Interloper

“

You are not part of Mother Nature's plan, and you will bear the full force of her wrath. The true test of Human VS Nature.

”

Interloper is the 4th Survival Mode Experience in The Long Dark. It is the standard "expert" difficulty setting, being a major departure from the previous 3 Experiences by introducing multiple handicaps to make the game even harder than normal.

Overview

Interloper doesn't just raise the difficulty of Stalker to the next level, but also reduces that overall resource and tool availability in the game world, with several tools and clothing outright never spawning. As such, players are faced with an extremely cold world with limited loot, abundant hostile wildlife, and a smaller loot pool present compared to the other Experiences. Most high quality tools and clothing will never appear in game, making it a necessity to craft and forge animal hide clothing and improvised tools for survival. Foraging and Hunting become the main methods to acquire food, as most homes have very little, if any food in them.

Interloper's learning curve is a sharp one, forcing players to relearn how to survive by using more advanced game mechanics, such as Daisy Chaining, Hibernation, Mountain Goating, and Beachcombing.

A guide for players new to Interloper can be found here.

Interloper Settings

Great Bear Island has few items to be found (only ~20% of containers will contain any items).
- Critical items have limitations on their spawn frequency (more details can be found in this Google Docs spreadsheet)
  - Cardboard Matches never spawn. Wood Matches and other fire starters are rare.
  - Most tools never spawn: Hunting Rifles, Revolvers, Hatchets and Hunting Knives (and their Improvised Versions), Bows, Simple Arrows, Flashlights, and Moose-Hide Satchel.
  - The Spelunker's Lantern is the only unique item variant which will spawn.
  - Improvised Hatchets and Improvised Knives must be Forged to craft Bows or Arrows. Arrowheads and Broken Arrows may be found rarely, but not Simple Arrows or Bows.
  - High-Tier Clothing does not spawn. Many High-Tier Foodstuffs do not spawn (see full list in next section).
- Half of Cargo Containers do not spawn on Timberwolf Mountain, and the remaining ones have downgraded loot (e.g. Tomato Soup instead of Condensed Milk).
- Certain Mementos containing high level loot do not spawn.
- Most of the Coastal Houses and Cabins in Coastal Highway are destroyed, providing no shelter and minimal loot.
  - Abandoned Lookout: The 4 Cabins below the Lookout will only have 2 intact Cabins (formerly 3).
  - Bear Creek Campground: The Cabin on the hill just south of the Campground (and north west of Fishing Camp) will be destroyed.
  - Coastal Townsite: Of the 11 houses in the town, only 2 will be standing (the one on the hill outside of town will also be destroyed). The Quonset Garage will always be intact.
  - Fishing Camp: The Cabin with the Work Bench and Buffer Memory laptop is usually destroyed (the same Buffer Memory laptop will appear inside the Rabbit Grove Cabin instead).
  - Log Sort: The house near the shed and trailer will always be ruined (the trailer can still be used).
  - Waterfront Cottages: The 3 houses here always spawn as ruined houses.
Needs erode very quickly.
Starting equipment is a Recycled Can and an incomplete set of low-quality clothing (head and hands will always be exposed).
Game will start outdoors. Chance to spawn at night.
- Player will randomly start in a small list of predetermined starting regions (cannot spawn in "Beginner" regions).
- Higher chance to start in Advanced (most dangerous) regions.
- The list of possible spawns are: Ash Canyon, Blackrock, Desolation Point, Forlorn Muskeg, Hushed River Valley, Pleasant Valley, and Timberwolf Mountain.
Rabbits, Ptarmigan, and Deer are rarer. Fish have up to half the catch-rate (twice as long of wait time at Day 50 survived), and Wolf/Timberwolf/Poisoned Wolf are extremely deadly (but spawn less frequently than Stalker mode, on par with Voyageur rates/detection).
Wildlife becomes rarer and the environment colder over time (at Day 10, 25, 50, 100 and 200).
Meat from predators carries Intestinal Parasites risk, with a more difficult treatment than Stalker mode.
Fires do not automatically prevent Freezing ("Feels Like" Temperature must be raised above 0° C).
No automatic waking from sleep when Freezing.
Hypothermia and Frostbite progresses faster and heal slower.
Clothing and Food Decay condition quickly.
Rest is a Resource: the survivor cannot sleep above high Fatigue (95% or greater) levels, except to treat Afflictions.
Prepper Caches will always spawn as the "Abandoned" type.
Loot acquired from the 3 Tales will be virtually nonexistent, but they can be completed.
Supply Cache loot is of much poorer quality.
The Trader's loot is of lower quality.
Scurvy is present (at the same rate as Stalker mode).
Cabin Fever is present and progresses faster than Stalker mode.
The option to enable the Trader, Cougar, and Scurvy on or off is present.
Allows 2 active Feats.

List of Banned Items

The following is a list of items that do not appear whatsoever when playing on Interloper:

Tools

Clothing

Head

Outer Torso

Inner Torso

Gloves

OuterLegs

InnerLegs

Wool Longjohns

Socks

Climbing Socks

Shoes

Accessories

Security Chief's Rifle Holster

Food

Any other high quality items not listed here have a VERY low chance of appearing. Some high quality items still spawn, such as an Emergency Kit spawning a Distress Pistol, but no Flare Shells will be in the case (or vice versa).

Starting spawn location

The player cannot select which region they will spawn in. Instead, the game will spawn them in one of the following Lower Great Bear regions at random:

Game Settings

DIFFICULTY	INTERLOPER
GAME START
Baseline resource availability	Low
Starting time of day	Random
Starting weather	Random
Indoor spawns permitted	No
Survivor monologue	Yes
ENVIRONMENT
Length of day multiplier	1x
Weather variability	Very High
Blizzard frequency	Very High
World gets colder over time	High
Wind variability	Medium
Aurora frequency	Medium
Fire overcomes ambient air temp	No
Endless night (v1.83)	No
HEALTH
Calorie burn rate	Very High
Thirst rate	High
Fatigue rate	Medium
Freezing rate	Very High
At-rest condition recovery rate	Medium
Condition recovery rate	Medium
Hypothermia recovery time	Very High
Frostbite rate	Very High
Cabin fever	Yes
Intestinal parasites	Yes
Dysentery	Yes
Sprains	Yes
Food poisoning	Yes
Broken ribs	Yes
Rest as a resource	Yes
Scurvy - Vitamin-C drain rate	High
Fires prevent freezing	No
Wake up player when freezing near a fire	No
Birch bark tea crafting (v.1.64)	Yes
GEAR
Item decay rate	Very High
Loose item availability	Low
Empty container chance modifier	High
Stick, branch, and stone respawn frequency	Low
Starting gear allocation	Low
Rifle availability	No
Revolver availability (v.1.64)	No
Harvestable plant availability	High
Reduce container item density	High
WILDLIFE SPAWNS
Cougar spawn chance	High
Wolf spawn chance	High
Timberwolf spawn chance	High
Deer spawn chance	Low
Rabbit spawn chance	Low
Bear spawn chance	High
Moose spawn chance	High
Time to wildlife respawn	Medium
Reduce wildlife population over time	High
Wolf spawn distance	Close
Predator grace period	No
WILDLIFE BEHAVIOUR
Wildlife smell range	High
Scent increase from Meat/Blood	Medium
Passive wildlife	No
Wildlife attacks during rest	Yes
Wolf fear	Medium
Timberwolf morale	Low
Wildlife detection range	Medium
WILDLIFE STRUGGLE
Struggle bonus	None
Struggle condition damage modifier	High
Struggle clothing damage modifier	High
Struggle damage severity	Very High