The Long Dark Surviving Over 200 Days

Publish date: 2024-07-20

These tips are only really useful if you’re planning to survive over 200 days.

Contents

Tool Use

If there is an option to break an object down by hand, it is better to, unless it is necessary to survive. (After all, tools aren’t as valuable as your life).

That way, you save durability on all of your tools, which will be in limited supply.

Sticks are Important!

Pick up any sticks that you find. However, you should avoid branches in most cases, as 10 minutes for 3 sticks isn’t worth it. This also applies to scrub brushes, to a lesser extent, where you trade 20 minutes for 7 sticks. In both cases, you could use a tool to cut the time in half, but it depends on whether you’re willing to sacrifice tool durability.

Never Shoot Deer or Rabbits!

Instead, you should scare the animal into a wolf, who will kill it. Then, scare the wolf.
You can also kill the wolf, essentially trading one shot for two carcasses.

Hibernation

“Hibernation” is a strategy where you intentionally sleep through many days at a time. It allows very slow use of resources, as condition regeneration is far faster than starvation damage.

To perform hibernation, you will need:

At least 1 litre of water for every day of hibernation.
About 400 calories of food for every day of hibernation.
A warm (preferrably outdoor, to avoid Cabin Fever) place which allows for sleeping. A snow shelter CAN function as this, if there is no better option.

To hibernate, play as normal until your hunger meter empties. Then, pass time/rest until you get the exhaustion penalty. This penalty will allow you to constantly sleep.

Then, follow this cycle: Rest 10 hours – Drink Water – Repeat.

If at any point, you drop below 25% condition, eat some food, so you can start to recover condition.
Eating 600 calories is enough to make condition reach 100% again. Gowever, less calories will only partially restore condition.

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