Hopeless Rescue

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File:Hopeless rescue titlecard.png

Hopeless Rescue is one of five challenges in The Long Dark.

Overview

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Are you the last person alive? You have to know. If only you could get a signal out to someone... Menu description

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Objective & Conditions

The Hopeless Rescue challenge requires the player to recover a distress pistol from the summit of Timberwolf Mountain. The player must then hike down to Desolation Point where they have to fire the distress flare from the top of Lonely Lighthouse.

The condition in this challenge is that you need to accomplish it in less than 1 week ingame.

Challenge Information

You start in Trapper's Cabin in Mystery Lake. Fully rested with 2000 calories in your character. Starting with a very basic kit (some medical supplies, poor quality clothes and no water/food). You need to prepare yourself for this long travel. After some loot you're ready to make your way to the summit in Timberwolf Mountain.

After reach the summit in Timberwolf Mountain and find the distress pistol. You need to make your way directly to Desolation Point, and reach the Lonely Lighthouse to fire the distress pistol and finish this challenge.

Strategy

Overview

Hopeless Rescue is a race against time. The difficulty is set to Nomad for the purposes of loot generation and enemy spawning, with the exception that wolves and bears will spawn immediately with no grace period. To complete the challenge, you should know Mystery Lake, Pleasant Valley, and hopefully Timberwolf Mountain more-or-less like the back of your hand. You should also know how to get to Desolation Point via the Pleasant Valley mine. Unlike most of The Long Dark, you might find the game harder as time goes on, as you force yourself to make choices between sleeping (and keeping that ever-valuable carry weight in the high 20's) and pushing on with minimal supplies. Remember: From 100% condition, it takes several days to die from lack of food, and many days to perish from lack of sleep. Hitting up all of the lootable areas should give you more than enough water and calories to satisfy those requirements, so your real foe here is the cold. You're only given 7 days, which means you have no time to make clothing, you'll just have to make do with what you find on the way. Repairing clothing may prove essential, while traditional survival elements like fishing, hunting, and gathering of wood fall by the wayside, making this challenge quite unique among The Long Dark's experience.

Move fast. Time is your greatest enemy. Time and blizzards. You have a ton of ground to cover (5 regions) and the luck may not be in your favor.

Trapper's Cabin to Timberwolf Mountain

Loot the Trapper's Cabin, then head for the Camp Office. Once you're done there, skip the Lake Cabins and head directly to Carter Hydro Dam, and all the way through to Pleasant Valley and Signal Hill, eating and drinking as necessary. Hopefully you'll have some clothing, hatchet, and a knife by then, but if you don't, it's not game over. No animals need to be killed/cooked to survive, and animals should be avoided without exception. The one upshot to having such a stringent deadline and being forced to keep on the move is that you'll often run across lootable areas. Take the food and get moving! Try to make sure you're within a reasonable distance of shelter as you move, particularly if you choose to move at night (which is sometimes best, to make the most out of your limited time). Blizzards and even fog can quickly stymie your progress which can be nerve-wracking when the clock is ticking.

Move from Signal Hill to the Outbuildings or Farmhouse. There should be plenty of loot there, but be vigilant: Things like scrap metal, research-books, and other objects that usually have very high value may be completely worthless here simply because you don't have time to make use of them. Moving at high speed will prove invaluable, but you must balance that against the risk of a blizzard striking when you have no firewood. In general it's better to take some risks you wouldn't normally take in sandbox play.

Take only the clothing and supplies you need, and try not to go over 40kg as a general rule, though this is most important on Timberwolf Mountain where carrying a ton of extra weight can get you killed on the climbing ropes. Another unique reality of this situation is that you can afford to pop every painkiller you find to ease those sprained wrists and ankles. With excellent luck you might be able to make it from the Mountaineer's Hut all the way to the Summit in a day and a half, but only if you don't encounter a blizzard, and you start off with about 30kg of supplies. Climbing the several (required) climbing ropes will quickly dip your energy. Coffee (for the day) and Herbal Tea (for the night) are your best friends to keep on your feet. Remember to check inside microwaves (Carter Dam, Signal Hill, etc) for coffee. Rarely, some houses will have large caches of coffee powder. If you pick up a Hacksaw, it may prove useful here as well, but don't waste too much time checking containers. Your goal is only to survive for 7 days, not 50: Even if you stumble into the Lighthouse exhausted, dehydrated, freezing, and at 15% condition, you still win! Don't feel the need to immediately make a fire when you hit freezing, you can push yourself harder and make use of your condition to get farther on less. You won't be fighting wolves, just using hand-flares to scare them off, so your condition can drop hazardously low and still be safe.

Timberwolf Mountain to the Lonely Lighthouse

You won't have time to make it back down the mountain the normal way unless luck has favored you very greatly. Simply climb down the mountain face, hugging the wall as closely as you can on the way down. Yes, you will fall. You will break your ankles and your wrists. You might even lose some condition if you fall fifteen feet. But when you hit the bottom, pop those painkillers and hightail it back to the Mountaineer's Hut. From there it's a straight shot. Leave Timberwolf Mountain, go down the rope, and head to the left, hugging the canyon wall as you go. Past the road and the car you'll find a smooth, snowy hill headed upwards, and after a minute or so's walk, you'll find the entrance to the mine. Make your way through and into Coastal Highway. Head left down the highway, and follow it as far as you can. At the rockfall, head left again, and through another mine. This one will require you to crouch under obstacles. Leave the mine, and then stick to the road until you see the lighthouse. Be careful of wolves, and BE SAFE unless you're running out of time. The last push should be easy if you made it this far. Head up the winding staircase and fire that flare gun.

Note: The flare gun has to be loaded with R before you fire it for the first time. It won't come with "one in the chamber" which could prove fatal if you get cocky around a bear or a pack of wolves. Nothing worse than hearing the empty 'click' as a bear is staring you down. Except maybe falling through thin ice.

Video Walkthrough

File:The Long Dark Hopeless Rescue - Part 1

Start at the Cabin and make your way to the Carter Dam.

File:The Long Dark Hopeless Rescue - Part 2

From the Cave system to the base of Timberwolf Mountain

File:The Long Dark Hopeless Rescue - Part 3

Treking Timberwolf Mountain with a giant climb in the future.

File:The Long Dark Hopeless Rescue - Part 4

Grabbing the FLARE GUN and making your way back down the mountain.

File:The Long Dark Hopeless Rescue - Part 5 To the Coal mine!-0

Rested at the cabin and back through the Plesant Valley to the Coal Mine.

File:The Long Dark Hopeless Rescue - Part 6 Finale

From the Coastal Highway to the Lighthouse.  Time to shoot the flare!

Game History

Hopeless Rescue and The Hunted, Part One were introduced on 21 April 2016 in version 0.321, also known as the Tireless Menace update.