Foraging

Foraging is the process of searching the world for harvestable Flora Wildlife across Great Bear Island, either for the purposes of Cooking, Fire Starting, First Aid, or even for crafting Tools. Many plants and fungi can be found relatively easily while traveling across the Island, and can be the key to surviving for long periods of time.

Foraging is often a very quick process that often requires no tools to pick or gather Flora from bushes, conifer tree stumps, or from plants growing out of the ground.

Types of Flora

There are two types of items obtained from Flora in the game world; directly or indirectly harvestable Flora items:

Direct Harvesting Flora

Directly harvesting Flora simply requires the player to walk up to and click on the plant/fungus, where it will be turned into an item for the player:

Item	Found	Notes
Cat Tail Stalk	Harvest  Cat Tail	1 Cat Tail produces 1 Cat Tail Stalk
Cat Tail Head	Harvest  Cat Tail	1 Cat Tail produces 1 Cat Tail Head
Rose Hips	Rose Bushes	8 Rose Hips are harvested from 1 Rose Bush
Reishi Mushrooms	Conifer Stumps	2-3 grow on stumps
Old Man's Beard Lichen	Hanging from certain trees	2-3 hang from trees

• 
  Cat Tail
• 
  Rose Bush
• 
  Green Rose Bush
• 
  Reishi Mushroom
• 
  Old Man's Beard Lichen

Some plants require a tool to harvest however:

Item	Found	Tool	Notes
Burdock Root	Burdock	Hunting Knife  Improvised Knife Cougar Claw Knife  Hatchet  Improvised Hatchet  Prybar	1 Cat Tail produces 1 Cat Tail Stalk
Green Maple Sapling	Maple Sapling	Hatchet  Improvised Hatchet  Hacksaw	1 Cat Tail produces 1 Cat Tail Head
Green Birch Sapling	Birch Sapling	Hatchet  Improvised Hatchet  Hacksaw	8 Rose Hips are harvested from 1 Rose Bush
Stick	Scrub Brush	Hatchet  Improvised Hatchet Bare Hand	A single Scrub Brush gives 7 Sticks/ Patches give 12 Sticks (patches cannot be harvested Bare Handed)

• 
  Burdock
• 
  Maple Sapling
• 
  Birch Sapling
• 
  Scrub Brush
• 
  Scrub Brush Patch

Indirect Harvesting Flora

Item	Found
Acorns	Near Oak Trees
Birch Bark	Near Birch Trees
Fir Firewood	Near Fir Trees
Cedar Firewood	Near Cedar Trees
Stick	Near most Trees

• 
  Oak Tree
• 
  Birch Forest
• 
  Fir Limb
• 
  Cedar Limb
• 
  Large Cedar Limb

First Aid and Cooking

The natural world often provide many remedies for healing personal ailments. Afflictions can often be healed via man made First Aid items, but foraging can produce alternatives that can be produced repeatedly as the man made versions become more scarce. Cooking most forage at a Fire (after it has been prepared) produces First Aid tea.

They can also be cooked simply to create Food And Drink items made solely for their calories. All teas weigh 0.10kg and provide 100 calories for Hunger and 30% hydration for Thirst.

First Aid

The following items heal negative Afflictions:

Item	Requires	Cures
Reishi Tea	1  Prepared Reishi Mushrooms + 0.25L  Water (Potable)	Dysentery  Food Poisoning  Infection  Intestinal Parasites
Rose Hip Tea	1  Prepared Rose Hips + 0.25L  Water (Potable)	Broken Ribs  Burns  Pain
Burdock Tea	1  Prepared Burdock + 0.25L  Water (Potable)	Dysentery  Food Poisoning  Infection  Intestinal Parasites

Some forage can also produce drinks that provide positive Affliction benefits:

Item	Requires	Benefit
Birch Bark Tea	1  Prepared Birch Bark + 0.25L  Water (Potable)	Restore Condition

Old Man's Beard Lichen can be crafted into an Infection suppressing bandage. Prepared Burdock is the only First Aid item that does not heal Afflictions, but can be either eaten for calories or brewed into Burdock Tea:

Item	Requires	Benefit
Old Man's Beard Wound Dressing	3 Old Man's Beard Lichen	Cures  Infection Risk
Prepared Burdock	1  Burdock Root	Can be eaten for 275 calories

Food and Drink

The following items can be cooked via forage found in the world:

Item	Requires	Calories	Benefit
Acorns (Cooked)	1  Prepared Acorns + 0.25L  Water (Potable)	100	None
Acorns (Cooked - Large Portion)	1  Prepared Acorns (Large Portion) + 0.25L  Water (Potable)	400	None
Cat Tail Stalk	Harvest 1  Cat Tail plant	150	None
Cup of Acorn Coffee	1  Acorn Grounds + 0.25L  Water (Potable)	100	Fatigue Reduced

Fire Starting

Foraging for Fire Starting fuel is an important part of surviving on the Island.

Item	Found
Cedar Firewood	Near Cedar Trees on Cedar Limbs
Fir Firewood	Near Fir Trees on Fir Limbs
Stick	Near any trees
Birch Bark	Near Birch Tree forests
Cat Tail Head	On Cat Tails

Trivia

• Originally, items could not be picked up in the game world at all. A menu option called Abstract Foraging was present during the Pre Alpha builds of the game that would allow the player to dedicated time to make the survivor find unseen usable materials/fuel in the world offscreen. The game would pass time and would often create very small item yields despite the amount of hours spent foraging. The Deep Forest Update removed this feature and instead preplaced items throughout the world for the player to pick up and added plants to forage.

Gallery

• 
  The Early Access Abstract Foraging option in the menu

Game History

• {{#switch:update|update=UPDATE|hotfix=HOTFIX|hidden=HIDDEN}} 31 July 2014{{#if:The Long Dark/Changelog#0.073| (Update)|}}:
• Added Abstract Foraging option to game.
• {{#switch:update|update=UPDATE|hotfix=HOTFIX|hidden=HIDDEN}} 1 August 2015{{#if:The Long Dark/Changelog#0.256| (Update)|}}:
  • Replaced Abstract Foraging with Direct Harvesting.

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