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Weather is the state of the atmosphere outdoors on Great Bear Island, in The Long Dark.

Overview[]

Weather conditions can change from clear, sunny (or starry) skies, foggy, windy, and blizzards. Traveling in different weather conditions affects movement speed, overall vision, Warmth, wetness of Clothing, and decay rate of worn clothes. The time of day paired with certain weather conditions can make for either a much colder or warmer day as well.

Changes in weather evolve over time, rather than spontaneously: such as fog gradually building, winds dying down, or clouds clearing. This change can occur up or down in severity. Weather may last between 2-12 hours.

  • Region plays a prominent role in weather, with some types of weather being favored to occur more often in particular regions.
  • Wintermute tends to have calm weather per episode, with some episodes never featuring certain kinds of extreme weather at all (Ex. Aurora and Blizzards never occur naturally in Episode 1). This can change as progress is made in the story.
  • Survival Mode has several factors in weather frequency and severity.
    • Pilgrim features mostly clear skies and cloudy weather, with only rare blizzards and fog.
    • Voyageur has balanced weather types.
    • Stalker and Interloper have regular poor weather patterns, rapid changes in weather and wind direction, and notably frequent blizzards.

Weather affects the temperature inside of Vehicles and indoors. High Winds and Blizzards can be heard even when indoors, and Aurora are visible through windows and will power tools, objects (radios, lights, computers) and deadly live wires indoors. Glimmer Fog can also affect electrical devices in the environment indoors or outdoors, and can even cause Afflictions.

Types of weather[]

Weather Effects Wind Favored Region Mapping Magnifying Lens
Clear Common and warm for relative time of day. May occur day or night.
  • Warm.
  • High visibility.
  • Crows will circle above frozen corpses and animal carcasses.
Calm-High n/a Yes Yes
Aurora May only occur at night during clear weather.

For more information, see Auroras.

Calm-moderate n/a Yes No
Cloudy Two variants: partly cloudy and overcast.
  • Slightly darker dimmer with abundant clouds; Overcast may evolve from Partly Cloudy.
  • Slightly cold.
Calm-High n/a No No
Fog Three variants: light, moderate and heavy. Fog may evolve from light to moderate to heavy over time.
  • Slightly cold.
  • Can cause disorientation and make avoiding predators difficult.
  • Light: long distance visibility loss.
  • Moderate: medium visibility loss.
  • Heavy: blinding visibility loss.
Calm-Light Forlorn Muskeg No No
Glimmer Fog A heavy variant of fog, but charged with electrostatic particles. Only occurs during the day during clear weather. Calm-Light Forsaken Airfield,

Zone of Contamination, Mountain Pass

No No
Toxic Fog A dangerous variant of fog only found in the Escape the Darkwalker Challenge. Weather begins clear and slowly transitions from light fog to heavy fog.
  • Toxic Fog fills an entire region after ~30 real-world minutes within in; larger/smaller regions have their Toxic Fog timers adjusted accordingly.
  • Current Toxic Fog progress is shown for each region by viewing it on the map. A UI element will appear if less than half of the region's timer remains, turning red below 2 minutes remaining.
  • Toxic Fog in a region also RUINs all food in the backpack, indoors, outdoors, and animal carcasses. Instantly kills all wildlife when timer close to up.
Calm-Light Every Region No No
Snowfall Falling snow/flurries which may evolve into a Blizzard.
  • Moderately cold.
  • Light-moderate snowfall (reduces duration of tracks, wets/freezes clothing)
Calm-moderate n/a Yes No
Blizzard Enduring and dangerous storm.
  • Extremely cold.
  • Damages worn clothing.
  • Heavy snowfall (reduces duration of tracks, wets/freezes clothing)
  • Medium visibility loss.
  • Constant high winds: sounds like a 'train' even when indoors.
  • Spawns Sticks, Cedar/Fir Limbs, Birch Bark.
  • Beachcombing items spawn on the coastal regions. Despawns previous containers or special items washed up on the last blizzard.
  • If you are outside after a blizzard begins, wildlife may not spawn, making some meats and guts trips "safer"
High Pleasant Valley and Blackrock No No

Wind[]

Winds affects Windchill (which makes the "Feels Like" temperature colder), and can extinguish exposed fires, prevent lighting fires, and slow movement. Wind changes direction and speed over time (based on Survival Mode). There are 5 types of Wind: Calm, Light, Moderate, High, Blizzard.

  • Calm: no wind, Windchill, or penalties.
  • Light-Moderate: Windchill is present.
  • High: slows movement speed, lighting exposed fires is impossible (unsheltered Campfires, torches or matches), extinguishes exposed fires; Storm Lanterns, Flares, Marine Flares, Fire Barrels, Forges, Wood Stoves and Cast Iron Stoves of are immune to the effects of High Winds. Spawns Sticks, Cedar/Fir Limbs and Birch Bark.
  • Blizzard: same as High, however the player does not suffer from a movement speed penalty. Clothing is prone to being torn, and getting wet/frozen.

Wind Shield[]

The Wind Shield is an icon which appears at the top of the UI if a solid object is between the player and oncoming High Winds. This icon can be used to stay warmer, move faster, or to find campfire locations currently sheltered from the wind. High Winds slows movement in 45° cone around the wind's current direction across the entire region, and a 2m radius around solid objects; this means that to be sheltered from the wind the player (or a campfire) must be on the correct side (opposite) of a solid object relative to oncoming wind and be close to it.

Movement Speed Penalty[]

Moving (walking or sprinting) into the direction of oncoming High Winds reduces movement speed by 25% (additive with other penalties: sprained ankles and Encumbrance). High Winds slows movement in 45° cone around the wind's current direction across the entire region, there is no movement penalty when walking in directions outside this cone or when shielded from the wind.

This penalty is reduced by 25% with the active feat Blizzard Walker (aka wind penalty reduced from 25% to 18.5% penalty, or a +6.25% movement increase when walking into oncoming wind).

Wind blown fires[]

Campfires are not extinguished by High Winds, but instead their fuel duration capped at a maximum of 10 minutes (displays as "9", due to fuel consumption and rounding). Refueling a campfire experiencing high winds refreshes its duration, but any fuel beyond 10 minutes of burn time is wasted: this makes all fuel sources except Stick extremely wasteful. In survival situations where a wind-blown campfire is vital, Sticks are the ideal fuel source and should be used one at a time when the fire is at "1 minute" remaining or embers (embers lasts for 5 minutes in-game).

Gallery[]

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