The "IMPOSSIBLE" Cougar Badge... and how I got it

[@Zaknafein]

A couple clarifications: - I say I killed 3 cougars "legitimately", and what I mean by that is that the struggle and subsequent kill was pure. However, not all runs where I killed the cougar were equal. Some were killed during special early access saves, some on saves with mods that triggered the cougar earlier, and some mod-free runs. It's a mixed bag of backgrounds for the kills, but the kills themselves were always straight up. And yes, I also died on some attempts (not shown). - I got bored of getting cold waiting for the cougar, so I used a mod to increase world temperature. This resets when restarting, which is why in the 3rd kill I am not cold at first and then cold when loading again. - I checked all my drives but seem to have deleted the raw footage for the first cougar kills I did, which surprised me. However, I likely deleted it for space issues as I struggled with that in 2024, and the Twitch stream excerpt was from a stream aimed to upgrade my drives. I now save all important footage, but back then deleted most of it after a video was done. I couldnt say exactly how many kills I did, which is why my estimates vary, but 10 sounds right. Mostly with the rifle and revolver. Also a lot of deaths (I spent a lot of my early access time trying to kill it with a bow, which was really really difficult. Watch Tomasinas video on the old cougar and you can see why). - Special thanks to Bashrobe and TheDeadP00l with this video. PS: The mod used was Developer Console.

[@canadianobserver5552]

the reality is you completed the requirements already.. period.. so it isn''t your fault the game didn't recgonize those kills.. so don't feel bad

[@LuisEnriqueVillar]

You can unlock the feat using the console. Try it.

[@Zaknafein]

@@LuisEnriqueVillar Did you see how I got it? :)

[@LuisEnriqueVillar]

@@Zaknafein not by spawning the cougar!, by using the command: "feat_masterhunter"

[@LuisEnriqueVillar]

​@@Zaknafein not by spawning the cougar! By using the command "feat_masterhunter"

[@KrynexYT]

Making a feat unobtainable is just stupid.

[@illuminati1866]

Yep Either remove it completely Rework it for everyone or just leave it as it is Dividing players on the one who got it (in this 4 days) and the one who don't, for no reason - that's is dumb

[@eduardschlegel6963]

Maybe you didn't read it, but in the Bugfix to 2.36 they said, that they would change the feat ans its effect in the future. Edit: It was an official announcment in the Forums parallel to the update. But yeah, they are working on it.

[@illuminati1866]

@@eduardschlegel6963 I thought they gonna add a new one and this just gonna stay locked Thought thats why it called "legacy" feat If they are gonna do that - then yeah, its all right by me But as the way it is right now - no

[@eduardschlegel6963]

@@illuminati1866 I was wrong, they didn't say it in the Hotfix, but there was a Statement from Hinterland in the Forums. (You can see it in Zak's Video called Hotfix 2 from the 19th of December.)

[@agingunsureweeb2844]

If you missed the chance to get this feat the way I see it is simple. If you have all other feats unlocked and you have killed the new cougar three times then you should just unlock it for yourself and enjoy it. If Hinterland doesn't want it in game they can always remove it entirely in a new update and then no one gets it.

[@ferret2308]

I've always hated "FOMO;" the last place I excpected to see it was a single-player slow paced survival game.

[@mindaugasstankus5943]

Already done with Halloween/Darkwalker (or how was it called) event some years ago. "Live service" is current day gaming FAD. And not only about in game rewards, mechanics but mantra of release buggy/broken/unfinished and (maybe) fix later.

[@vincentgross5417]

Yeah, I wonder if the festive sweater will suffer from this... I got mine in my current run, but I did look up the places where you could find it because I was not sure it would persist 🫤 and I did not want to miss its special aurora effect (still don't know what it is btw)

[@skourge891]

Baffles me why they don't just scrap the old badge just as they scrapped the old cougar. 2.0 cougar, 2.0 badge. Its unfair and insane to have a badge you can only get in 4 days.

[@64bitAtheist]

No content (badge or otherwise) should be locked away from players just because we can't spend every day playing... We have lives and responsibilities, if they render something legacy it should be removed fully, or given to all, or better yet have the ability to obtain it adjusted to a different challenge or balance the feat...

[@KrynexYT]

Completely agree. Adjusting the feat is the best solution.

[@rjames0820]

@@KrynexYT at 3:14 they said that they will replace it with a different cougar feat, which is most likely the plan anyway, but its still weird that they kept the old feat instead

[@Alec-jo7ic]

You can still obtain it you dingus. Also if you can't play everyday, why tf are you even playing game?

[@Kuldirongaze1]

Since the original cougar was pulled from the game so fast, I feel the limitations on obtaining this badge is unfair.

[@Vaguer_Weevil]

They should have made it into a challenge badge for latecomers, maybe a combination of Hopeless Rescue and The Hunted. Overall I really don't like content being locked off by arbitrary timers, they brought the Darkwalker back and made playing it and getting that badge a permanent option, hopefully they do the same here.

[@datmanydocris]

​@@Vaguer_Weevil Not just an arbitrary timer, an arbitrary timer that no one but hinterlands was even aware of. Hinterlands didn't inform anyone they were removing cougar 1.0 until less than 24 hours before they did it which wouldn't give anyone who hadn't already gotten the feat enough time to get it. Since cougar 1.0 released on a Monday, most people, myself included, probably didn't have time to play during the week and were planning on playing over the weekend, but by that point the cougar was already removed. I don't understand why they had to remove cougar 1.0 while reworking it in the first place considering it was _optional_ to begin with. If you didn't like cougar 1.0, cool, just don't enable it. Hinterlands should have just left it in while they were reworking it. Hinterlands really does need to apologize to the community about this, realize they screwed up and add back the ability to earn Big Cat Killer in some way, whether that be making it earned from killing three of the new cougars or making it achievable through it's own challenge like you said.

[@enterrapture1365]

Great video. Really disappointed in Hinterland when they do small things like this that on the surface don’t seem like much, but really bug dedicated players. No explanation.

[@KestrelForever]

I 100% intend to use console to give myself the badge once I have the other badges unlocked and I've killed 3 cougars. Even if you played TLD as a full-time job during the days it was available, you'd need to pass a RIDICULOUS amount of time to get 3 cougars from fresh saves. I personally wasn't even *aware* that Cougar had been added until it was removed, and I don't really keep multiple saves most of the time.

[@drewbert83]

You 100% EARNED this badge. I understand it sucks how you had to obtain it. That is more on Hinterland than on you, because you've obviously exceeded the requirements. I would have no problem using a mod to unlock it myself, if I felt that I'd earned it, which I haven't, so I won't.

[@chrisbolland5634]

To me.... you deserved it and since you can play this game however you want, (you can look up loot tables or maps too and that's 'cheating') you should feel however you like about doing what you did. I think it would've been sweet if Hinterland awarded the feat to you personally as a thank you for playtesting. We love you Zak!

[@edditto1540]

I'm guessing the fact that you feel conflicted about this strikes a chord with a lot of players who hold TLD in high regard and want to play it what let's call "purely" and feel squeamish about cheesing the mechanics. I'm certainly like that. I got my Efficient Machine badge during my current 500+ day Stalker run, but in the course of that run I've cheated death once and save-scummed a couple of times. So do I really deserve the badge? Maybe or maybe not, but I've recently switched over to PC after having played on Xbox and Mac for almost three years, and in that run I've endured numerous crashes that erased hours of gameplay, so...well, who knows. I certainly don't, which is why I won't be judging anybody else's approach. As you've said, there's no one right way to play the game. That's a big part of what makes it so special.

[@Zaknafein]

This was a good reflection, thank you.

[@Sheldezare]

Coming from someone who plays PZ a lot where you can run for who knows how many months, with a rather dull grind in many points - nah, that was legitimate. I wish PZ had a way to continue a save like TLD, it really hurts to invest so much only to die to some bug you had no way to deal with.

[@jamesmcdonald3054]

I strongly believe that Hinterland is in the process of tweaking, balancing and polishing the "Kitty Killer" badge and we'll see its new form eventually.

[@antonrobert2170]

14:05 New Hinterland logo sucks, feels corporate and soulless

[@yarro1965]

I see it this way: In a normal game, if the cougar fiasco had never happened, you would have that badge. The fact that the fiasco did happen, just means you had to fiddle with the game a bit to remind the game that you did, in fact, get the badge.

[@Jorthan99]

A legacy badge is a slap in the face especially considering the buff. Badge with no buff, fine. A buff u can no longer get. Not fine. If hinterland leaves it there at least give us a new one that's got an equivalent buff or the same buff imo.

[@LoneWolf543]

You earned the badge fairly and I was about to suggest you do exactly what you finally did!

[@CakeorDeath420]

Honestly, I feel the same way about 4DON badges too. I bought the game after those events and for someone like me who likes to complete games to 100% (not all games though, I'm not that OCD) AND how much I love playing TLD, seeing those 4 badges unaccomplished makes me a bit annoyed. If they felt the cougar v1 had to be remodeled, then the badge should go (esp considering it was on for just 4 days). Have a new badge in its place with an appropriate kill count or whatever (like kill a cougar in every region or something to offset the "easier" cougar v2).

[@MaxTVx]

You deserved the badge. I see nothing wrong here although I understand why it felt wrong.

[@gmclucy]

They really ought to just do away with the legacy badge or replace the new thing with something else

[@farleyboy1968]

Hi, I have an idea. Perhaps Hinterland could update the original badge to be called Couger Hall Of Fame badge? There could be a special framed photo of the original cougar that could only be crafted if you have the badge. Remove any ingame benefits of this badge beyond the satisfaction of knowing you were one of the first to hunt the cougar.

[@Riccardo_Mori]

You fulfilled the requirements to obtain that badge. You went above and beyond to obtain it legitimately, wasting extra time in the process. I understand how you feel very well, but I think you deserve the badge all the same. What Hinterland should have done was to remove the badge altogether when they removed the first cougar iteration. Cheers, and happy 2025! //Rick

[@daveh4106]

All one can control is one's perception, and ones perception is tied to the motivation leading to the act. If the motivation was merely get the award (pride, etc) vs to overcome an injustice caused by a fault or bug.

[@emmasmith1983]

The wording on the badge is different. In the original, it says kill 3 cougars but the current ‘legacy’ feat says kill 3 in a single game. Could that be the reason you didn’t get it straight away? The kills were across multiple saves?

[@Zaknafein]

Yes, that might be it

[@VladamirInhaler]

What they SHOULD do is bring back the old Cougar attacks as a random event - when it was first introduced it was too much because that was the only way to encounter the Cougar, but it would make sense that if you linger around a Cougar's area too long that you would get totally ambushed by this stealthy Apex predator. In "fixing" it I think they've gone from one extreme to the other - a combination of both the old and new I think would be most immersive. So.... if they DID bring back an element of the "random ambush" they absolutely could bring back this badge - and have it kill three cougars following an ambush struggle.

[@sejt23]

yeah they overcompensated while not even fixing one of the main issues, the hud.

[@okclm]

I've seen other content creators achieve this badge by simply not upgrading TLD from the version (2.29) 1.0 Cougar. Then they spent months grinding through the Cougar encounters until they achieved the badge. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with your approach. A wise man once said "If you are still alive, you are not doing it wrong." And if the developers have an issue with any of that, they can make it different. Carry on young man! 😀

[@johnnyburton5527]

you defiantly got the badge on legit terms. To me its like you won the trophy but was then handed the keys to go get it out of the case.

[@ohyknow9480]

That’s such a cool way to look at it

[@universalpain7216]

Congrats on the badge! Sometimes it takes a lil smarts. Nothing wrong with having smarts.

[@dreamingwilderness]

I really appreciate the psychological description of your feelings about this. Thank you for your work and for your ...humanity! 🤗

[@krugozor3904]

Thanks to your comment section under the community post gotta mention that feat_masterhunter 1 command can be used instead of unlocking all feats since not all people managed to grind for their 100 snares or 1k campfires still.

[@tepon1fani]

Btw, the Hinterland logo animation is there just to cover up a bug: at startup, the game gives you all your badges back, and that triggers the "badge received" wolf-howl sound effect. If you hit Esc just before the logo appears, you will hear it when entering the main menu!

[@Zaknafein]

Hm I have noticed that, never knew why. Thanks!

[@joeveiga8560]

I lost and had to recoup half my badges after the the DLC update and split of Story and Survival. Not good.

[@madeofmandrake1748]

They need to reintroduce this badge and make it attainable again (with a possible nerf to its effectiveness, I've seen how close you can get to some wildlife), or make it so you cannot equip it in-game at all. Or at least don't show the empty slot to players who can no longer get it anyway. Constantly being reminded of a badge that I cannot get anymore no matter what is kind of demoralizing. That hole there kind of dissuades me from collecting the less useful badges, since collecting 100% of them is impossible.

[@candlemancer7852]

As someone who went through pretty much the same process, I feel very similarly. It really causes a lot of internal debate when you feel like you earned the badge, but the game just doesn't give it to you for whatever reason. Ultimately, the question that helped me settle this debate was asking how I would act if this was any other badge that could be unlocked in the game, not just one that had been removed from the game. Also, I think the console command specific for the Big Cat Killer badge is `feat_masterhunter 1`. You should also be able to use the console to remove the badge by running `feat_masterhunter 0` as well, if you decide in the end that you don't want to have earned the badge this way (say if Hinterland releases a new way to unlock this badge).

[@Zaknafein]

That is good to know, thank you!

[@CinnamonKnightEntertainment]

Zak, you are a good guy. The struggle you have had over the badge proves that. If i could id go tell the devs to open it up for you so you can earn it in a way you feel is legitimate.... im not going to say you are some super famous influencer in the community, but this testimony needs to sway them.

[@yaroslavvpavlenkoo359]

I extremely want this badge because usually try to avoid hostile animals in game, but I want to get in legit way. Great video, thanks

[@mh060168]

@Zaknafein I killed the Cougar 3 times in the 5 day window and got the badge, in Voyager with a rifle if I recall corectly, and it transferred to the latest version as expected. I got all mine on a single save which may be the the thing that triggers the achievement, and in each instance made sure that I stood in the middle of a lake with no obstructions. I don't use it though as it just makes the game, even in Interloper, way to easy. In interloper you can almost tap the wolves and bears on the nose without them reacting so you can just about charge around unhindered - not really the point of Interloper. I am finding the other tales badge (Settled Mind?) useful in interloper while playing with the trader however as it makes passing time/sleeping in the garage easy while waiting for the radio to become active. I think this is reasonable given that you have to sacrifice another feat for the luxury of no Cabin Fever.

[@brodygray744]

Honestly a huge mistake from Hinterland. "Didn't play hour and hours of our game during these four days before we changed our own fuck up? Eat shit lmao"

[@JonathanRossRogers]

TIL that there are bugs in The Long Dark.

[@djzonex3539]

Cougar badge: PC - unlock via console comand is unfair. If you could unlock via "Time capsule" mode and unlocking in old version is fair and should transfer to new version of the game. I do not see why developers restrict community from getting by very short time window. Well... They could change conditions for getting... Example: in new version kill 10-20 cougars. Seems fair...

[@chadwright7614]

Just wanna say I appreciate the fact you put D H Dunns name in your video. He's a great content creator I wouldn't have found otherwise . That being said you deserve the badge

[@presidentbruh401]

I can share a similar story. I have all the achievements for doom 2016. I did them all legimitately. The ones for grinding mp, the one for beating a level on ultra nightmare, I did them all with no glitches. Except one little rat. Iddqd. Collect all runes. A task I did, I even got the one for upgrading every rune, but this one didn't pop. I tried replaying the trials, I tried all kinds of foolish tactics, yet that remained a stain on my path to 100%. In the end I did cave, and used an achievement hacker. I felt conflicted as well. In the end it's cruel to deny you your completion, to withhold the fruits of your labor, is it not? That's my take on it all anyways.

[@richkng]

In my eyes you more than earned the badge.

[@reV_sh]

For the Badge not unlocking after updating "back to the future" version; the game didnt migrate your save file with the badge to the new version because you already had a save for the new version; there are multiple user001. files %localappdata%\Hinterland\TheLongDark referring to each state of your save when switching to a new version; if one would use the old version, and only then updates to the latest version it should stay in the profile

[@MunkeyKung]

I think Hinterland should send you a physical Big Cat Killer badge for all your dedication to their game.

[@MacDelta]

After thousands of hours, how are you not bored? There are many games out there.

[@Zaknafein]

I enjoy being in the world of TLD. I have a previous video about it.

[@williebrort]

There's no cheating others in a singleplayer game. You can only cheat yourself out of pleasure by (not) doing something.

[@antonhystrix]

Removing the cougar 1.0 completely was one of the stupidest decisions. Many people including me didn't have a chance to even try it, because it was available less than a week. And after that they locked the badge instead of just removing it. Typical Raphael. Now I tried the new cougar and it sucks a bit too. So I can't even try the old one to compare. And can't get the badge legitimately using the proper way. Very sad that Raph is so impulsive and takes criticism very badly so he removes the feature so fast because he feels offended and embarassed.

[@SlippedGear]

In the grand scheme of things, it does not matter.

[@VoidEternal]

I was working on unlocking this badge for like 3 days straight before they FINALLY decided to tell us, "Oh yeah, it's disabled lmao. My bad". Fucking.... infuriating.

[@eduardschlegel6963]

I think you definetly earned it Zak. You did kill three cougars legitametly, so don't feel bad about it. But in all honesty, they should change that feat because it basically breaks the game since you can practically get within 3 feet of distance. Something like "Aura of Death" (Increased wolf fear, possible Bear/Moose Fear) would be reasonably powerful/interesting.

[@kraze1982]

You deserve it Zak in ever sense of the word!

[@hamsters7760]

It's a toy. If you want to play with it and it's fun, do. If it's not fun or you don't want to use it, don't. The only malfeasance would come in misrepresenting the process, and even then it'd be pretty low key. Game on.

[@outdoorsjoe1]

You earned it! You put the time in and you deserve it. Not your fault the game was glitched.

[@Bashrobe]

Interesting, I was like 95% sure killing 3 cougars on the old version would work, I was quite surprised it didn't. I wonder why you had to kill the console spawned cougar for the badge to trigger. The progress bar for the badge never really worked IIRC, even when I got it back in June before they officially removed it, it was frozen at 0% until the badge unlocked. As for porting the badge to up to date version, I suspect it didn't work for you because you already played the current version, and also some versions in between (it's been 6 months after all). So the profile file was already created and that somehow prevents porting the profile progress. Profile porting to newer versions is weird, I tried the same with 4don 2018 badge in October and really struggled. Granted, it's been 6 years since that version and saves broke with FA patch, but I think it's the same issue in the end. I managed to port it to current version somehow after 3 hours of trying and almost giving up. I think if you copied away all your saves and profile files from the save folder, except the save / profile folder with the badge, and then loaded the newer version, it would port with no issues.

[@Zaknafein]

Thanks, Bash. My main suspect is that it had to be 3 cougars on the same save, not across saves.

[@hdhsJkkll]

Zak, I have a cool idea for a challenge. When I was playing the hunted challenge, I noticed that FastFilm actually does spawn here, so the camera should spawn as well. So here the challange: get the camera in Sundered Pass and take a picture of the Ol Bear :D not sure how hard this would be

[@Zaknafein]

Haha now there is a fun idea. Might do that. "The Old Photographer"

[@galle93]

You can still get the badge on PC via consol commands. So if you really want it: its a single player game, just cheat.

[@Zaknafein]

Did you see how I got it? :)

[@galle93]

@@Zaknafein haha, nice. sorry i have had not enough time to watch the whole thing in the morning. now i see your solution. ;)

[@mrwalter7205]

Cougar 1.0 FOREVER.... Rip 🙏

[@isaaco5679]

If we could toggle between them that would keep most happy. I would love to go back to the original.

[@Lyoko42o]

If you had shut off auto-update + install on PS4/5 during Cougar 1.0 a day before the update to remove it for the pending rework... couldnt you technically still get the badge BEFORE initializing the new patch that would of been released on the June 28th?

[@Ashen_Night116]

You've killed the cougars legitimately, that's all there is to it. You deserve to get what you earned, and developer incompetence should not inhibit you otherwise.

[@mrwalter7205]

Hinterland hates console players... change my mind 😢 They're never removing that badge. It will stay locked for all of us forever just like all the other locked achievements I'll never be able to get

[@Vaguer_Weevil]

Wait what achievements are locked?

[@timewizard98]

​@@Vaguer_Weevil Maybe he's talking about the badges in the Challenges menu? Like Winter's Embrace, Escape the Darkealker, etc..

[@mrwalter7205]

@@timewizard98 yeah, those are what I was talking about.

[@deanwarsore]

Badge obtained: Moonwalking cougar

[@CummyPancakes]

Nothing is unobtainable with a bit of coding knowledge or steam wizardry.

[@mwilliford1982]

This is what happens when you give a philosopher is given a moral dilemma!

[@kibblestherexouium4775]

i killed 3 of them.. and i still have my badge.welcome to how the profile file works

[@Grosswick]

I hate the fact they pulled that feat from the game the way they did. I'm playing game somwhat casually and I'd just like to play around with the big cat killer. I missed the few days the old cougar was implemented and now it feels like you need to cheat in order to get the badge. TLD in my opinion is the last game you could expect FOMO, yet they somehow managed to pull that off. lol.

[@paulgerald1985]

Yes, you earned the feat legitimately. Think of it as a trophy though; something to look at and be proud of earning, but that is it.

[@ShawnSharp-v1w]

Honestly I’ll watch you still it’s a game at the end of the day

[@peteblazar5515]

Did anyone noticed a cabin fever bug, I spent almost all day outside and a risk of cabin fever didn't go down (from 79%)? (160th day on Interloper).

[@jadenwhite9354]

Kind of off topic but I need some help. I’ve been wanting to try the darkwalker challenge, but every single time I attempt to load up a game, long dark crashes every single time without fail. I’m on an Xbox one, so old gen may play a part in it. But I tried looking up solutions to no avail. I was wondering if anyone here had any possible solutions, I’d appreciate it

[@SHTF1979]

Yep, I'm on Xbox series X and really want to do Darkwalker but it crashes everytime I set up the run 😖 extremely frustrating as I want that feat.

[@grandpacabbage3835]

I play on xbox and i used to have the game clips, i killed 12 in one run on the old version and i never got the badge, So i made a new run and killed it 4 more times and never got the badge lol. i was pissed then it got taken out the next day. Keep in mind the 12 kills is in 1 run then 4 in the next run

[@Zaknafein]

Then you should have it. Thats weird

[@grandpacabbage3835]

@@Zaknafein Yeah i contacted hinderland but no reply so i just ended up wiping those saves completely because we have a small amount of save room on console. it also doesnt help that im on console so i cant go about getting it even though i earned it. it made me super upset

[@TuxxyCat]

i got lucky and killed 3 cougars in the short time the feat was available, im so happy i have it

[@ordinarynocturne]

I understand the conflict, but I think you were in the right to unlock it via dev console. As you said, you had more than earned it-- and actually did earn it, but lost it for whatever programming reason. You were fixing an error. As you already had the rest of the feats, it wasn't as if you were skipping past earning those. Off-topic, would you be interested in playing a game like Planet Crafter? It is a survival game of sorts, but it's a lot more relaxed than TLD. It does have hard and custom modes, though, if you want to amp up the difficulty. No worries if it's not your thing, I just really love the game alongside TLD. They're really the only two I play anymore.

[@Zaknafein]

Thanks. Maybe Planet Crafter one day. Sounds fun.

[@arenaq]

I think they should come up with another way to get this trait, so that newer players can catch up. Or if they think that this trait is somehow game-breaking in a way of game balance, then they should just remove it alltogether to all people I guess.

[@wattzongaming8138]

Im just about to do this when i get home from work today. It simply isnt a fair chance to get the feat within a short window. I havent actually encountered a cougar at all in the new version of the game. Ill just have access to the perk on my next run. No regrets as by that time ill have killed many cougars in my interloper run.

[@Reprotech730]

I played Minecraft and mined out a whole mountain and build a castle where the mountain was. Got the diamonds and had the massive tunnel mines to prove I earned everyone. One day I realized how easy it was to console command as many diamonds as I wanted. Never played again. Happened the same on a few other games. Now I never go looking for console commands and wish you had not showed me that the long dark has that in it too. I’m guessing all games might but happier grinding away not knowing that.

[@gigel743]

It’s a bit disappointing that you’ve stayed neutral on Hinterland’s decision to lock a feature behind FOMO without offering your opinion on whether this practice belongs in a game like this. Feedback from prominent KZbinrs like yourself is incredibly valuable, as Hinterland often prioritizes input from those who promote their game for free. In your video, saying that you "deserved it" rather than addressing the fact that many players didn’t even have the chance to test it feels like you’re just trying to stay in Hinterlands's good graces by containing the narrative just to yourself. Please, be more vocal about issues like this, even if in most cases, they don’t directly affect you. Your opinion makes a difference, and calling out stupid practices is a good thing.

[@Zaknafein]

Thank you for your input. It is noted.

[@slinbob8082]

Agreed. I love tld and hinterland but they need to be pushed a bit more on silly things as this. This feat sounds useful but most players cannot use it.

[@syberfang7890]

So maybe I am wrong here, but maybe, just maybe you didn't get the badge before because you didn't kill 3 cougars in one save? When you re-obtained it we saw you kill all 3 cougars in that same save, and maybe in your past you only ever killed 1 or 2 per save and not 3 or more in any one save in particular.

[@Zaknafein]

If I had to guess, you are right.

[@moonraker2634]

Appreciate you sharing your inner struggle with this conundrum, it's rare that people will share these inner thoughts and process. Personally I feel they have handled this poorly. They should have simply removed it from the game. Calling it a 'legacy' feat has just confused the situation for something that I think from what they said, will be reworked as a new Feat for the new Cougar. The fact it was only possible to obtain it in such a small window of opportunity, and being a brand new encounter (for most) meant the vast majority of players never even had a chance to gain the feat, which is pretty strong from reading the details. Other past feats that became legacy I will never have simply as I did not play then and that's fine. They were available to all for a decent amount of time. This feels different. In the end, was it 'Fun'?; was it the incidental bonus for completing a true challenge, an ultimate reward in itself (that memory, that story to tell)? Or, was it driven by the instinctive urge to tick one more box in a digital world...? Thanks again for sharing the experience.

[@kateferguson7705]

So It had to be done on a single game not over multiple play throughs. That explains why I never got it.

[@beetleb3657]

Im sure they will rework it.

[@jabbott6748]

I killed kitty 4 times in it's first go and still have 0/3 for this badge. The badge just felt bugged to me. I have all 4 cougars knives and all 4 cougar hide wraps on the 4 games I killed it on. Still 0/3. So anyone that has this badge is a cheater? Feels like what you're saying. I know I earned it and still don't have it, and I would have to use mods and cheating to get something I earned legitimately? This sux.

[@katharina235]

Hey i'm having trouble with my mods since the last update. They used to work but i can't open developersconsole [F1] anymore. Does anybody know if there is a new version of that or has any idea how to fix that? Reddit wasn't very helpful Thanks!

[@Zaknafein]

Best to ask in the TLD modding Discord

[@robertfakename9530]

Nice video. IMHO you have a bit of a perfectionist worrying so much about a badge that you won't use anyway. Let it go brother. I still enjoy the video, because the game modification process is interesting to me. Possibly, you need to be connected to the internet to obtain badges. Thank you especially for your road to 500 series.

[@isaaco5679]

I really wish we could toggle between cougar 1.0 and 2.0. I would probably prefer 1.0.

[@rkhtbr]

can u please put download to this save file

[@Himbraut_ttv]

What a journey...! Nice to know, I thought it would be possible with time capsule :( But its possible to get this feat with console, yes

[@AprilSunshine]

Cougar 1.0 needs to come back as a toggle

[@LEMUR_JJ]

I think it is impossible to not feel guilty about it as you had to cheat it in. Even if you did it legit before but never got the badge. But at the end of the day you should have had it, so it is what is, and I don't think you are in the wrong!

[@BryanKoenig379]

You shouldn't feel bothered at all that you had to cheat to get the badge you deserve it you love this game and you have it now. Enjoy it I say ❤

[@ghostsstarwars1929]

Got a curious question can you do what happened to the Canadian military and government in the long dark?

[@Sev3617]

You didn’t do anything wrong imo. You’re good man.

[@sarahferreira6937]

Wait…so the cougar was taken out of the game again?

[@Zaknafein]

No, what gave you that idea? :)

[@sarahferreira6937]

@ my mistake, I must’ve misunderstood. I only “encountered” the cougar once, but it disappeared with the recent update and I was just so confused.

[@MrandMrsQuack]

hey zak, i cant get dev console working i think its outdated. how did you do get it working? Edit: I rewatched the video i see you reverted updates. please ignore me 😰

[@mikeloeven]

Someone will make a mod to fix this badge to unlock killing the new cougar so just wait for that

[@simonw3858]

I can't express how much i hate that there is a badge that's unobtainable and for the dumbest reasons. Either remove it entirely or better yet change the parameters so people can still obtain it. There's really no excuse for it being there but unable to achieve it. That's just pure laziness and poor design.

[@Gearless03]

It supposed to be on your active feats not with new another run just like the Settle Mind badge when you finished the tales..

[@GikamesShadow]

Personally, although you have achieved the very thing that should have given you the badge, considering that its no longer available without cheats means you also should no longer be able to get it. HOWEVER I do believe that considering it is indeed a feat to even do this, players should be awarded at the very least an achievement. My main thing is that as it is already no longer available without cheating, it will be taken out eventually. So you kind of went through all the trouble to get a temporary dopamin kick. Is it worth it? Thats for you to decide. I personally would probably revert to an earlier save as this one would feel tainted to me now.

[@illuminati1866]

Thx!

[@donbeary6394]

I feel less conflicted in that you really did legitimately earn the badge and only used a cheat to get the badge you rightly earned , but, even still I can understand your unease that it did not happen "naturally"

[@Draconicacidic]

I agree that the whole thing should just be removed.