Escape the Darkwalker

Escape the Darkwalker is a Halloween-themed event for 2020, and is the successor of the 4 Days of Night Events of previous years. It is available from 6PM PST on October 29th until 6PM PST on November 12th.

In "Escape the Darkwalker" mode it is endless night, and you are stalked by an invisible, malevolent entity bent on your destruction. Keep your distance from the entity for as long as you can. Once it closes in on you, you die. The objectives are to survive for as many real-time minutes as you can while collecting diary pages at each region's green campfire.

The Darkwalker cannot be hurt, but can be slowed down using special spray paint glyphs, to temporarily dispel or attract the entity.

Any region of the world can be selected to start in, but one can only stay in a region for 30 real-time minutes before toxic fog will appear. When the fog appears, you’ll have 5 real-time minutes to escape the region before you die. Once the fog takes hold, the region is impassible. Strategy will come down to where one travels and planning movements ahead through the world.

Since the entity cannot be seen, one must rely on what can be heard to stay alive. Listen for the entity’s cries, footsteps, and how the spooky music builds as it approaches.

The Escape the Darkwalker patch also adds two new event-related challenges, as well as a feat "Darkwalker" and "Endless Night" option for custom survival mode.

Strategy

• The Darkwalker is indestructible and invisible, and constantly chases the player across all Regions, and even indoors locations, vehicles, and mines/caves. It produces audio ques and music based on it's current distance, and it's distance is shown exactly if closer than 200m. If the Darkwalker touches the player ("0m" distance) they instantly die.
• There is a grace period of the first 15 minutes (real-time) before The Darkwalker will spawn.
• Toxic Fog fills a region (major or minor) instantly and completely after the player has spent 30 real-world minutes inside it; instantly spoiling all food and drinks (even normally un-spoilable items such as cup of coffee) in their inventory, and causes constant condition loss while in the zone. Toxic Fog progress is shown for each region by viewing it on the map; a UI element will appear for the current region if Toxic Fog's progress is higher than 50%, and turn red if less than 2 minutes remain.
• Green Spray Paint can Lure the Darkwalker to a location (destroying the Lure upon reaching it), or ward an area which protects the player if near the ward for up to 2.5 hours (in-game). Additionally, once per playthrough the progress of one region's toxic fog can be reduced by 50% (most effective just before the Toxic Fog appears).
• Time of day is permanently fixed to night. This makes the world colder than normal, and the magnifying lens useless.
• The player starts out with a bedroll, random clothes, food, medicine and other supplies.
• All region maps are fully explored, but locations are unlabeled until discovered; the location of the green campfire in each major region shown.
• Spray Paint can spawns are replaced with cans of green glyph spray paint, which makes anti-Darkwalker glyphs instead of informational markings.
• EtD is set to voyageur difficulty mode, and feats cannot be used during it.
• All wildlife appear as usual, including a voyageur-mode grace period for hostile wildlife.
• Each of the 10 major zones contains one 'green campfire', which has unlimited fuel duration. Each green campfire always has one unique Diary page, a can of glyph spray paint, and high quality loot beside it. Cup of Coffee can be found close by the green campfires. Each green campfire has unlimited fuel duration, and comes with a free ward glyph placed upon it; however when this ward glyph is depleted (2.5 hours of player proximity) the green campfire is extinguished.
• The toxic fog timer considers mines/caves as part of their parent-region. For example: "Cinder Hills Coal Mine" is considered Coastal Highway, and the Bleak Inlet transition cave (connecting Forlorn Muskeg and Bleak Inlet) is considered 'Bleak Inlet'. Toxic Fog will fill these regions when they/their parent region's toxic fog timer hits '0'.
• The Challenge Badge "Escape the Darkwalker - Deadly Dreamer Badge (2020)" and the feat "Darkwalker" are earned simultaneously.
• Upon collecting all 10 diary notes, nothing happens.

Tips

• Plan a route. Choose a starting region you are familiar with, and decide upon a route to the local green campfire, and then to the next region.
• Keep moving. Toxic Fog is extremely deadly and only one "Dispel" (-50% Toxic Fog progress Glyph) can be made per playthrough.
• The toxic fog timer advances on real-world time, not in-game time. The Darkwalker moves on in-game time.
• Minimize weight. Less weight means faster movement. Drop unused clothes, firestarters/fuel, tools, crafting materials, and excess food/drinks. Do not gather unnecessary items, and drop useful but excessive items (e.g. more Food than you need).
• Sleep as much as possible. The higher the Fatigue meter, the faster one's movement. Sleeping for 1 hour at a time is usually safe if the Darkwalker is not nearby, and ward glyphs are only necessary if it is. Ward Glyphs last for 2.5 hours (in-game), and green campfires always come with a free ward glyph near them.
• Coffee, Go! Energy Drink, and emergency stim are extremely useful for getting out of dangerous situations, such as escaping a Region before the Toxic Fog arrives. Bandages are also useful for quickly treating sprains for sprinting or rope climbing.
• Flares and marine flares are effective at keeping Wolves and Timberwolves at bay. Revolvers and distress pistol are also effective, but heavier. Hunting Rifles are very heavy. The distress pistol is particularly useful for scaring bears and moose.
• Cans of glyph spray paint are always found full, and contain 4 charges.
• If you are trapped in a narrow location with the Darkwalker blocking the only escape (such as inside the "Carter Hydro Dam and Environs"), use glyph spray paint to make a 'ward', and sleep/pass time by it (2 hours max). The entity will often move out of the way, allowing one to proceed.

Rewards

Challenges

Escape the Darkwalker - Umbra Badge (2020)

Prerequisite: Survive for 60 minutes (real-time) in a single Escape the Darkwalker game.

Benefit: unlocks challenge badge.

Escape the Darkwalker - Deadly Dreamer Badge (2020)

Prerequisite: Collect 6 'Escape the Darkwalker Diary Pages' in a single game.

Benefit: unlocks challenge badge.

Feats

Darkwalker

Prerequisite: Collect 6 'Escape the Darkwalker Diary Pages' in a single game.

Benefit: "You are less Fatigued at night, but more Fatigued during the day."

Escape the Darkwalker - Diary Notes

Upon starting EtD, an extinguished campfire and supplies can be found close by, along with an introductory note to the game mode.

All diary notes are found lying on the ground beside that region's green campfire in each of the 10 major zones. A can of Glyph Spray Paint is always found beside it, and a cache of high level loot.

• Starting Region Campfire: ON THE NATURE OF DARKWALKERS

"Glyphs of Power and their Uses:

Lure -- Attract the Darkwalker

Ward -- A shield, if only for a little while.

Dispel -- Push back the choking fog. But only once."

• Desolation Point: Diary Page

"I climbed the tall mountain, but it wormed in the earth below me. There was no escape, not even high above...my delirium has become its feeding ground."

• Coastal Highway: Diary Page

"The gnashing, the grinding, a thing from the stars. But no beauty sets down from that endless void..."

• Pleasant Valley: Diary Page

"...a pale river, turned in on itself, a rush of blood to my head. Only the crooked path leads me away..."

• Timberwolf Mountain: Diary Page

"I discarded the farsighted mask, and only bone remains. The gate is closed. Will it come for me now?"

• Mystery Lake: Diary Page

"...can't see it, can't fight it...only running. My heart, a black echo in the forest, always hunting for a green fire..."

• Bleak Inlet: Diary Page

"...do I give in to its will? That may be the only way back. But not yet, not yet. As long as I paint, I live..."

• Forlorn Musket: Diary Page

"The poison in my blood draws it closer...and now that poison fills the air...the formless hunting a form."

• Broken Railway: Diary Page

"...the signs hold it at bay, or lead it away from me...but who is the Glyph-maker?"

• Mountain Town: Diary Page

"...dead and dreaming, my only friend, the faceless moon who won't look away. There is no sunrise on Ganymede..."

• Hushed River Valley: Diary Page

"I crept upon the nameless city, stars in my eyes. But those eyes no longer see the world...just a choking mist. Over the horizon, that is where I escape."

Trivia

• The Darkwalker is invisible in gameplay except for black UI elements which appear on the edges of the screen when it is nearby, but a possible image of it is shown in official Hinterlands Studio "ESCAPE THE DARKWALKER" media. Here it is depicted as a vaguely wolf-like entity of black smoke, green light, and three wolf skulls.
• The Escape the Darkwalker event bears many similarities to the works of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, particularly invisible malevolent otherworldly entities, the creation of magical glyphs to ward off such entities, and the esoteric writing found in scattered diary pages. "The Nameless City" in one such note is a direct reference to his work of the same name.
• The behavior of The Darkwalker is similar to that of the Dungeons and Dragons monster the "Invisible Stalker", as well as the antagonists in the films "The Invisible Man" and "It Follows".
• Users on the official Hinterlands Forums as well as the official reveal streams frequently joked that The Darkwalker is the ghost of "Fluffy", an indoors wolf from previous versions of The Long Dark, who developed a cult following for murdering unsuspecting new players. Fluffy was 'killed' during the "Redux" update of Wintermute Episode 2, where her home of the Carter Hydro Dam and Environs was redesigned, but Fluff's old AI package could not pathfind the new map layout. This resulted in her inclusion as an easter egg in Episode 2 Redux as a corpse.

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