Tales from the Far Territory

“

Experience three unique regions, each with their own narrative objectives, and find your way through deep, twisting valleys littered with landmarks, landmarks that offer clues to unlocking the secrets of the land. Explore new items and gameplay mechanics that will challenge you to adapt to survive, and encounter new wildlife that inhabits these harsh and unforgiving territories.

”

Tales from the Far Territory is downloadable content for The Long Dark that is an expansion to the Survival Mode portion of the game. It was officially released on December 5, 2022.

Overview

“

Deep along the spine of Great Bear tracks a steep mountain range that bisects the island. This is the Far Range, an imposing wall of rock that stands vigilant over Great Bear's priceless resource riches. Over the decades, many have tried, few have succeeded to crack open the wealth within these rocks. And mysteries abound. Dark stories told around campfires, about abandoned mines and remote airfields that hold many secrets. Now, with the aurora blazing across the sky, is the Far Territory ready to surrender its stories? Will you survive long enough to wrest any truths from the rocky grasp of this old, dark territory? Developer Diary, October 2022

”

Tales from the Far Territory is a paid expansion pass, a 12-month campaign that will add new content and features to The Long Dark's Survival Mode. The campaign will consist of six parts, each released about every 10 weeks, leading up to the launch of Episode 5. Each part includes both paid updates for those who own the expansion pass and free updates for anyone who owns The Long Dark or Survival Edition. The updates include objective-based narratives called Tales and new regions, wildlife, plants as well as new and improved mechanics and system overhauls. The roadmap for Tales from the Far Territory can be found on The Long Dark's official website.

Note that the actual development cycle of the expansion has been delayed to more than 12 months, with Hinterland missing their 10 week release schedule and instead releasing parts 1-4 in the original 12 month time span. Parts 5 and 6 will be released in 2024 before the release of Episode 5.

Any content locked behind the paid portion of the addon will be labeled as such below, and this information can also be found in Category:DLC Content. Purchasing the DLC also enables players to install The Long Development, an unofficial, fan-made mod which adds several regions to the eastern part of Great Bear Island.

Part One: Forsaken Airfield

Released (December 5, 2022)

Paid Update

• 3 new Regions
  • Forsaken Airfield
  • Far Range Branch Line
  • Transfer Pass
• 5 new weapon and tool variants
  • Vaughn's Rifle
  • Barb's Rifle
  • Curator's Rifle
  • Woodwright's Bow
  • Spelunker's Lantern
• Glimmer Fog: a weather phenomena that serves as a daytime version of the Aurora
• 1 new Affliction: Insomnia
• New soundtracks

Free Update

• Global resource overhaul for all Gear, Harvestables and Clothing
  • Loot and resource refresh
  • Starting spawn point refresh
• Memento Notes: scraps of paper found under visors of vehicles and elsewhere, leading to hidden supply caches
• Improvised Crampons
• Doe

Miscellaneous Update

• Survival and WINTERMUTE split into separate gaming editions
• Save system overhaul, resulting in a save wipe for survival mode
• Temporarily removed prepper cache bunkers

Part Two: Signal Void

Released (March 30th, 2023)

Paid Update

• The First Tale: Signal Void and 1 unique Badge
• Handheld Shortwave Radio and Supply Cache Gameplay
• Transmitters (Replacement Fuse, Wire Bundle)
• New Bunkers, Prepper Cache Overhaul
• 2 new food items: Canned Corn and Canned Ham
• 5 new Clothing items
  • Hockey Jersey
  • Flight Jacket
  • Aviator Cap
  • Technical Balaclava
  • Security Chief's Rifle Holster

Free Update

• Fire-Hardened Arrows
• Enhanced Prepper Cache Bunkers
• Enhanced Beachcombing
• Plane Crashes
• Acorns and Oak Trees, as well as introducing Acorn Grounds to make Acorn Coffee

Miscellaneous Update

• Returned Prepper Caches from previous update's removal
• Weak Ice now displays cracks when walked over as part of the updated Beachcombing mechanic

Part Three: Frontier Comforts

Released (June 21, 2023)

Paid Update

• Ptarmigan, a new passive wildlife bird which gathers in flocks near high ground. Acts as a source of food and its feathers can be used to make tools
• 1 new Clothing item: Improvised Insulation
• 7 new weapon and tool variants
  • Hunter's Revolver
  • Forester's Revolver
  • Warden's Revolver
  • Sport Bow
  • Miner's Flashlight
  • Improvised Down Bedroll
  • Gold Nugget

• Frontier Cooking Recipes: A new cooking mechanic that combines ingredients and foods to create homecooked meals with helpful Affliction boosting/removing effects
  • Skillet pan for cooking new recipes
  • 24 cooking recipes (15 starting recipes and an additional 9 found on Recipe Cards while exploring)
  • 7 new ingredients used for cooking recipes:
    • Broth
    • Carrot
    • Cooking Oil
    • Old Mill Flour
    • Potato
    • Running River Oats
    • Salt

• 4 new Afflictions related to consuming Frontier Cooking Recipes:
  • Burdened
  • Unburdened
  • Nourished
  • Gorged

Free Update

• Burdock plants. Can be dug up for their Roots, then can be prepared and eaten raw or be made into Burdock Tea
• Enhanced Ice Fishing mechanic overhaul
  • Free-Form Ice Fishing Holes: Allows you to create your own fishing locations in regions that have sufficiently deep bodies of water via the Survival Menu
  • Fishing Tip-Up - a tool for trapping fish passively like a Snare
  • Fishing Bait
  • 4 Fishing Lures:
    • Fishing Lure (Acorns)
    • Fishing Lure (Wire Bundle)
    • Fishing Lure (Revolver Shell Casing)
    • Simple Fishing Lure
  • 4 new species of Rare Fish:
    • Burbot
    • Goldeye
    • Red Irish Lord
    • Rockfish

Part Four: Buried Echoes

Released (December 5th, 2023)

Paid Update

• 1 new Region: Zone of Contamination (previously named Industrial Mine)
• The Second Tale: Buried Echoes and 1 unique Badge
• Poisoned Wolves: a starved, desperate variant of Wolves living around the toxic pools in the Zone of Contamination
• 1 new Affliction: Chemical Poisoning
• 5 new Clothing items
  • Hardhat
  • Miner's Jacket
  • Miner's Pants
  • Chemical Boots
  • Foreman's Tool Belt
• 1 New Tool
  • Travois (a type of sled for carrying gear)

• 2 new First Aid items
  • Respirator: a facemask that uses consumable air Canisters to avoid Suffocation and Chemical Poisoning in toxic air environments
  • Canister
• New soundtracks

Free Update

• 1 new Affliction: Scurvy
• Insulated Flask (or Thermos) for keeping drinks Warm
• New first-person animations:
  • Equipped Clothing now properly appears on the hands and arms of Survivors (replacing the former default system where Survivor's hands were bare and the sleeves wore either Mackenzie's Shirt/Mackenzie's Sweater or Astrid's Sweater, no matter what Clothing was worn)
  • Carcass Harvesting Overhaul: harvesting carcasses and meat quarters now shows the survivor harvesting the body by hand and visually involves the tool selected.
  • Brand new Hunting Rifle, Revolver, and Distress Pistol animations

Miscellaneous Update

• Carcasses now become weathered over time and possess 3 states of being (fresh, ravaged, frozen)

Part Five: Last Horizon

June 24th 2024

Paid Update

• One new Region: Sundered Pass (formally named Mountain Pass)
• The Third and final Tale: Last Horizon and 1 unique Badge
• Cougar: a territorial big cat and Great Bear Island's "alpha predator" which stalks regions the survivor inhabits for too long.
  • New Affliction: Severe Lacerations; acquired from a Cougar Struggle

• New Tools:
  • Cougar Claw Knife

• New Food and Drink:
  • Cougar Meat (Raw)
  • Cougar Meat (Cooked)
  • Cougar Quarter
• New Materials:
  • Cougar Claw
  • Cougar Hide

• New Clothes:
  • Tactical Jacket
  • Tactical Gloves
  • Cougar Hide Wrap

• New Feats:
  • Settled Mind
  • Celestial Navigator
  • Big Cat Killer

Free Update

• Misery - a new Experience mode even harder than Interloper, complete with 6 new Afflictions that appear over time and make the survivor's experience permanently harder
  • New Afflictions:
    • Diminished Form
    • Sour Stomach
    • Frigid Bones
    • Rheumatic Joints
    • Haunted Mind
    • Broken Body
• Cheat Death System - the first ever change to permadeath in Survival Mode that allows a survivor to have "3 extra lives" to cheat death up to 3 times, but this will also make the game harder with each death
  • New Afflictions:
    • Cheated Death Penalty
    • Weakened State

Miscellaneous Update

• Tales from the Far Territory officially released for Nintendo Switch (Parts 1-5) (August 1st, 2024)
• Added an option to make Cougars and Scurvy optional content when starting a Survival Mode Experience (except Misery)

Part Six:

Released (TBA)

Upcoming Updates

Upcoming Paid Updates

• Camera and Darkroom
• Safehouse Customization
• Trader - sells goods and info, for a price

Upcoming Free Updates

• The Hunted, Part Three Challenge- Kill the Bear once and for all, or die trying
• Wildlife Refresh: an overhaul of wildlife spawn points and patrol paths to remove some of the predictability from their behavior.

Other

• Visual enhancements, many specifically for high-end

Development

With the progress of episode 4 and writing for episode 5 coming to a close, Raphael van Lierop posted the Dev Diary on March 18, 2021 talking about the future of The Long Dark and linking to a survey asking a series of questions, including if players would be willing to pay for DLC. The results of the survey showed a favorable view towards paid content and development began with a dedicated team. To streamline the process of adding updates, the game was planned to be split into two editions, Survival Edition and Wintermute.

The name for the expansion pass was revealed as Tales from the far Territory on October 20, 2022 in the Dev Diary, also announcing free and paid contents, save compatibility issues and the subsequent save wipes, with a general release date for December 2022 and Xbox, PlayStation and Switch planned for early 2023.

Raphael von Lierop also announced stepping down as lead developer of The Long Dark, handing the reigns to Katie Sorrell as Project Lead, who would continue the work on Wintermute and Tales from the far Territory, officially taking over as the voice for The Long Dark on Hinterland's official YouTube channel on March 30, 2023 in the "Tales from the far Territory Part Two Update Video".

Tales was officially released on December 5, 2022 on Steam and Epic store for Windows. Technical issues arose for Mac and its release date was delayed from December 5, 2022 to February 15, 2023.

PlayStation and Xbox was announced for March 15, 2023 but was delayed and officially released on March 30, 2023 with Updates One and Two simultaneously. Update Two for PC was also released on March 30, 2023.

The Switch had been delayed from its expected March 2023 release date. It is planned to be released by the end of April 2024, with Updates One to Four.

Tales was initially disabled for Interloper in order to maintain gameplay balance and the belief it would be too difficult and offer little reward for players, but after receiving heavy criticism, Raphael announced its future inclusion in the Dev Diary on April 14, 2023 with it being officially enabled on April 20, 2023. Signal Void for Interloper mode was modified to include less loot for bunkers and appropriate loot for the Trackable Hidden Caches.

Save Compatibility

Survival Mode Saves prior to the release of Tales from the Far Territory (Dec 2022) will not be compatible with new versions of The Long Dark. These saves will remain in their location and can still be played on older versions of the game.

Previous versions of The Long Dark can be downloaded at Hinterland's "Time Capsule" on their official website. Time Capsule is only available for the Steam version of The Long Dark.

Wintermute Saves, Unlocked Achievements, Badges and Feats will not be affected by the release of Tales from the Far Territory.

Windows

When playing The Long Dark on a Windows PC, your saves will be stored in this folder:

%LocalAppData%\Hinterland\TheLongDark

To access that path:

1. Press WINDOWS + R on your keyboard to open a Run window
2. Paste the path into the text field of the newly opened Run Window (%LocalAppData%\Hinterland\TheLongDark)
3. Hit OK and you'll be taken to the save folder!

Mac

On Mac, your The Long Dark save files are located in the following folder:

~/.local/share/Hinterland/TheLongDark

To access this path:

1. Open a Finder window
2. Press COMMAND + SHIFT + G to open the Go tool
3. Paste the above path into the text field (~/.local/share/Hinterland/TheLongDark)
4. Hit Go and there you are in your save game location!

Linux

The Long Dark on Linux-based operating systems stores save files in the following directory:

~/.local/share/Hinterland/TheLongDark

Trivia

• The promotional image used for the Tales From the Far Territory is actually concept art for the Final Approach helicopter crash site.
• The Zone of Contamination was formerly teased as the Industrial Mine, but was renamed during its debut.
• Sundered Pass was formerly teased as Mountain Pass, but was renamed during its debut.

Gallery

Official Art

Title Card

Teaser for the Handheld Shortwave Radio

Travois Concept

Ditto

Zone of Contamination Concept art (formerly named Industrial Mine)

Concept art of a Poisoned Wolf

Miner Clothing

Cougar Concept Art

Sundered Pass

Sundered Pass Weather Station

Cougar Concept