The Long Dark Tips 4: Prioritize Tasks. And that brings us to the last point: prioritization – it’s definitely one of the best The Long Dark tips that I can give you. This is a game that relies heavily on choices. Both in real-life and in-game, you don’t always have the luxury of choosing between right and wrong. “Train Wreck” is about how James Arthur was in an emotionally dark place after The X Factor 2012, and not being able to come out of that place after all his mistakes, being on drugs, saying.
The Long Dark – Story Mode – Wintermute Walkthrough (Episode 2)
Episode 2: Luminance Fuge
Although Will manages to drive off the Old Bear, the trapper, Jeremiah, is badly injured. Will retrieves medication strong enough to help the old man and fixes the rifle he broke while shooting the bear. Jeremiah hasn’t seen Astrid, but offers to teach Will the skills necessary to survive long enough to find her.
Chapter 1: Risk of Infection
The Trapper needs medicine, and the stuff Will has on hand isn’t good enough. Fortunately, there’s an abandoned hydroelectric dam that probably has some prescription-level stuff.
As before, the map will show you exactly where to go. I personally like to follow the railroad to get to the Dam, but feel free to get there however you want. There will be some wolves, but you can scare them away by lighting a fire or flare. You can also hit them with your weapon.
Once you reach the Dam, you’ll find that it’s properly locked up, as any industrial area should be. To get in, you need the fence key. It can be found in the left trailer (when facing them), in one of the lockers.
Head on inside. A cutscene will play once you walk forward a bit, and then it’s time to find medication. Go ahead and loot the place while you’re here, but don’t bother going down the stairs; it’s blocked off in story mode.
If you didn’t work on Grey Mother’s trust in the previous episode, you can get a flare gun here. If you did get one, go ahead and open the case anyways. There are some extra flare shells, which are always useful.
Anyways, let’s continue with story objectives. To save some time, go ahead and search the body in the bathroom; he’ll be holding an office key.
When you leave the bathroom, there will be a stairwell on your left. Head upstairs and you’ll find the office area. And how lucky for Will, there’s a red locker here that just screams “medical supplies”. On the unlucky side, it’s locked. Head to the office in the back (with an actual door instead of cubicles) and unlock it with the key you found on the dead body. You’ll find the key to the medical locker in the desk drawer. Grab the medical box and head on back to Trapper’s when you’re ready.
Chapter 2: You Fix My Rifle?
Well we’ve learned the name of the mysterious Trapper. Unfortunately, it seems Will managed to break Jeremiah’s rifle while driving the bear off. Thankfully, Will can fix it, but it’s going to be a long trip.
When you’re ready, head on out. Despite what Jeremiah said, there’s no risk of running into the Old Bear (although regular bears are still roaming about). The map will show you that you need to go down the railroad again, this time in the opposite direction.
You’ll leave Mystery Lake via the rail tunnel and enter a brand new region: Forlorn Muskeg. Like Jeremiah said, just keep following the railroad. Forlorn Muskeg is full of thin ice, so you risk a dunking in icy water if you leave the railroad. If you get a “thin ice” warning, quickly back up the way you came to avoid falling through.
Once you reach the other side of Forlorn Muskeg, you’ll leave that region and enter the Broken Railroad region. At this point, you can check your map and see the Maintenance Yard labeled with an exclamation mark. Keep following the railroad until you run into a landslide, which makes things a little more difficult.
Head to the right and you’ll come across a frozen lake. you want to cross the fallen tree up onto the ledge. You can then follow the path to bypass the landslide.
Once you find the railroad again, just keep following it until you see some trucks. Take a right, and the Maintenance Yard will be straight ahead. Will the main door is locked, there is a convinently open side door you can get into.
Once you’re inside, take some time to explore the area. A cutscene will trigger when you enter the area below.
Here is our first Forest Talker! If you explored the Dam thoroughly, you might have seen some notes about the group. Turns out they were meeting at the nearby hunting lodge, and Will decides to investigate. But we need to fix Jeremiah’s rifle first! To do so, just interact with the machine pictured below. Pick up the bolt cutters too; you’ll need them.
Now, to the Hunting Lodge! Before you leave, make sure to rest and fill up your fatigue bar. Once you exit the building, a cutscene will play and Will passes out. When he comes to, things are…strange.
Meet the aurora wolves! As Will notes, they seem to be scared of electrial lights. And luckily for us, the aurora overhead seems to have fixed all the electrical objects. Now, you have two options:
1) Go back into the Maintenance Yard building and sleep until morning. The aurora only happens at night, so do this if you don’t want to deal with the aurora wolves.
2) Head to the Hunting Lodge right now. Convinently for us, there’s a line of streetlights that lead directly to the Lodge.
I would recommend option 2. It’s a good time to learn more about the aurora with very little risk. If Will dies on the way there, he just respawns at the Yard (versus the permadeath of Survival Mode). If you choose option 1, be careful. There are open wires in the building, and they will burn/kill Will if you touch them.
Chapter 3: Survival School
After fixing Jeremiah’s rifle, Will attempts to hightail it out of the region. After all, Astrid is still out there. But Jeremiah has plenty of information about surviving in the wilderness that Will is going to need if he’s to survive long enough to actually find her.
So talk to Jeremiah and select the “Survival School” option. You have the option to learn about the following skills:
-hunting
-fishing
-clothing
-harvestable plants
You can complete these missions in any order. For this guide, we’ll be going in the order listed above.
Hunting
To complete the hunting lesson, you have to gather 10.0 kg of deer meat for Jeremiah. He’ll mark the location of the Unnamed Pond on your map, so head out there with your rifle. Once you see a deer, crouch and slowly approach the animal. You can shoot the rifle while crouching, so there is no risk of spooking the animal too soon.
Now there are two outcomes to hitting an animal. If you’re lucky, it will be a ‘critical hit’ and the animal will drop dead immediately. However, it’s more likely that you will just injure the deer. You can tell if the animal is wounded by the blood spray and trail that it leaves as it runs away. Like Jeremiah said, follow the blood trail and eventually there should be a dead animal at the end.
After harvesting your deer meat, place it in the bin outside Jeremiah’s house. It can be cooked or uncooked (uncooked is heavier but smellier), however you can’t take it out once the quest is registered as complete. Talk to Jeremiah to complete the lesson.
The Long Dark Broken Railroad Hunting Lodge
Fishing
You need 5.0 kg of fish to complete this lesson. Head over to the Camp Office, which should be marked on your map, and loot the place. If you didn’t have any fishing tackle before, then you’ll have it now. You can also craft extra fishing tackle using a hook and line. You might also want to collect some wood.
Once you’re ready, head out onto Mystery Lake. You’ll see some green shacks, which are fishing huts. Head inside one, and there will be an ice covered hole that you can break open with a hatchet/prybar/knife. Light stove if it’s cold, and start fishing. You want to place your fish inside the bin like you did with the deer meat.
Clothing
This lesson is all about repairing clothing. Jeremiah will give you his bearskin coat (no you can’t wear it sadly) and tells you to repair it for him. You have to go to the Lookout, where he’s left a bear hide drying. Just in case, bring either a sewing kit or fishing tackle.
To get to the Lookout, head down the railroad tracks, past the Camp Office but before the Derailment. On your left, there will be a clearing, usually filled with rabbits and/or deer, that you should enter. If you look to your right, you should seem some trees with lichen. Head up the hill, past those trees and you will eventually see the fence that marks the path up to the Lookout.
The bearskin will be on the floor of the Lookout, so pick it up. To repair the coat, select the “action” option under the bearskin coat. There will be a repair option and a harvest option. Obviously, choose repair. Once you’re done, head back to the Trapper’s Cabin and talk to Jeremiah to give him the coat back.
Harvestable Plants
The final lesson is all about the plants that are capable of surviving the harsh Canadian winters. All you have to do is gather a certain number of each plant–look in the journal–and place them in Jeremiah’s bin.
The plants are as follows:
Old man’s beard lichen–Craft into a wound dressing that will treat infection risk
Rosehips–Craft and then cook into a tea that will act as a painkiller
Reshi mushroom–Craft and then cook into a tea that serves as an antibiotic
Cattails–the stalks can be eaten while the heads serve as tinder
Once you’ve placed the plants, talk to Jeremiah and trigger the cutscene.
Chapter 4: Jeremiah’s Folly
Welp, it’s time to kill the Old Bear! Apparently this is such a blood-thristy beast that it will hunt you down at the slightest whiff of blood. And Will has just cut himself on the new knife Jeremiah just gave him.
You want to equip your rifle before leaving the cabin. You might also want to undress because the bear will be waiting right outside for you. If you’re fast with the rifle, you can shoot the bear in the face and scare it off. If not, prepare to be mauled. Unlike with wolves, there is no fighting back against a bear.
Since you’ll have to hit the bear (lets call him Teddy) six times (because apperantly Canadian bears have god mod enabled) you’ll need a strategy. Now it’s important to know that Teddy has 3 “stages” of aggression:
1. Stalking (he’s hanging around one of his haunts)
2. Locking on Target (he slowly walks to you)
3. Mating Attacking (RUN)
To avoid getting mauled, you should wait untill Teddy locks on to you and then give him a headshot. This will usually cause him to flee the scene and, once he arrives at a different haunt go back to Stalking. You can also try to headshot him while in phase 1 or 3, but i find it more effective in phase 2.
You can also use the Flare gun. Unlike with the rilfe, a flare gun shot is guarenteed to scare Teddy away, even if you don’t hit him. The downside is that it can sometimes cause him to freak out and run off his preset game path. If this happens, you essentially have to chase him around until his pathfinding kicks back in.
If using the flare gun, wait until he’s right in front of you before shooting. This is because the game will sometimes not count the encounter properly.
Now if you check your map, you’ll see that Jeremiah has kindly marked some of Teddy’s favorite hangouts. However, he actually visits each of these areas in a specific order. You’ll know you’re in the right place because the game will pause and autosave before each encounter.
Encounter 1: Right in front of Trapper’s Cabin
Encounter 2: Climb the hill to the right of Trapper’s. You should be travelling parallel to the rock wall.
Encounter 3: Teddy will be wandering around near Frozen Creek. To get there, go to Unnamed Pond and follow the water uphill
Encounter 4: Near the railroad tracks in front of the Camp Office. You want to approach directly from Frozen Creek to ensure his pathfinding doesn’t glitch
Encounter 5: In the forest by the Logging Camp
Encounter 6: On the outskirts of Clearcut. Be sure to follow his blood trail because the thick fog makes it nearly impossible to nagivate (I personally recommend restarting immediately if you lose his trail the fog is that thick)
During the 6th encounter, Teddy is guarenteed to drop dead the moment you shoot him. Once he’s dead, click on him and Will automatically obtains his ear. The fog will also lift, allowing you to find your way back to Trapper’s.
Old Bear Hunting Problems
I don’t have anymore bullets!
If you’ve run out of bullets, don’t panic. As mentioned above, you can use the flare gun for the majority of this chapter. There are also caches at each of the encounter locations with bullets and some medical supplies. I have heard that these caches respawn their contents daily, although I have not personally tested it.
I completed Encounter X, but Teddy isn’t anywhere near Encounter Y spot
This problem can occur for two reasons:
1) You used the flare gun, and now Teddy is running around panicked and off his game path. To fix this, you essentially have to run around in the general area that you last saw Teddy. Once you’re close enough, he will reset and start running in the correct direction. If you’re lucky, he’ll run right past you, allowing you to start tracking him again. Don’t worry about being attacked while he’s in this state.
2) Teddy is stuck in between the two enounter locations. This problem occurs because Hinterland didn’t seem to realize how easy it is to lose a blood trail in this game and they underestimated the power of online guides. Essentially, Teddy is programmed to stop at certain points and check that the player is still following him. If the player has gotten lost, Teddy stays exactly where he is. Unfortunately, this means that players who take alternative routes to the next encounter will not “push” Teddy along. To solve this, run around in the general area directly between the two encounter locations. This will get the player close enough to trigger Teddy’s forward movement.
The Long Dark Broken Railroad Forge
Chapter 5: Renewed Hope
All right, Will has a game plan. Time to go break into the Dam. Like Jeremiah said, you won’t be able to get into the control room unless the aurora is in the sky and powering up all the electronics.
Unlike most of the story quests, the aurora is not scripted. That means you’re going to have to camp out near the dam until it shows up. I would recommend staying at the trailers right in front of the dam so you don’t have to dodge aurora wolves.
Because you could be waiting for several days until the game gives you an aurora, I would recommend you use the “hibernating” tactic. This takes advantage of the fact that you restore more condition during a standard 10 hour sleep than you lose from starving all day. In this case, you want to sleep through the day and look for signs of the aurora during the night. Before going to sleep, eat exactly 600 calories (Will’s calorie load is on the status screen) and drink so that the thirst meter is full.)
Lake Gunshots
This side quest is unlocked by talking to Jeremiah after fixing his rifle. Choose the “Forest Talkers” option, and he’ll mention that there were some gunshots at the Lake a few days ago. Head over to the exclamation point, and you’ll find a dead body. There’s also a blood trail that leads to one of the cabins.
Follow the trail and you’ll find a Forest Talker hiding in the cabin. They don’t trust you enough to let you inside, but they will tell you where secret Forest Talker documents are hidden. You’ve now been tasked with retrieving these plans and some hidden supplies. The Forest Talker will slide a key under the door, so remember to pick it up before leaving.
Lake Cabin Keys
There are several cabins surrounding Mystery Lake, three of which are locked.
Key #2: You can find this key on your way to Alan’s Cave. Search the body beside the hunter’s blind.
Key #3: This key is in the Camp Office on Mystery Lake. Check the filing cabinet on the first floor.
The Long Dark Broken Railroad Coal Location
Mystery Lake Supply Caches
Alan’s Cave Cache
You gain access to this cache by finding the note on one of the office desks in the dam.
Alan’s Cave can be found off the Eastern’s Access to Mystery Lake. Follow the river until you reach an open area filled with trees. From here, you want to leave the river (circled in red) and follow the path through the snow (black arrow)
Eventually you will reach a hunter’s blind. Turn left and the cave will be directly in front of you. The supply cache is near the back wall, between the trees.
Broken Railroad Cache
This cache is unlocked by finding the bloody note next to the body in Forlorn Muskeg. You’ll find the body leaning beside the train car, on the Broken Railroad end of the Muskeg.
In the Broken Railroad, head to the frozen lake. You want to go under the fallen tree that leads to the Yard. The cache will be buried in a snowbank, and it has bullets!