The Long Dark Decay - Preserving Food the Longest Possible

[@CmdrTom]

I do want to invite you to keep in touch on the platform of your choice. Twitter: twitter.com/cmdr_tom Discord Arcade: discord.gg/SFHmsqj7KE Facebook: tinyurl.com/18a6ol34

[@evobsm2328]

Btw if you put meat in a rock pile... it uhm... idk how but it DOESNT decay

[@ChaotiX1]

Keep in mind that meat gains 50% condition when cooked, so you can have completely ruined raw meat and still cook it, and it will be edible at 50%. So you dont always have to cook everything right away, especially if you're low on tinder or fuel. I tend to cook whatever I think I need to get me through the week, then store the rest outside. I'll cook some more when the raw meat drops to 50% condition, usually on a 6 burner stove, and that will last me weeks. When all the remaining raw meat has gone bad, I will just keep it stored outside until I need to cook more food because it doesnt really matter since it gets condition back anyway. Basically, your meat will last forever if stored raw. Keep in mind that you CAN store cooked meat forever and still be able to eat it rancid or ruined if you have cooking level 5. on my 170 day stalker run, I have hundreds of kilos of raw meat at each of my bases. Basically, I will never run out of food. It comes down to whether or not I have enough fire fuel to cook my food.

[@phillyhippie]

Where is this ⁶ burner stove? 🤔

[@ChaotiX1]

@@phillyhippie the one i'm talking about is in the farmstead in Pleasant Valley, I think the community hall might have one too but I cant remember

[@highonheroin5352]

@@phillyhippie there’s one in Gray Mother’s house in Mountain Town; Farmstead in Pleasant Valley like the OP replied; then there’s one in Broken Railroad at the Hunting Lodge at the top of the rope climb between the hunting blind and bear cave, but I think the rope is absent until you walk all the way around and uphill to & throw it down.

[@eliansalinas7022]

Extremely valuable information

[@josephpostma1787]

On the 170th, what killed you?

[@pluke4523]

i died from eating expired beans

[@RHans621]

you can get some similar sentences out of a ouija board if at least 2 users are either high or drunk

[@larryjenkins1965]

I believe quartering the bags also simulate keeping things like bones and other unusables. The amount of meat quartering vs harvesting is the same.

[@CmdrTom]

Thanks save me an experiment!

[@BoTheJo]

Yup. Quarter bags are like double the weight

[@ardent963]

I accidentally figured out cooked meat, stored outside, lasts longer. You did confirm that, and gave me more details. When I play, I prefer to focus on hunting bear and moose, and having a nice cache, cooked, outside, at each region's base. Good video. Thanks for the info!

[@Hollowpoint762]

The Long Dark would be awesome with a multi player option, always wanted the chance to see my friends freeze to death in their sleep or get mauled by a bear lol

[@CmdrTom]

Mmm, remind me not to go camping with you. -shivering- "Please Dave, can I borrow a match." Dave: - laughs-

[@Hollowpoint762]

@84 LXGrit nothing wrong with being demented so long as you're determined lol

[@CowboybubPercussion]

Dave, let me referr you to a mod called… Long Dark Sky…

[@shin4673]

they have multiplayer right? check them out, it's working

[@Baboso1]

@@CowboybubPercussion has dave checked it out

[@theducksauce4851]

I love your presentation, thanks for the concise info.

[@benanderson6002]

I know this video is pretty old but your first point on containers, they do actually do something! They delete food after it reaches 0% I experienced this in PV at the Farmhouse when storing tatoes in the fridge. This does affect all containers I believe (checked cupboards as well)

[@resudog858]

They just delete ruined items in general :P Good way to dispose them

[@JamesHudson-m1n]

I was sat here cooking a potato listening to you on the long dark got really confused on what game I was playing I felt I was playing Fallout 3 listening to Wasteland radio with free dog😂 love it man keep up

[@luckywonderer4068]

thank you, this was hilarious and just as informative

[@mr_pukish]

"but wait, theres more!" killed me with laughter every time.

[@swimmingbird3240]

Canned goods go bad in the freezing because they can swell to the point that it breaks or breaks down the seal keeping them “canned.” You never want those left to the elements to freeze and thaw and potentially pop.

[@justinvoonderhoot6479]

something to keep in mind is that storing meat outside can attract predators. the farmhouse in pleasant valley is perfect because it has that closed outdoor patio on side of the house.

[@josephpostma1787]

I think that if you leave the meat in an outdoor container such as a coal bin, the cold preserves the meat just as well without the risk of predators eating your decoys.

[@Unknown-lf2kl]

thank you this video was a very well informed I must say I was ready to click off the video since you had the microphone in a settings that kind of reminded me of many scammer videos but I must say I am happily surprised that this was not a scammer video and I'm glad that you made this video this will help me a lot thank you

[@CmdrTom]

You are welcome. And If I may, I love your user name. Very clever

[@blueshell292]

No wonder you were this much of an expert on survival in the freezing apocalypse. You sound like you were radioing in from Antarctica

[@cyrus05w]

Thank you for this information and time within effort that you have put forth to produce this material and so much more it seems I've noticed.

Watching this, I feel like I'm back to colledge. amazing job! Thank you for that amazing content!! Keep up the good work!!!!

[@JohnDoe-uz7mq]

Maybe you should go back to college and learn how to spell college

[@jakeroney8031]

I was so excited when I killed my first moose. I quartered it and carried the 10 or so bags back to my base. I stored them outside in the wood shed. Went out exploring for several days and came back to restock on meat. My cooked steaks just laying in the snow were still there, but the quartered bags had vanished! I thought that perhaps the wolves got to it. 70lbs of meat gone… I learned the hard way lol.

[@Kiernan162]

Hey just picked this game back up and was very frustrated but this has helped me so much I can’t explain how confused I was. Big help keep up the good work

[@Jinnuksuk]

I leave excess raw meat outside to delay decay as much as possible. But even when they're ruined (0%), cooking them restores 50% so technically you can keep meat indefinitely. I've had a bunch of wolf meat by the time I mastered cooking (no more food poisoning or contracting intestinal parasites) so after reaching cooking level 5, I had enough food to start crafting for days.

[@Jinnuksuk]

Just had to be mindful of the Cabin Fever...

[@ChaotiX1]

@@Jinnuksuk I installed a mod to get rid of cabin fever. It's a stupid mechanic. No sane person would go crazy from being indoors if it kept them alive and out of the elements.

[@ChaotiX1]

@@seldomseenn many many Alaskans don't have enraged packs of wolves patrolling their homes every waking minute of every day, waiting to charge at you if you dare set foot outside.

[@CmdrTom]

Which brings up the question If goose become geese Why are moose not meese ;)

[@ChaotiX1]

@@CmdrTom that's what I call them, don't you?

[@BoTheJo]

Great video watched every bit. Much appreciated and subbed

[@tlangworthy21]

I know there is some debate about this in the community but there is little reason somebody cannot get to level 5 cooking and harvesting within about two weeks in game. That makes decay, of food at least, not a factor. Good advice on cooking outside. Boiling water, cooking food and carcass harvesting outside are great ways to eliminate any risk of cabin fever. One thing to consider on harvesting or quartering is how close the kill is to your base or a shelter. The carcass will stay there for several days so going back and forth and recovering the maximum amount of food is always a better choice.

[@strategieswithsasquatch]

Congrats on 500, well past now. Cool video, I learned something today.

[@yetidoesstuff228]

I mean your in the Canadian winter we’re snow is always there. Just put some snow in a filing cabinet and your meat should last a long time. If they wanted to make it harder, they could make a system were you can dry your meat, and salt it. This would make it last up to 150 days. Good video man.

[@CmdrTom]

Totally agreed... those temps that keep freezing me. IRL.. I am moving a filing cabinet outside and storing my meat there. If it doesn't have one already, I could figure out a lock against critters.

[@IvanLDiaz]

Disagree. Snow would melt in a cabinet indoors, even if you don't make a fire inside the house. Half a day in, and you'll have a humid cabinet and wet meat decaying thrice as fast.

[@porcus123]

Got my first deer kill with a bow only to die freezing because of the time it took to harvest, gg.

[@CmdrTom]

I feel you. On a live stream, I froze to death chopping wood. Irony did not make it hut less

[@Ugh718]

@@CmdrTom Isn't there a cancel button that y'all can click so that DOESN'T happen in the future or sthg(bottom right corner of the screen)?XD

[@sejt23]

@@Ugh718escape key

[@jexunknown]

This really helped! Thanks!

[@CmdrTom]

This is what I am here for. Check out the Tip & Tricks playlist. Lot more there.

[@AsteraVirgo]

Thankyou so much this video has been a great help for stalker

[@captainmego9324]

Keep it up I do like Ur video 😉

[@CmdrTom]

Thank you very much

[@zioming]

The main reason you would store your food in a car trank is to be able to easily sort through all the items anyway.

[@smallvilledvd1988]

Great video and advise, keep up the good work. Get to da Choppa! 😂

[@CmdrTom]

Thank you!.. Sometime I feel like all my jokes do is date myself

[@smallvilledvd1988]

@@CmdrTom Having a good sense of humor is always the key to make your subs laugh and happy, keep up the good work on the TLD 👍

[@jamesgriffith443]

Awesome video dude 👌 thank you

[@Dud079]

you remind me of those khan academy videos

[@coryfrazer2086]

Much helpful thank you

[@CmdrTom]

Glad it helped

[@FFgamesftw]

Whenever you cook an item you add 50% to the condition of the item. So the ideal scenario is Store outside raw until 50% then cook and store the cooked meat outside. This gets you the longest total time on your mear.

[@FFgamesftw]

Also as a follow up, as long as the cooked meat is 80%+ condition you have no risk of food poisoning (obviously no longer a concern once level 5 cooking) so you have 50% raw and 20% cooked duration to eat that meat.

[@josephpostma1787]

So, to avoid potential parasites, you should cook your raw meat before it goes below 30% condition?

[@FFgamesftw]

@@josephpostma1787 parasites is a different beast and this is just referring to food poisoning. Parasites is on Stalker/Interloper whenever you eat predator meat. The only way to get rid of parasites risk is to be level 5 cooking. Cooked meat once level 5 will never give parasites.

[@kevak1236]

@8:02 are you sure about 0.083%, don't you mean 0.83%? 0.083% would be 1,200 days from 100% to 0%. Also, Pork & Beans are also better stored indoors according to the wiki. Good vid tho for new players, just a couple of glitches

[@andrewnfalco]

I didn’t know they still sold old WWI submarine microphones

[@CowboybubPercussion]

BUT WAIT, THERES MORE!!!! Cooking can actually RESTORE some decay in raw meat, which means if you keep your meat raw and outdoors and then cook it all later and store it as cooked meat outdoors YOUR MEAT WILL LAST EVEN LONGER!!!!

[@onlyeatapples3166]

Great video big help just took down first bear 🐻 and panicked when it took me 2 days to haul the meat back

[@Seriously_Unserious]

I'd say it's time for an update on this, with the new content adding new recipes to consider in deciding when to cook your meat. Also, if you really want to max out the lifespan of your meat, if you let it decay while raw to about 50%, then cook it, it'll restore 50% of it's cnd, back up to 100%. So you can store it however long it takes to decay from what it was when you harvested it to 50%, cook it and it's right back to 100% and will keep at the cooked meat rate of decay for however long that lasts. You also don't need to just slap the slab of meat on a cooking spot, but can choose what to cook it into, provided you have the right ingredients, such as making a stew which, like herbal tea, gives you the improved rest benefit, as well as increasing the amount of calories you get from your meat. You can also cook up meat pies, if you have raw meat, flour and a frying pan, which gives you a temporary +3kg boost to carry weight, which can be huge if you're a couple of kilos over capacity and need to clime a rope to carry on. Cooking these recipes can even restore meat from ruined to edible. EG you have a ruined raw venison steak of at least a half a kilo. You combine it with flour and broth in a large pot, and cook it up into venison stew. It recovers its condition back to full, (you're boiling the venison for over an hour after all), and get a restorative stew to help speed up your own cnd recovery. Keep in mind these meat containing recipes are still smelly, so be aware of then when you decide if you want to carry them around with you or leave them at your base.

[@andrewbauer2563]

I got food poisoning from 52% sardines

[@CmdrTom]

RNG is a cruel mistress. Condolences. A candy bar gave to me once.

[@AnneDalton82]

@@CmdrTom a candy bar giving internal parasites.. that's a new one lololol

[@rodeocowboy6046]

So have you tested the rock cache you can make? Does it keep the condition slow? Or does it work like storing inside?

[@yeetreviews]

when stored outside does it despawn after you leave that region or get eaten by wolves?

[@JahonCross]

New to the long dark and men this is a pain to learn everything lol

[@commanderbeepo8066]

It's already been said but by cooking even ruined meat, you add 50% condition to it. With a high enough cooking skill, you can eat literally anything, even ruined food without getting sick. Though raw meat will still make you sick, it's best to cook it.

[@Arahonoj]

I have noticed I lose pieces of meat outside sometimes though. I'll leave 5 pieces out back of the cabin I'm basing out of and go out there 2 ingame days later and theres suddenly only 4 pieces. I think wolves might steal some if they wander by.

[@CmdrTom]

Agreed, but if you hunt enough, you usually swim in meat. 1 or 2 pieces occasionally is minimal

[@oldveryveryoldmanfromthe1900s]

@john smith he was hungry

[@jetbean350]

It's a good thing I have my base in the pleasant valley farm, I leave my meat in the kitchen entry which has a door and walls, so wolf's can't get in and steal it

[@Arahonoj]

@@jetbean350 As much as I love TLD I wish it had a jump button so I could do things like leave meat on top of a car or something. And being able to get over a tiny ledge without having to path all the way around it 😅

[@LGaidjrg_non]

Thank you, this was really helpful! One question though, does keeping raw/cooked meat attract the predators towards your camp? Can they steal that food?

[@CmdrTom]

I believe, technically yes, wolves will eat some. Never witnessed. But the same reports I have heard have always been, "wolf eats 1 piece...runs off." So while I think it does happen, not enough to be great concern

[@LGaidjrg_non]

@@CmdrTom currently I'm at the pleasant valley farmstead and I keep my meat in that terrace with a door. Works just like outdoors, even though you get the inside warmth bonus. Again, thanks for the tip!

[@daysonstratton3275]

So no one ever talks about Cans I just found out that cans spoil and I’ve been saving mine for so long thinking that they didn’t just to come back to them being ruined

[@beowolf1186]

Actually containers do slow the decay rate. Idk by how much but I took 2 pain killers out of a stack of 6. Two weeks later the one I had on me were 2% lower than the ones in the container! This is playing on ps4 in 2023

[@rcsibiu]

Well on Interloper things are super bad.... I manage to kill a deer or wolf with my bow.... boom a blizzard hits me in the face..... for 2 DAYS!!!! I can't even harvest the pelt of that animal..... :( Bears? Moose? I just waste my arrows :( These 2 animals are some kind of arrow magnet and they flee with my arrows. I check the log and I notice I have just killed a bear. How? Through bleeding. Where is the body? Not even the crows can tell me. Why you might ask? Because blizzards everywhere......

[@josegabriel2878]

What do u mean by storing meat outside? Like ON THE FLOOR?

[@mantasbekesius6993]

Yes, on the ground!

[@josegabriel2878]

@@mantasbekesius6993 the wolfs dont eat it?

[@xykane]

@@josegabriel2878 maybe 1 or 2 pieces

[@jenniferstephanie7196]

What if the meats outside attract wolves

[@statekraft]

@10:28 Wtf was that did you cough up some bad bear meat?

[@CmdrTom]

That was a brush of the mic.. sorry

[@justinvoonderhoot6479]

could storing meat outside possibly attract predators?

[@JohnathanFallSeasonGuy]

I’m wondering why you don’t have the option to salt meat, :/

[@Tibor0803]

Well when it's bear or moose, I just harvest the hide and leave. If it's other animals, but not carnivores then for sure rabbits and are full harvests, while deers are quarterings. if the weather is bad, and I killed a moose, then I'll take only the moose's rare loot. His hide. To bring some guts for crafting I'll take the guts from other animals unlike moose. Because 1 hour in a really cold blizzard totally counts especially if you are far away from a decent sheltering for yourself. Moose hide is a must have resource, but everything else can be left behind for good.

[@frankjames1955]

i was wondering if you leave uncooked meat it in the snow for as long as you can JUST before it goes bad then ya cook it and leave it in the snow .. would that start the timer on cooked meat outside or 3 months period? if so you add 3 mouths duration for cooked meat PLUS the duration for uncooked meat in the snow

[@rododendron85]

Canned Pork is better kept indoors too

[@Chaya_Ashclaw]

what is with fridges and coolboxes do they help?

[@CmdrTom]

They do nothing. No power, remember? IRL I would be very hesitant to open fridges weeks after the power is out

[@lightningevo5429]

need an update

[@TheWtfnonamez]

Wise words. I just started a playthrough on stalker, stumbled across a full bear carcase and got greedy and tried to harvest the whole damn thing. I ended up almost frozen to death and so over encumbered that I could barely walk ... in a whiteout. It was a very short playthrough......

[@CmdrTom]

I know that pain

[@zioming]

When it comes to bunnies, doesn't a whole bunny smell less that a butchered one?

[@oldveryveryoldmanfromthe1900s]

Yup

[@Mustafa5937]

Shouldn't 200% mean 3x?

[@oleh3415]

it is 100% stalker * by two (200%). not + 200%

[@zechariahrurak3456]

Just leave it outside

[@YoungTummy]

You would make a great voice actor for an in game merchant or something lol... even a comedic narrator voice!

[@CmdrTom]

Thanks. I am looking into voice work

[@tikkidaddy]

If you want a GREAT TLD instructor watch Atheenon. He can answer so many questions, knows the maps like by memory, over 5 years in play and now almost exclusively plays Interloper. I just subbed and hit the bell....

[@tikkidaddy]

Get level 5 cooking...period. Keep your food out in the cold. Not in any container. With any cooked meat once you reach level 5 its safe to eat...cook th canned stuff too. Yes quarter game but harvest the quarters ASAP. Do not eat any raw meat including fish ever. That's a ticket to gut worms. Its also better to cook food and once again LEAVE IT OUTSIDE. At level 5 you can eat bear, wolf and most anything...just cook it first

[@cutelady77]

I think you’re immune to gut worms, but you can always get food poisoning from raw meat and fish, not cooked meat! Or any other food! Just don’t eat raw meat and you’re safe from ever getting sick.