the indicator that tells you how hungry you are. During an interloper run, you can starve during the day and only eat before bed. This is generally 5 cat tails
Time in this game will kill any run.
5. Overall Health Condition
This is the overall health of your character and is determined by the above 4 mentioned indicators.
You can also get frostbite and if this occurs this will affect your overall health bar permanently.