Custom Difficulty – Survivor Incognito

Catch up on this week’s survival chaos: bears, zombies, Customloper runs, permadeath hubs, and one very questionable Interloper experience.

This Week in Review

Another week of survival, panic, and the occasional questionable decision. Here’s what went live across the blog:

🐻 Monday: Bear Meets Panic Rifle

Sometimes you bring a rifle to a bear encounter. Sometimes the rifle just brings panic. This week kicked off with a new Survivor’s Shorts entry where I learned that even with a firearm, bears remain terrifying.

The One-Shot Wonder: Bear Meets Panic Rifle

🌊 Tuesday: Dark Waters: A Dredge Survival – Day One

The boat launched, the paranoia began. My permadeath Dredge run officially set sail with the start of Dark Waters. The ocean may look calm, but we both know it isn’t.

Dark Waters: A Dredge Survival – Day 1

❄️ Wednesday: Customloper – Day One

The Customloper experiment is underway. A bit Interloper, a bit Voyageur, a lot of me desperately hoping I don’t freeze to death before leaving Mountain Town. So far, so… technically alive.

Customloper Diaries Day 1: A Woollen Windy Welcome to Milton

Side note, The Cold Chronicles and Customloper Diaries will be alternating weeks for the foreseeable. Until one of them ends of course. So next week will be the next entry The Cold Chronicles

🗡 Thursday: Skyrim Survival – Sneak, Snipe, Repeat – Day Six

The Argonian saga continues. Day Six saw more stealth, more arrows, and the usual healthy amount of questionable life choices while wandering Skyrim’s frozen wilderness.

Sneak, Snipe, Repeat: Skyrim Suvival Day Six

🪓 Friday: Grounded Permadeath Hub Goes Live

The hub page for The Backyard Trials: Grounded Permadeath is officially up and running! Rules, info, and upcoming entries are all ready for you.
I also teased what’s coming next Friday: a special Day One Diary for Zombie Army Trilogy—fittingly set for Friday the 13th.

The Backyard Trials: Grounded Permadeath

Zombie Army Trilogy – Day One Diary Coming This Friday the 13th

💀 Saturday: The Desolation Point Debacle

Today’s Survivor’s Shorts took us into Desolation Point on Interloper. It didn’t go well. (Shocking, I know.)

Survivor’s Shorts: Interloper — The Desolation Point Debacle

What’s Coming Next

The backlog grows stronger. Next week, expect more from Dark Waters, Customloper, Skyrim Survival, and our first look at Zombie Army Trilogy. More danger, more chaos, more very avoidable mistakes.

Day 1 of a Customloper survival test in The Long Dark. Spawned in Coastal Highway. Made gloves out of scraps, got hit with a blizzard, and somehow didn’t freeze to death.

I put in the Customloper settings, picked my character, set the spawn to random, and named the file Day One. I spawn in Coastal Highway – specifically right next to the path leading to The Ravine.

Map of Coastal Highway

I think about going that way for all of five seconds, I choose life instead and head toward the Train Unloading Trailer I know is nearby

Spawned in cold, sprinting for shelter. Train Unloading it is

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Inside I grab what I can, including a second pair of socks. Then hit the tunnel corpse – and score a hatchet.

My loadout after looting the trailer. No gloves, great.

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From there, I billy goat my way down a nearby cliff, grabbing sticks while the temperature plummets.

Alternative route, gravity assisted travel

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I find another trailer. It’s warmer, but still not warm enough. And I didn’t spawn with gloves, so my hands are freezing.

I cut across the road, stop at a car, then head toward the Fishing Camp.

Note: I had to double-check the name using my own Map Hub — I knew where I was, just couldn’t remember what it was called. Proof the hub’s not just for readers.

I loot what I can — some food, but not enough to carry me far. In the first house, I grab cloth and craft handwraps. It helps, barely. In the second, third and fourth houses, I scrape together enough to make a makeshift hat.

Then I step outside.

I step outside. Weather steps on me

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I retreat and sleep for three hours to warm up. When I wake, the blizzard has cleared. I push toward Jackrabbit Island and manage to snag three rabbits — finally, a win.

Inside the house, I raid the fridge and score water. I harvest the rabbits for meat as the sun drops.

Then I head outside, light a fire on the first try, and cook everything. I even remember I have herbal tea, brew it, and drink it to recover some condition — which was down to about 50%.

Back inside, I scavenge the place and find a pair of wool mittens, climbing socks, and a pair of boots.

I go to bed warm, full, and genuinely surprised I made it through Day One.

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Next week, I start my actual Customloper run. I start in a new area, and will attempt to explore the whole island before I succumb to The Long Dark.

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If you want to know more about Customloper, why not check out The Long Dark Customloper Settings: Easier Interloper Survival Mode

If you enjoyed this entry, why not check out my other Day One Diaries