The Long Dark News

We’ve released our v1.87 Hotfix for the ESCAPE THE DARKWALKER event. If you encounter any issues while playing The Long Dark please visit our Support Portal.

A big part of any of these events is player participation and we would love to hear about your experience playing ESCAPE THE DARKWALKER in our event subforum.

To stay up-to-date with news and information about The Long Dark and Hinterland, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter (Game | Studio).



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THE LONG DARK v1.87 (68069/68142 ) CHANGELIST

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue where text overlapped in some languages.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the Player to remain crouched when attacked by the Entity, while crouched.
  
• Added map icons for Bleak Inlet to Ravine transitions.
  
• Add subtitles for when the Player’s character is coughing from toxic smoke
  
• Updated localization.
  
• Map now centers on the Player’s position when entering the screen, during an Escape the Darkwalker game.
  
• Dying from the Entity when in a menu, now breaks you out of menus correctly.
  
• The "Darkwalker Devoured You" screen now only plays if the Player was killed by the Entity.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused “Toxic Fog” to appear when exiting a menu, during the Escape the Darkwalker event.
  
• Fixed an issue where the player could become stuck in the Safe Cracking ui, if attacked by the Entity while in the UI.
  
• Removed the ability to Spray Paint on items that can be broken down.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the male voice to sometimes play instead of the female voice, when dying.
  
• Fixed the volume for the Glyph breaking down sound effect.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused stomping sound effects to loop after placing a ward indoors.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the Toxic Fog indicator to flash on screen when exiting interiors.
  

Something is hunting survivors in The Long Dark and it’s not just the game’s usual wildlife. Running from October 29th to November 12th The Long Dark players will be stalked by a mysterious entity in our latest Halloween Event: ESCAPE THE DARKWALKER.

As you’re playing the event feel free to talk about it and share your best survival times on our forums, or on social media using the hashtag #DARKWALKER.

To help you survive for as long as possible in this event we’ve put together this information. Follow them and you may delay your death a little while longer.

Starting Out

• Your character will begin near an abandoned camp where you’ll find an introductory collectible item along with supplies to start you out scattered around a burned out campfire.
  
• You have fifteen (15) minutes without being hunted by the Darkwalker to prepare yourself in any way that you wish. At the end of the fifteen minutes the Darkwalker will appear in the region and begin to hunt you.
  

Surviving

• As with any game of The Long Dark you have to manage your cold, hunger, and other aspects of your Condition to ensure your survival.
  
• As the Darkwalker nears, your character will experience a series of disturbing effects that will make survival increasingly difficult. These effects mostly disappear as you get more distance from the Darkwalker.
  
• An inescapable Toxic Fog follows the Darkwalker spreading throughout the region you’re in threatening not only you, but also wildlife, and even your food supply.
  
• Your main defense is to spray-paint Glyphs which offer a couple of tools for dealing with the Darkwalker.
  
• Event Camps with green fire offer refuge from being hunted by the Darkwalker as well as vital information about what it is that’s hunting you, so be sure to search the Camps carefully.
  

Game Over

• There are two badges to win during the Event.
  
• Players who manage to survive one hour will be awarded the Umbra Badge.
  
• Those that manage to find six of the ten diary pages from the EVENT CAMPS will win the Deadly Dreamer Badge.
  
• The Game Over screen will show the time survived plus your longest time survived, allowing you to share that with The Long Dark community. Post in on our forums, on social media, or elsewhere using the hashtag #DARKWALKER to show off your best times.
  

We hope you have a frighteningly good time this Halloween in The Long Dark as you play Escape the Darkwalker. Let us know what you think of the event on our forums.

To stay up-to-date with news and information about The Long Dark and Hinterland, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter (Game | Studio).

https://youtu.be/VNl2SvuWt6o

Something is hunting survivors in The Long Dark and it’s not just the game’s usual wildlife. Running from October 29th to November 12th The Long Dark players will be stalked by a mysterious entity in our latest Halloween Event: ESCAPE THE DARKWALKER.

As you’re playing the event feel free to talk about it and share your best survival times on our forums, or on social media using the hashtag #DARKWALKER.

To help you survive for as long as possible in this event we’ve put together this information. Follow them and you may delay your death a little while longer.

Starting Out

• Your character will begin near an abandoned camp where you’ll find an introductory collectible item along with supplies to start you out scattered around a burned out campfire.
  
• You have fifteen (15) minutes without being hunted by the Darkwalker to prepare yourself in any way that you wish. At the end of the fifteen minutes the Darkwalker will appear in the region and begin to hunt you.
  

Surviving

• As with any game of The Long Dark you have to manage your cold, hunger, and other aspects of your Condition to ensure your survival.
  
• As the Darkwalker nears, your character will experience a series of disturbing effects that will make survival increasingly difficult. These effects mostly disappear as you get more distance from the Darkwalker.
  
• An inescapable Toxic Fog follows the Darkwalker spreading throughout the region you’re in threatening not only you, but also wildlife, and even your food supply.
  
• Your main defense is to spray-paint Glyphs which offer a couple of tools for dealing with the Darkwalker.
  
• Event Camps with green fire offer refuge from being hunted by the Darkwalker as well as vital information about what it is that’s hunting you, so be sure to search the Camps carefully.
  

Game Over

• There are two badges to win during the Event.
  
• Players who manage to survive one hour will be awarded the Umbra Badge.
  
• Those that manage to find six of the ten diary pages from the EVENT CAMPS will win the Deadly Dreamer Badge.
  
• The Game Over screen will show the time survived plus your longest time survived, allowing you to share that with The Long Dark community. Post in on our forums, on social media, or elsewhere using the hashtag #DARKWALKER to show off your best times.
  

We hope you have a frighteningly good time this Halloween in The Long Dark as you play Escape the Darkwalker. Let us know what you think of the event on our forums.

To stay up-to-date with news and information about The Long Dark and Hinterland, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter (Game | Studio).

https://youtu.be/VNl2SvuWt6o

It's nearly here! The Long Dark's newest Halloween Event ESCAPE THE DARKWALKER is coming later this week. Prepare to be hunted by a mysterious and deadly entity that chases you across Great Bear Island in this limited-time event.

For more details read our latest Dev Diary.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hello everyone,

With the Switch launch behind us, I wanted to update you on our activities around THE LONG DARK for the remainder of this year.

[h3]NEW EVENT: ESCAPE THE DARKWALKER (October 29th - November 12th)[/h3]



This year’s Halloween event, ESCAPE THE DARKWALKER, is different from what we’ve done in the past. In broad strokes:

• In an endless night, 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 only objective is to survive for as many real-time minutes as you can.
  
• You can’t hurt the Darkwalker, but you can slow it down. Using special spray paint Glyphs, you can temporarily dispel or attract the entity.
  
• You can play in any region of the world, but you can only stay in a region for 30 real-time minutes (Note: all timings are being tuned based on playtesting and may change before the event goes live) 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. A lot of your strategy will come down to where you travel and how far ahead you can plan your movements through the world.
  
• Since you can’t see the entity, you’ll have to count on what you can HEAR to stay alive. Listen for the entity’s cries, its footsteps, and how the spooky music builds as it approaches your location.
  

You can run but you cannot hide! Walls won’t keep the Darkwalker out. So your success depends on the route you take through the world, and how you manage your sparse GLYPH resources.

Why did we decide to switch up the traditional FOUR DAYS OF NIGHT formula? We took on your feedback about the last few iterations of our annual Four Days of Night Halloween event. One of the consistent things we heard was a sadness around missing the timed event for various reasons, or the fact that it was hard to get all the badges without playing every single day (I mean, we *want* people playing The Long Dark every day, but sometimes life gets in the way!).

We also wanted to freshen things up this year and do something different that would perhaps embrace a bit of a stronger “horror” vibe than we normally would in the game. Halloween is a fun holiday and this gives us the opportunity to play around with ideas that might not make as much sense in core gameplay, but can provide a lot of suspenseful enjoyment for our players!

ESCAPE THE DARKWALKER runs from October 29th to November 12th. Participating in the event earns you some special unlocks, including a new Custom Mode unlock: Endless Night.

[h3]DECEMBER SURVIVAL UPDATE[/h3]

We’re working on a new update to Survival mode, for a planned December release. This update will include a variety of UI improvements, some tuning changes, and two new gear items, but the highlight will be a new region: ASH CANYON. We’ll release more details as we get closer to the update, but this piece of concept art might give you some ideas.



[h3]EPISODE FOUR[/h3]

The team’s been working hard on Episode Four, and as I outlined in my last developer diary, we have delayed the episode until 2021 due to COVID. Look for an update on episode progress some time in January.

[h3]HOLIDAY SHUTDOWN[/h3]

Just an early reminder that the whole Hinterland team takes an extended holiday between Christmas and New Year. We’ll share the dates closer to the holiday. During this period, support and test resources will be limited, so we appreciate your patience as it will take a little longer to respond to any reports you send through the Support Portal.

We’re looking forward to seeing what you think about ESCAPE THE DARKWALKER. Get ready, and have fun with it.

- Raphael