I have done it. More than once.
The problem was not getting there. It was everything I had not been doing on the way.
I had the route. I had the plan. What I did not have was anything curing.
Hides and gut take time. If you wait until you need them, you are already behind.
This page is about fixing that.
Not by stopping everything to prepare, but by making preparation part of how you move through the world.
Preparing for the Forge (Before You Get There)
One thing I learned the hard way is that getting to the forge is only part of the job.
You also need to be ready to use it.
On one of my runs, I made it far enough, but I had not been collecting and preparing what I actually needed beforehand.
In particular, I should have been:
- collecting hides (rabbit, deer, anything available)
- starting the curing process early
Hides take time. If you wait until you “need” them, you are already behind.
A better approach is to set up a temporary base somewhere near the forge region.
Drop your materials there. Let them cure while you continue gathering what you need.
Then, once you have the hammer, scrap, and fuel sorted, you can return ready to actually make use of the forge.
Otherwise, you risk reaching the right place at the wrong time, which is a fairly common way for Interloper to remind you that planning matters.
Early on, if you come across a carcass, harvest what you can. You may not need it immediately, but hides and gut take time, and this is often the easiest way to get them started without taking unnecessary risks.
Cure As You Go
One thing that helps is treating curing as something that happens alongside everything else, not something you stop to do later.
If you collect hides or gut, carry them with you if you are moving toward your next objective.
If you stop somewhere for the night, drop them. Let them cure while you rest.
Pick them back up when you leave and repeat the process.
Over time, they will finish curing without you having to build your entire run around it.
Caves also count as being indoors for curing purposes, so they can be useful stops if you are between regions.
Just keep in mind that caves can get cold quickly. If you are staying there, you will need a fire.
It is a simple habit, but it avoids the situation where you finally need cured materials and realise you have none ready.
What Needs Curing
If you are going to rely on crafting, you need to know what actually requires time to prepare.
Most of it comes from animals. Some of it comes from the environment. All of it takes time.
- Rabbit Hide — ~3 days
- Deer Hide — ~5 days
- Wolf Hide — ~7 days
- Bear Hide — ~12 days
- Moose Hide — ~10 days
- Cougar Hide — ~10 days
- Gut — ~5 days
- Maple Saplings — ~6 days (bows)
- Birch Saplings — ~4 days (arrows)
Curing time does not change based on difficulty.
What does change is what you find. On Interloper, you are far more reliant on what you make, which makes these timings matter more than they might elsewhere.
If you have it, it should be curing.
What You Are Working Toward
All crafted clothing requires a workbench.
The items below also require a Sewing Kit, along with the materials listed:
- Rabbitskin Hat — 3 pelts, 1 cured gut
- Rabbitskin Mittens — 4 pelts, 2 cured guts
- Deerskin Pants — 3 hides, 4 cured guts
- Deerskin Boots — 2 hides, 4 cured gut
- Wolfskin Coat — 4 pelts, 4 cured gut
- Cougarhide Wrap — 1 hide, 2 cured gut
- Moose-Hide Satchel — 1 hide, 2 cured gut
The items below still require a workbench, but use a Knife instead of a sewing kit:
- Moose-Hide Cloak — 1 hide, 4 cured gut
- Bearskin Coat — 2 hide, 4 cured gut
- Bearskin Bedroll — 2 hide, 5 cloth, 6 cured gut
You do not need everything at once. But if you are not curing materials early, none of this is available when you need it.
Tools and Utility
Clothing is not the only thing you are preparing for. Some of the most important tools also depend on cured materials.
All of the items below require a workbench:
- Survival Bow — 1 cured maple sapling, 2 cured gut
- Simple Arrow — 1 arrow shaft, 1 arrowhead, 3 crow feathers
The items below require a Knife as well as a workbench:
- Arrow Shaft — 1 cured birch sapling
- Travois — 1 cured deer hide, 2 cured gut, 4 cured maple sapling
The item below can be found on Interloper, but requires completing Sutherland’s Tale to unlock the blueprint. It only needs a workbench:
- Bushcraft Bow — 2 green birch sapling, 2 cured gut
Like clothing, these take time to prepare. If saplings are not curing early, you will be waiting when you need them.
The bow in particular is what shifts a run from surviving to sustaining.
What to Prioritise
You do not need everything at once. Trying to do that will usually slow you down.
Focus on what helps you survive the next stage of the run, not the end of it.
Early on, rabbit hides are the easiest place to start. They are low risk to obtain and give you access to gloves and a hat, which can make a noticeable difference.
After that, deer hides are a strong next step. Pants and boots are some of the first upgrades that actually start to stabilise your temperature.
Later on, wolf and bear hides become more relevant. These take longer to prepare and are more dangerous to obtain, but they provide stronger long-term protection.
Gut should be collected whenever possible. Most crafted items depend on it, and it is easy to fall behind if you ignore it.
Saplings should be picked up whenever you see them. Even if you are not ready to craft a bow yet, curing them early saves time later.
You are not trying to complete a set. You are trying to stay ahead of the cold.
Adjusting Expectations
If you are coming into Interloper expecting the same kind of loot as Stalker or Voyageur, you are in for a surprise.
You will not be finding regular upgrades early on. In some cases, you will be lucky to find anything better than basic clothing.
Jeans, light jackets, and worn gear are common. High-end items are not something you can rely on.
That is why crafting matters.
If you are waiting to find something better, you may be waiting while the world gets colder around you.
Why This Matters
All of this leads to one thing: clothing that you can actually rely on.
On Interloper, you are not guaranteed to find the best gear in the world. You might get lucky. You might not.
What you can guarantee is what you make.
Clothing made from animal hides is some of the warmest you can realistically rely on, and more importantly, it is something you can maintain.
If you have hides curing while you move, you are building toward that without needing to stop everything else you are doing.
If you are not, you risk reaching the point where the cold has already caught up to you, and the gear you need is still days away from being usable.
That is usually when runs start slipping.
It is not because the gear does not exist. It is because it was never prepared in time.
Where This Leads
This is all building toward one thing: reaching the forge ready to use it.
If you have been curing materials as you move, you arrive with options. If you have not, you arrive with a delay.
Interloper does not usually punish one big mistake. It punishes the smaller ones that were left too late.
This is one of them.
Continue the Journey
If you are learning Interloper, these guides build on each other:
Spawn Regions – What Actually Works When You’re Learning
— Where to start, and why it matters.
— Early priorities, movement, and reaching the forge.
Survivor Incognito 