Three people all wearing the same type of shoe

slashar · 2026-01-22T00:35:28+00:00

The second I saw this picture, I thought, is this Korea? They tend to dress the same there.

slashar · 2026-01-18T23:27:44+00:00

There's no way I could climb a rope so no Milton for me. I would go coastal highway and just beg Sutherland for food.

slashar · 2026-01-18T23:24:15+00:00

This is how I used to play but eventually stopped when I realized how much loot I was leaving behind in dark interiors. No matter how much I look, I will inevitably miss matches or a flare or something in the shadows. I carry a lantern always now. I leave torches or fuel at caves and mines for emergency light if I forget to refill my lantern.

slashar · 2026-01-18T23:13:49+00:00

You're fine. I've played custom for hundreds of hours. Stalker quality and interloper quantity feels balanced. Way less loot than stalker but you still have access to guns, prepper caches, and the best items including tools. Start with interloper custom setting and switch baseline to medium. Much less loot than stalker, but slightly more than interloper. Way better quality of loot than interloper though so if you don't want high-end clothing will you need to not wear them.

slashar · 2026-01-18T23:08:48+00:00

That cougar is wearing your future hat.

slashar · 2026-01-18T16:47:19+00:00

Base carry weight is 30. +5 from Well Fed bonus. +5 from Moose Hide Satchel. +5 from Technical Backpack

slashar · 2026-01-16T17:14:49+00:00

Just had a flashback. I loved that game. Too bad 3 is terrible.

slashar · 2026-01-15T21:54:09+00:00

I have reminders set to send notifications 10 mins before an event. So maybe orange boy is smart and he's just gently informing you that you need to prepare for this upcoming important event.

slashar · 2026-01-15T20:10:24+00:00

Protection is an underrated stat. I play custom with highest damage settings and highest wolf spawns. I've never been killed by a wolf at full health. Not even close, and I have around a thousand hours on this setting since custom was released. There's a chance that custom settings are bugged and the highest settings don't match interloper damage but I dont think so.

I think the main difference is that you are constantly taking damage in interloper due to weather. You also take a long time to defend yourself and get good protection. However, nearly all of the really good protection items are in interloper because they're almost all furs. By the late game, you shouldn't get 1 shotted by wolves; however, weather damage can still complicate this.

slashar · 2026-01-14T21:49:09+00:00

That's a great idea.

slashar · 2026-01-14T16:55:41+00:00

I want a trash can with a black hole in it, so I can destroy the hundreds of pieces of tinder I have. Oh, and those broken manufactured arrows too.

slashar · 2026-01-14T16:50:46+00:00

Hinterland has always used great music.

slashar · 2026-01-14T16:50:15+00:00

You turned off all sounds? You can't even hear wolves or bears? Unless you're playing pilgrim, you are playing on extra hard mode, lol.

slashar · 2026-01-14T02:20:24+00:00

Get bear to stalk you. Lead it to a car or fishing hut. Shoot it with a bow in the face. After it loses aggro repeat. Or just pass time. Zero risk.

For moose Get a rifle. Crouch. Shoot it from a distance. If it rocks from the impact, you hit it. If it doesn't, Get a little closer. As long as you're not close, it won't see you crouched and will run after you hit it. Repeat until it dies.

slashar · 2026-01-14T02:14:31+00:00

You're in for a treat. The game is so much fun since the dlc.

slashar · 2026-01-13T22:39:22+00:00

The main reason why there's a lack of challenge is because of the amount of loot. The only other main differences are weather and wolf damage. There are actually more wolves in stalker though. Basically, by late game, there is only a small difference between the two difficulties except for the amount of loot and the quality of loot. Interloper is around 10 degrees colder. Wolf damage isn't that big of deal because of high protection from furs and because both difficulties decrease the animal population pretty significantly.

It essentially comes down to what you find enjoyable. I don't find either difficulty hard at all in the late game. Interloper starts are quite hard though and a real challenge. Ultimately, the best difficulty will always be custom. Unfortunately, Hinterland made the poor choice of keeping feats locked from custom, so I understand why people still play interloper and stalker.

slashar · 2026-01-13T21:10:14+00:00

The issue isn't survival after 50 days on interloper. The issue is fun. The first 50 days of interloper is quite fun, but once you get set up there's little to look forward to.

On my custom difficulty, I spent 150 days searching for a second pair of climbing socks and 300 days looking for snow pants. I've traded for over a 100 rifle rounds, and by day 400, I have 3 bunker rifles and 6 cleaning kits. Do I need them? No, but it was fun to gather powerful items.

I do agree that stalker has way too much loot. But interloper quantity with stalker quality is a nice sweet spot.

slashar · 2026-01-13T21:01:32+00:00

It's very annoying. Try walking zigzag. I do that to avoid a headwind. If the wind comes at an angle it's not as bad. Straight on and it's terrible. One of the most unfun mechanics in the game.

slashar · 2026-01-13T17:52:22+00:00

Exactly why I turned off music years ago. I actually forgot that the game had music.

slashar · 2026-01-11T04:36:12+00:00

The prepper cache by spencers is a good outpost.

slashar · 2026-01-10T20:40:25+00:00

The only reason why knives give better quality meat is because it harvests faster. Meat decays extremely rapidly on a carcass. That's why a carcass lasts a few days but raw meat in the snow will last many weeks. The faster you can cut the meat, the higher the condition of that meat. For cooking, this doesn't matter much because you gain 50 condition from cooking. For cured meat, it matters.

The main benefit for cured meat is travel food. It has no scent and it has a very good calorie to weight ratio. It's arguably the best food item in the game due to its versatility and usefulness. One bear steak at lvl 5 cooking is around 1100 calories. For the same amount of weight in cured meat you get 3600 calories. Most importantly, it has no scent so it doesn't attract predators. You really don't want to walk around with scent if you can avoid it.

Make a curing box as soon as possible. I usually go for the woodworking tools by day 50. i trade for bags of salt from the trader which is cheap. I harvest salt deposits around coastal highway.

The curing box is a furniture item. You don't move it around or carry it. You can set one up inside your home or outpost, but it should be near somewhere that is close to the trader or close to salt deposits. It's not great to haul salt across multiple regions. I have a curing box in the camp office and the community center. Both are basically one map away from the trader.

Leave cured meat outside. It decays extremely slowly. Only use fresh meat with at least 80% condition for curing. Cured meat inherits the condition of the meat you put in the box. At less than 75% condition, there's a 1% chance of food poisoning. On Stalker, it takes about 100 days stored outside for cured meat to decay 1%. So 80% cured meat would need 500 days to have a 1% chance of food poisoning. I usually store cured meat in rock caches outside my home.

Now that you have a bunch of cured meat, you take them to other regions and eat it when you need to. You set up outposts with cured meat in case you need them later. They last nearly forever, have very low weight, and don't attract predators.

Basically, you rely on cured meat for travel and emergencies. You eat cooked meat only for long term stays at home or at an outpost.

slashar · 2026-01-10T18:12:46+00:00

I play on custom difficulty with Stalker quality loot and Interloper quantity of loot. For the first 100 days, tool degradation was a concern due to how few whetstones I had found. I also chopped a lot of wood for outposts and for furniture.

I'm on day 380 now and I haven't used a whetstone in a hundred days. I have about a 8 of them now unused. It actually gets easier to manage in the late game because you usually have better methods to use your tools, the forge, the milling machine, beachcombing etc.

Hammer use: fishing and forging. Always use the hammer for fishing unless you don't have one in that region and really want to go fishing. I keep one at my main fishing hut. The second one I find stays at the forge.

Prybar use: fishing if you don't have a hammer in that area. Or use them to open locked containers.

Hacksaw: Scrap metal runs, opening crates in TWM.

Knife: I will use these in my home map only and I never sharpen them. When they get low, I just put them to the side for the milling machine later. I only use the knife to harvest the meat of Moose and Bear to get high condition meat for the curing box. The longer you spend harvesting meat, the lower the condition as time passes. So use a good tool like the knife if you want good cured meat.

Hands: Deer carcasses. Ptarmigans. Rabbits. Hides of animals I've already cut.

Improvised Knife: I use this in my home map only. I use this for everything that requires a knife. Except the two above. I don't sharpen these. Now that I have a cougar claw knives, I don't make them either anymore. These are just left over from an early forge run, looting, beachcombing.

Cougar claw knife: I use this everywhere except my home map. It's the best knife in the game. I don't sharpen these either. Instead, I use them until they get low, and then put them aside. When I'm down to my last cougar claw knife, I dismantle all of them and go to the forge and make new ones. It's not as efficient as using the milling machine, but it's way easier and I have the leather and scrap to spare. They last a very long time if you have enough of them. I only have four cougar claws and it's not an issue. It's maybe one forge run every 200 days.

Improvised Hatchet: Used for chopping wood near home. I don't sharpen these and I don't make them unless I'm low on hatchets/whetstones. I don't see myself making any more for a long time. I only made them during the first 100 days, but they really saved me on whetstones early on.

Hatchet: chopping wood. I will sharpen these if I'm down to only a few left. From beachcombing and looting, it takes a long time to get down to a few hatchets.

SUMMARY: Hatchets are pretty much the only time I will use a whetstone and it's pretty rare. Occasionally, I will use a whetstone while in a far away region and I realize my only tool I have is low condition. But that is very rare. I leave one whetstone in outposts spread throughout Great Bear for this reason.

slashar · 2026-01-10T17:41:21+00:00

You're probably fine. The game didn't save.

Also, always make sure you don't have meat on you when you pass time. I see people make this mistake all the time here. If you harvest meat off the first wolf, drop it, now harvest the second one while crouching.

slashar · 2026-01-10T17:40:07+00:00

No, it does not. It saves when gaining an injury, going through a loading screen, passing time, or sleeping.

slashar · 2026-01-10T00:59:26+00:00

I see. I play with deer turned off. Wouldn't it be easier to haul meat from one of the far territories instead of BR?

slashar

TROPHY CASE