On Coastal Highway in The Long Dark, a bear ambushed me at dusk. I panicked, fired, and somehow dropped it with a single shot. I’m still processing what happened—and how I’m alive.
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It was getting dark on Coastal Highway. I was returning to Quonset Garage after a day of looting, freezing, and thinking about food I didn’t have.
And then I heard it.
That guttural growl—the kind that makes your blood freeze before the weather does.
I turned. Bear. Charging.
My brain hit full panic mode. I fumbled for my rifle, jammed it into position, aimed down the sights, and braced for impact.
I fired.
I adjusted the brightness of the video so you can see what happens.
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The Original
This is the original version. I was playing handheld on the Switch at the time
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One shot. The bear dropped.
I stood there in stunned silence, half-expecting it to get back up and laugh. But it didn’t. It was down. Permanently.
Was it a crit? A miracle? Game physics? No idea. But for that one shining second, I wasn’t just surviving— I was the apex predator.
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Final Thoughts
In a game known for handing out slow, painful deaths, I got a split-second win. And honestly? I’m not sure it wasn’t a fluke. But I’ll take it.
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If you enjoyed this one, please check out my other Survivor’s Shorts
It starts with a bear. It ends with panic. Somewhere in between, a rifle is involved. You can probably guess how well that goes.
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🌊 Tuesday – Dark Waters: A Dredge Survival – Day 1
We set sail on our brand new permadeath adventure through Dredge. The waters may look calm… but don’t let them fool you.
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❄️ Wednesday – Customloper: Day 1 – Mountain Town Start
The Customloper run officially kicks off! I spawn in Mountain Town and try my very best not to freeze, starve, or get eaten before I even leave Milton.
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⚔ Thursday – Skyrim Survival: Day 6
The trek through Skyrim’s frozen wilderness continues. More frostbite, more danger, and almost certainly another regrettable encounter with something that bites.
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🔥 Friday – A Voyageur’s Tale (The Long Dark): Day 6
Back to the familiar cold of The Long Dark as the Voyageur run marches on into day six. Wolves, weather, and the never-ending quest for coffee.
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🦌 Saturday – Survivor’s Shorts: The Interloper Moose Incident
I try Interloper mode in The Long Dark. I spawn. I panic. The moose arrives. That’s pretty much the plot summary.
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🔥 Survive with us every week on Survivor Incognito — your home for survival gaming on Nintendo Switch.
Follow along for The Long Dark guides, Skyrim Survival Mode playthroughs, Dredge permadeath runs, and Customloper challenges. New survival game content posted weekly — with humor, tips, and plenty of questionable life choices. 👉 Bookmark Survivor Incognito and join the survival adventure.
A full roundup of everything that’s gone live on Survivor Incognito this week: new Survivor’s Shorts, Survivor’s Dread launch, The Survivor’s Camp hub, new Day One Diaries for No Man’s Sky and Nice Day For Fishing, Customloper, Skyrim, The Long Dark, and blog updates.
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The Campfire’s Been Busy — Let’s Catch Up
One of the busiest weeks yet! If you blinked, you probably missed something — so here’s your full survival roundup:
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🏕 The Survivor’s Camp is Now Open
A brand new central hub page has launched: The Survivor’s Camp pulls together everything on the blog — survival guides, series hubs, shorts, and playthroughs — all in one place.
The newest addition to the blog is here: Survivor’s Dread covers all things survival horror, kicking off with Dark Waters: A Dredge Survival. The first entry comes next week as the darkness descends.
The multiverse opens up. Our No Man’s Sky Day One Diary has begun, charting survival, exploration, and (inevitably) questionable decisions across the stars.
❄️ Customloper – The Long Dark: Day One Diaries Continue
The Customloper run officially kicks off next week. But until then, here’s a Day One Diary entry to help you understand what to expect. Interloper weather. Voyageur loot. Plenty of snow. Plenty of danger.
My Argonian is still alive somehow. High Hrothgar, frostbite, bandits, cultists, and chickens continue to make the journey through Skyrim Survival Mode both ridiculous and dangerous.
Behind the scenes, several former pages have now been converted into regular blog posts. This should make navigation cleaner and help posts show up more naturally in blog feeds, archives, and categories.
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That’s everything from this week! Stay warm. Stay fed. Don’t poke the wildlife. (Or open any cursed chests.)
I thought I was alone on Coastal Highway. Then I saw antlers. This is the story of how a moose turned a quiet walk into an Olympic-level panic sprint.
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It was just another day in The Long Dark.
I was walking the road near Quonset Garage on Coastal Highway. Light fading, stomach grumbling, the usual post-loot shuffle home. Everything felt quiet. Calm. Deceptively safe.
Then I saw it.
Not a charging bear. Not a distant wolf. No, this was worse.
A moose.
It wasn’t running. It wasn’t stomping. It was just… standing there. Behind a tree.
Image taken from The Long Dark Wiki. Mainly because I didn’t think to take a screenshot or a video when it happened
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Staring at me like it had been waiting for its cue in a survival horror play.
And then—it took the stance. The head lowered. The hooves shifted. You know the one. The “say the word and I’ll flatten you” stance.
That was my sign to go.
I turned and ran for the nearest building like I’d just insulted its family. My survival instincts kicked in, my inventory was forgotten, and my dignity stayed behind by the tree.
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Final Thoughts
The Long Dark Wiki says that moose in particular has a 5% chance to spawn for 48 hours. This one spawned right behind a tree and in front of my will to live.
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Got a favourite chaotic moment?
Let me know in the comments or tag me on social—I’m always looking for new disasters to celebrate. And if you enjoy these shorts, consider sharing the page with a fellow survivor. Because nothing says “friendship” like a moose silently judging you from behind a tree.
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If you enjoyed this story, please check out my other: Survivor’s Shorts
Today’s mission was simple on paper: lighten my pack, loot like a professional, and avoid becoming a decorative frozen lump in a snowbank. The first step was Quonset Garage inventory triage. I dumped food, meds, spare clothes, and every non-essential item into my storage stash — keeping just enough to keep me alive. Travel light, loot heavy. The survivor’s paradox.
First stop: a nearby building that greeted me with the holy grail of kitchenware — a cooking pot and a skillet. Outstanding finds. Unfortunately, they also weighed roughly the same as my survival hopes, so back to Quonset I trudged, muttering about my endless loop of “find loot, dump loot, repeat.”
With the weight off my shoulders (literally), I decided today was going to be about exploration — specifically, mapping Coastal Highway like a cartographer with too much time on their hands. I hopped between fishing huts, pausing every so often to scribble charcoal marks on my map like an artist who only draws squares. The wind bit at my face, ice groaned under my boots, and somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled just to keep me humble.
Loot highlights of the hut-hopping adventure included: a book on fishing (because nothing says “immersive reading” like reading about fishing while fishing), a hunting knife that immediately earned its keep on a nearby deer carcass, and — drumroll, please — a revolver.
Three bullets. Enough to be dangerous, not enough to be reckless.
Yes, an actual revolver. Even better — it had one round chambered, and earlier in my fishing crawl I’d picked up two loose bullets. That’s three shots. In The Long Dark, that’s not just self-defense; it’s a small-scale munitions miracle. Of course, in my infinite wisdom, I’d left the rest of my ammo back at Quonset, so for now it’s more of a moral support weapon.
While the deer meat cooked in one of the huts, I dashed over to a nearby trailer to drop off the hide and gut for curing. Nothing says “I’ve made it” like casually starting your own rabbit and deer leather collection. Resource management, baby.
By evening, the weather had shifted from “brisk” to “why are you outside, you fool?” A blizzard swept in just as I reached the edge of the lake. I wasn’t about to attempt a hero’s march back to Quonset in that, so I ducked into the nearest house. The place was cold, abandoned, and smelled faintly of damp socks — but it had loot, so it met my standards.
Looted the place, harvested some extra clothes (accidentally shredded a perfectly good hat, but we don’t talk about that), and collapsed into bed before the fatigue meter could nag me into a penalty.
End of Day 5: One revolver, three bullets, a map full of fishing huts, and the creeping suspicion that Coastal Highway might just be my new favorite spot — assuming the wolves don’t hold a vote on the matter.
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.
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.
The Day One Diary of Customloper is coming—and no, I didn’t freeze to death immediately. Spawned in with Interloper-level weather and a backpack full of questionable decisions. There were snacks. There were was lots of snow. There was looting in the dark like a confused burglar. Find out what happens tomorrow at 1pm GMT.
Day 1 of ARK: Scorched Earth. I spawned, made some pants, and was murdered by what I thought was a friendly armoured pet rock. A true story of betrayal, bad aim, and Doedicurus rage.
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Welcome to the Desert. Here’s a Spear. Try Not To Die.
I woke up in the Scorched Earth desert with nothing but my fists and the overwhelming sense that everything around me wanted me dead.
Naturally, I punched a tree, made a pickaxe, and crafted myself a stunning outfit made entirely of itchy rags. Survival 101.
That’s when I saw it: a Doedicurus. Round, slow-moving, and with the kind of face that said, “I mind my business.” It was adorable. I felt safe.
This would be my desert buddy. My spiky little friend. I had plans. Big plans. I was going to tame it. Name it. Maybe ride it into battle.
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Then I Threw a Spear at It.
Now… in my defense, I meant to throw the spear next to the Doedicurus. You know, to test it. Impress it. Establish dominance. Whatever people do in survival games.
What I didn’t mean to do was poke it directly in the face.
Cue a noise I didn’t know Doedicuruses could make. Cue it rolling toward me like an angry bowling ball with revenge issues.
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The Fight That Wasn’t.
I panicked. I had one more spear. I missed. I pulled out my fists. They were… less effective.
The Doedicurus did not miss. It swung its tail like it was trying to launch me into the next biome. It succeeded.
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Respawn, Reflect, Regret.
As I stared at the “You Died” screen, one thought ran through my head: What the hell just happened?
I came here to survive. I left wearing nothing but shame and a crushed dream of dinosaur friendship.
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Final Thoughts
Let it be known: Doedicuruses are not your friends. They are boulders with feelings. And those feelings are rage.
Next time, I’m taming a Jerboa. At least they don’t roll over you for sport.
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Got a favourite chaotic moment?
Let me know in the comments or tag me on social—I’m always looking for new disasters to celebrate. And if you enjoy these shorts, consider sharing the page with a fellow survivor. Because nothing says “friendship” like a moose silently judging you from behind a tree.
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If you enjoyed that one, please check out my other stories here: Survivor’s Shorts
This week at Survivor Incognito: dino disasters, cosmic chaos, a return to Customloper, and two new Survivor’s Shorts. Here’s the full lineup of what’s dropping and when.
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Monday – A Double Hit to Start the Week
Day One Diary: No Man’s Sky Cold planet, no scanner, and a plant that bit me. Welcome to Zuwan 58/E6.
Survivor’s Short: The Doedicurus Incident One spear. One armadillo. Zero survivors. The best (worst?) five seconds of ARK you’ll ever read.
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Wednesday – Into the Cold
Day One Diary: The Long Dark – Customloper Coastal Highway just got colder. My custom difficulty is set to “help is a myth” — and this diary is where it begins. This is a taster of what is to come next week
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Thursday – Skyrim Survives Another Day
Skyrim Survival – Day Five My Argonian’s back, colder than ever, and probably regretting their life choices again. Expect sneaking, sniping, and the occasional panic shout.
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Friday – Frostbite & Fur
The Long Dark – New Entry in A Voyageur’s Tale The Cold Chronicles continue with more frostbite, slightly less dignity, and whatever’s left in my food stash.
Survivor’s Short: The Moose Encounter He saw me. I saw him. Only one of us had antlers — and it wasn’t me.
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Plus: This Site Just Got A Bit Update
All entries for The Long Dark, Skyrim, and Day One Diaries have been turned into full posts (not pages!) so they’re easier to find, share, and follow.
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Thanks for Reading – And Surviving
Bookmark the blog, subscribe if you haven’t, and remember: in survival gaming, it’s not about thriving — it’s about laughing while everything falls apart.
The Cold Chronicles – Day 4: Into the Wind and the Wolves – Coastal Highway or Bust
Difficulty: Voyageur Optional Features: Cougar enabled (because I enjoy living dangerously)
Day 3 Recap
Read Day 3 here — yesterday I dodged a moose, found a glorious hatchet in Abandoned Mine No. 3, cooked up some deer and rabbit in Crumbling Highway, and narrowly avoided becoming wolf dinner. Today’s goal: finally reach Coastal Highway and set up a proper base.
Leaving Crumbling Highway
I began the day by tucking my curing hides and guts into a safe indoor corner — because nothing says “responsible adult” like organising future clothing projects before breakfast. Torch lit, I stepped outside, and immediately, the welcoming committee arrived: a wolf trailing me at a polite-but-menacing distance.
It shadowed me for a good minute or two before deciding I wasn’t worth the effort. I imagine it muttered something about “stringy meat” and trotted off into the snow. Either way, my pulse was already higher than my body temperature.
After a short uphill slog, the crumbling asphalt gave way to the open expanse of Coastal Highway. “Civilisation” was in sight — if you consider a scattering of abandoned houses and frozen fishing huts to be civilisation. In The Long Dark, that’s practically a metropolis.
My first pit stop was a parked car. Inside: a memento hint for loot hidden somewhere in the region. Handy — though I also remembered I’d picked one up back in Desolation Point and promptly never followed it. Future me is going to love that surprise.
Further along, a deer carcass lay half-buried in snow. Tempting, but the blizzard winds convinced me my fingers were better kept intact. Instead, I marked the spot with charcoal — like an explorer, but hungrier.
The Road to Quonset Garage
I worked my way through a cluster of houses, stuffing my pack with food, matches, and clothing. My boots squelched faintly with each step, the wind pushing hard enough to make my footprints vanish behind me.
Halfway to my target, I stumbled upon another deer carcass. I tried to light a fire to harvest it, but the weather refused to cooperate. No fire, no meat — just a reminder that sometimes, The Long Dark makes the rules, and they’re not negotiable.
Then came the wildlife parade: a bear to my left, wolves to my right, and the wind doing its best to push me back to Crumbling Highway like an overprotective parent. My torch flickered in the gale, and for a moment, I wasn’t sure who would win — me, the predators, or the weather.
Quonset Garage: Loot Heaven
When Quonset Garage finally came into view, it was like spotting an oasis in the desert. Inside: shelves groaning with food, a bed, an indoor fire barrel, tools for every occasion — and, inexplicably, two prybars. Why two? No idea. But I took them. When survival hands you a prybar, you don’t ask questions.
After a quick loot run around the parking lot, I found a third prybar in a nearby car. That’s three. I had officially cornered the prybar market. In a barter-based apocalypse, I was now the regional supplier.
Camp Office Sweep
Not content with my haul, I made a detour to the Camp Office. It paid off: another storm lantern, more food than I could carry comfortably, and clothing upgrades that made me feel less like “desperate wanderer” and more like “fashion-conscious hermit.”
By the time I waddled back to Quonset, I was carrying 50kg of loot. Every step felt like hauling a small moose on my back, but the thought of my growing stash kept me going.
End-of-Day Luxury
Back at Quonset, I dumped my loot into organised piles — food here, flares there, fuel in the corner, and coats stacked like I was opening a thrift store. I lit a fire, boiled water, cooked a hot dinner, and settled into bed with the smug satisfaction of someone who knows they’re not going to starve tomorrow.
Plans for Day 5
Harvest both deer carcasses with fire in hand
Try fishing if the weather plays nice
Maybe — just maybe — find a proper weapon so I can stop relying on my stern glare to keep wolves away
Survivor Incognito 