| “ | Use our custom toolbox to craft a unique experience between Survival and Exploration - an experience all your own. | ” |
Custom is the 6th Survival Mode Experience in The Long Dark.
Overview[]
Custom is different from the other 5 difficulty Experiences in that it allows the player to instead create their own difficulty. This mode presents over 50 different variables which can be adjusted to the player's liking. Creating a Custom Experience Mode generates a code, which may be shared with other users for the same experience, including across game platforms.
NOTE: Feats progression will not occur when playing on a Custom Experience save file, but Achievements can still be earned.
Custom Settings[]
The following settings can be customized when starting a Custom save file:
- Rate of hunger, thirst, cold and rest drain.
- Wind variability and Weather type probabilities.
- Frequency of Auroras.
- Animal behaviour, spawns, detection radius, grace period, and an option for passive wildlife.
- Quality and quantity of items (loose or inside containers).
- Level of damage and injuries from Struggles.
- Which Afflictions can affect the player.
- The option to enable Cougar and Scurvy in the game settings.
- Allows 5 active Feats.
- Endless Night (The sun will never rise): Completing the Challenge: Escape The Darkwalker is required to unlock this.
- ...as well as many others.
Length of day multiplier[]
Concretely, this setting affects the timespace aspect of the Experience, slowing various aspects of the game world down. In x4 you can walk 4x more before a day ends unlike in 1x. This essentially makes the world feel "slower".
- Player/Wildlife movement speed is still the same, but all other aspects regarding the way time affects the world and the player is slowed.
- Management activities are directly linked to the multiplier. Time passage related to activities like minutes passing during travel don't initially feel slower, but it becomes evident eventually that time passes slower.
- Needs drain/Afflictions accumulation/item Decay is significantly slowed the higher the length of day multiplier is. Example: you can travel 4x farther in 3 miles with poor clothing on before Frostbite Risk develops into Frostbite, as the Frostbite Risk meter fills slower. This can essentially make the game far easier than normal, as the player doesn't have to worry about carrying as much food/worrying about Affliction Risks. The downside to this setting is that it can result in the game feeling too unchallenging/Afflictions taking MUCH longer to heal.
- Time speeds up normally when your character starts an "action" (ex: passing time for sleep, crafting, harvesting, researching a book for 1 hour will still count as 1 hour as if it was 1x length).
Common Custom Options[]
The player community has given unofficial names to two of the most commonly used custom experiences. One of them has been dubbed Gunloper, which is an Interloper base game where rifle/revolver spawns are enabled. The other is Deadman, which is an Interloper base game where passive healing is disabled, and Birch Bark Tea cannot be crafted (similar to As the Dead Sleep).
- Deadman Challenge (DMC): custom Interloper where passive regeneration and Birch Bark Tea are disabled (similar to As the Dead Sleep)
- Birchman: Same as Deadman, but with Birch Bark Tea allowed
- Deadworld: a custom world where all live animal spawns are disabled
- Gunloper: custom Interloper where firearms are enabled
- NOGOA: No One Gets Out Alive challenge - a specific custom file that has all the settings on their most harsh and spawns you at midnight in a blizzard (Code: 8sHM-/z8P-Dz+3-QZym-XQIC)
- Outerloper: Interloper, but where the player can't enter any building (self-enforced rule)
More custom challenges can be found Here.
Custom Difficulty Customization Options[]
The following is a list of settings the player can manipulate as they create their own Survival Experience. Selecting a difficulty will generate a preset variable list, and the player can further modify the list to their liking.
Note, Misery is currently not available as a present difficulty option.
| DIFFICULTY | PILGRIM | VOYAGEUR | STALKER | INTERLOPER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GAME START | ||||
| Baseline resource availability | Very High | High | Medium | Low |
| Starting time of day | Noon | Random | Random | Random |
| Starting weather | Clear | Random | Random | Random |
| Indoor spawns permitted | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Survivor monologue | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ENVIRONMENT | ||||
| Length of day multiplier | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x |
| Weather variability | Low | Medium | High | Very High |
| Blizzard frequency | Low | Medium | High | Very High |
| World gets colder over time | None | Low | Medium | High |
| Wind variability | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Aurora frequency | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Fire overcomes ambient air temp | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Endless night (v1.83) | No | No | No | No |
| HEALTH | ||||
| Calorie burn rate | Low | Medium | High | Very High |
| Thirst rate | Low | Medium | Medium | High |
| Fatigue rate | High | High | High | Medium |
| Freezing rate | Low | Medium | High | Very High |
| At-rest condition recovery rate | High | High | High | Medium |
| Condition recovery rate | High | High | High | Medium |
| Hypothermia recovery time | Low | Medium | High | Very High |
| Frostbite rate | Low | Medium | High | Very High |
| Cabin fever | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intestinal parasites | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dysentery | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sprains | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Food poisoning | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Broken ribs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rest as a resource | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Scurvy - Vitamin-C drain rate | No | Medium | High | High |
| Fires prevent freezing | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Wake up player when freezing near a fire | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Birch bark tea crafting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GEAR | ||||
| Item decay rate | Low | Medium | High | Very High |
| Loose item availability | Very High | High | Medium | Low |
| Empty container chance modifier | None | None | Medium | High |
| Stick, branch, and stone respawn frequency | Very High | High | Medium | Low |
| Starting gear allocation | Very High | High | Medium | Low |
| Rifle availability | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Revolver availability | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Harvestable plant availability | High | High | High | High |
| Reduce container item density | None | None | Low | High |
| WILDLIFE SPAWNS | ||||
| Cougar spawn chance | None | Low | Medium | High |
| Wolf spawn chance | Low | Medium | Very High | High |
| Timberwolf spawn chance | Low | Medium | Very High | High |
| Deer spawn chance | Very High | High | Medium | Low |
| Rabbit spawn chance | Very High | High | Medium | Low |
| Bear spawn chance | Low | Medium | Very High | High |
| Moose spawn chance | Low | Medium | Very High | High |
| Time to wildlife respawn | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Reduce wildlife population over time | None | Low | Medium | High |
| Wolf spawn distance | Medium | Close | Close | Close |
| Predator grace period | No | Yes | No | No |
| WILDLIFE BEHAVIOUR | ||||
| Wildlife smell range | Low | Medium | High | High |
| Scent increase from Meat/Blood | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Passive wildlife | Yes | No | No | No |
| Wildlife attacks during rest | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Wolf fear | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Timberwolf morale | High | Medium | Low | Low |
| Wildlife detection range | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| WILDLIFE STRUGGLE | ||||
| Struggle bonus | High | Medium | Low | None |
| Struggle condition damage modifier | None | None | None | High |
| Struggle clothing damage modifier | Low | Low | Low | High |
| Struggle damage severity | Low | Medium | High | Very High |
| Experience |
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| Gameplay |
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| Advanced Gameplay | |||||||||
| Tales | |||||||||
