Survival Mode/Interloper Tips

This page is a brief guide for players new to Interloper, the second most difficult experience mode in The Long Dark after the Misery mode.

Interloper is a mode where Great Bear Island has already been picked clean of anything useful by the time you arrive. The developers of The Long Dark have stated that the experience of Interloper is akin to "Survival on a knife's edge." You will ALWAYS have this metaphorical knife pressed against you as you play. Some days the knife will push deep inside you, while others it will just hang over you like the Sword of Damocles.

While challenging, Interloper can be a rewarding gameplay experience without seeming like a masochist chore. This page contains all the information you'll need to survive on Interloper.

Before You Start

KNOW. THE. MAPS.

This is the single most important game-tip for being successful in Interloper. If you have only played Story Mode and end up being spawned into a region you have never visited, your chances of surviving for more than a few in-game hours will be very low. Thoroughly explore Great Bear Island on at least Voyageur difficulty before starting Interloper so you know where to find food, shelter, materials, fireboxes, passages to other regions, dangerous wildlife chokepoints, bear dens, and facilites (beds, workbenches, forges, etc). You'll be spending as much time in the game trying not to freeze, so surveying should generally be avoided until later in Interloper runs. To avoid spending lots of time being frustrated at walking in circles and freezing to death, know the maps by experience.

One good way to learn the layouts and named locations of every map is to start a Survival game on Pilgrim and to aim for the Faithful Cartographer achievement. This will require you to survey every named location on the island and you'll learn from experience where every significant landmark and supply cache is located. If this sounds too time consuming, then consider visiting a designated wiki page for each Region and Transition Zone on this wiki, as they contain detailed maps useful for navigation.

"Where are all the Tools? Clothes? Anything!?"

Most tools necessary for your survival will be missing in order to increase difficulty and challenge for Interloper. You will start the game with a few low quality clothing items, some water, and no bedroll. The availability of supplies will be dialed down significantly, so you will have to check high and low inside buildings for any supplies as you make your way across the Island.

Hunting Rifles, Revolvers, Survival Knives, and Hatchets will not spawn. This one design choice separates Interloper from every other game mode, as it is almost impossible to hunt and harvest carcasses without these tools.

Likewise, the probability of finding Prybar, Hacksaws, Storm Lanterns, Flashlights, Can Openers, Simple or even Quality Tools will be extremely low, but you can find them if you look hard enough.

High quality food items such as MREs do not spawn at all, and even low quality food items are rare. Hunting and fishing are your only real way to acquire sustainable nourishment in this mode. Houses will still contain food and water, but the amounts will always be very low.

Matches will be your most precious resource and are often hard to find. They may seem impossible to locate, but the island will always have around 500+ matches for you if you search hard enough. (See Fire and Match Management later for more info)

Most high quality clothes will be missing, making any clothing you find your only way to stay warm indoors or outdoors, so take care of them whenever possible. Crafting animal furs will be required if you ever want to stop freezing to death on this mode, but without tools to hunt large game for their warm hides you'll need to...

Find a Heavy Hammer as soon as possible!

As stated previously, Survival Knives and Hatchets do not spawn on Interloper. As such, hunting and harvesting carcasses will be impossible until you acquire a Heavy Hammer to create Improvised Knives, Improvised Hatchets, and Arrowheads at a Forge. You can survive for at least 100 days by moving from region to region and surviving off of cat tails and packaged foods, but you WILL run out eventually and be forced to hunt. You'll want around 10 scrap metal in total: 5 for the hatchet, 3 for the knife, and 2 for making four arrowheads. Finding a hacksaw will make this easier, but it's not essential.

Fishing is not a good choice to make early in the game, as your fishing skill will be very low and you will not have the clothes or fuel to stay warm while ice fishing. As such, make finding a Heavy Hammer and navigating to a region with a forge to make these 3 critical tools is always your first long-term priority when starting Interloper.

Get used to being cold

Interloper is cold. VERY cold. Due to a lack of warm clothes, you'll constantly be freezing as you venture outside to find more supplies. If you're used to always having 100% Condition from other game modes, don't stress out that you're always getting too cold. Keep a cool head (pun not intended) as you move from building to building. Practice Daisy Chaining a torch in order to stay a bit warmer as you move from location to location. And always always ALWAYS travel in the evening when it is warmest. Always sleep for the longest period of time in order to regain as much Condition as possible, and never sleep for more than 10 hours (players dehydrate from full Hydration in 10 hours and start taking Condition damage on Interloper difficulty).

Even if you manage to find a Heavy Hammer on day 1, forge all the tools you need to hunt, kill a bunch of animals and cure their pelts, and then deck yourself out in 2 Bearskin Coats, 2 Deerskin Pants, 1 Deerskin Boots, a Rabbitskin Hat, Rabbitskin Mitts, and somehow find 2 Thermal Underwear, 2 Thin Wool Sweaters and 2 Wool Socks, the world will still get VERY cold by day 50 and your Warmth Need will often lower the second you step outside.

Get used to being cold all the time.

Choosing Feats

Since the game only allows 2 active Feats for Interloper, it's a good idea to learn which ones are best to use for the long term.

Cold Fusion (+2^oC warmth bonus), Snow Walker (faster Stamina regeneration) and Efficient Machine (reduced caloric consumption) are generally very good options, and useful throughout the game.
- Cold Fusion is arguably a mandatory Feat to take due to the coldness of the world.
Book Smarts can be useful in the early to mid-game, but becomes nearly useless later on.
Settled Mind is generally superior to Book Smarts as it both speeds up research and prevents Cabin Fever. This requres Tales from the Far Territory to be installed.
Blizzard Walker can improve quality of life and potentially save small amounts of condition by shortening travel time.
Expert Trapper can be useful throughout the game, although its effects can also be accomplished simply by crafting more snares.
Fire Master may seem useful, but Fire Starting can be raised relatively quickly by lighting a chain of campfires. All it takes is sticks and torches.
Straight to the Heart is of limited utility due to the lack of caffeinated beverages.
Free Runner is rarely useful: Fatigue drain during sprinting is usually a bigger concern than calories.
Celestial Navigator and the Darkwalker are essentially useless unless you're playing a custom Endless Night Interloper.

You may need to re-learn how to play the game to survive

The early days of any Interloper run will make or break that run. Being prepared with map knowledge, while helpful, is not enough to survive Interloper. Because Interloper is pretty much its own game due to missing clothes, tools, foods, and general lack of supplies, re-learning how to ration Calories and save Condition is a must.

Learning unofficial gameplay techniques like the previously mentioned Daisy Chaining, Hibernation, and Mountain Goating will help you preserve firestarter materials, save calories, and skip mountain climbing sections respectively. Beachcombing becomes much more important on this mode than any other difficulty due to the potential amount of renewable resources. Holding the sprint key drains sprint gage faster, but tapping it mid step allows you run farther distances and save stamina (and possibly outrun predators).

Collect Research Books but don't read them right away. Keep them handy until you have a better stockpile of calories and try to use them to pass time in the mornings as the outside world warms up. You will most likely not have the calories to read a 5 hour book in one sitting, so read in increments of 1 hour when possible. Don't bother researching Gunsmithing, Revolver Skill, and Rifle Skill as these skills are useless on Interloper. Don't fish until you reach at least level 2 Ice Fishing from researching, unless using tip-ups.

Save scumming is ok

No one likes a save scummer, but it can be helpful if you ever want to keep an 80 day save file that you spent 40 real world hours on alive. Nothing is more frustrating then getting very good at Interloper and then losing a month's or even years long run in seconds due to a poor mistake.

Making backup copies of your saves in case you die is a good idea for PC players. Alt+F4ing your game when you are jumped by a Bear or Wolf that will kill you is also one way to keep your save file alive.

If you feel that this is too dishonorable of a tactic, then consider just pausing and quitting the game before things get too hectic, then restarting back to your last save at a safe location. Keep in mind that the game can still autosave when you least expect it, and surviving on this tactic alone can be tricky, especially during Timberwolf encounters when you've taken damage.

Whether you want to take this advice or not is ultimately up to you, just play the game how you wish.

Spawning

On Interloper, you can't pick where you start on the Island, you will instead start in one of the following regions: Ash Canyon, Blackrock, Desolation Point, Forlorn Muskeg, Hushed River Valley, Pleasant Valley or Timberwolf Mountain.

The starting region the game chooses has some bearing on how easy/hard the run will be initially.

One of the worst regions to start in is Blackrock due to the region having a generous amount of Timberwolves. If you end up spawning in Blackrock, try to get to Timberwolf Mountain and then to Pleasant Valley as soon as possible.
Desolation Point could very well be one of the best starting locations in the game, as there is plenty of shelter between each indoor landmark and Coastal Highway is not far away. Hibernia Processing tends to be full of tools, and The Riken can be stockpiled with Scrap Metal early when you are ready to return to make tools. The Abandoned Mine No. 5 can be used to cut through the region quickly and to acquire coal.
Pleasant Valley is also a good region to start in, as it has a good amount of natural and manufactured resources scattered throughout. It is also close to Coastal Highway, another resource-rich region, and tool forging at Desolation Point is only a day's walk away in good weather.
Timberwolf Mountain can be a good start, if you can manage to find a hacksaw in the Mountaineer's Hut to open up the containers throughout the map.
Hushed River Valley doesn't offer many manufactured resources, but it does have rich natural resources and isn't far from Mountain Town. It also offers many guaranteed tool spawns and a Mackinaw Jacket, the best manufactured jacket available on Interloper.
Ash Canyon can enable you to get the Technical Backpack and Crampons early on. Despite being cold, large parts of the map are predator-free, which can help make survival a bit easier, especially when carrying around smelly meat, hides, or guts harvested from deer carcasses.
Forlorn Muskeg is also a good spawn region, as it has a lot of natural resources (especially cattails), and the open terrain makes it easy to see predators from far off -- though this makes it easy to get lost in fog. It is severely lacking in shelter and manufactured resources, so it is generally best to head for one of the neighboring regions, such as Broken Railroad or Mystery Lake, which are not very far away. You will likely want to return here, however, to use the forge at Old Spence Family Homestead.

Other maps

While you won't spawn in Bleak Inlet, Broken Railroad, Coastal Highway, Mystery Lake, Mountain Town or any of the Far Territory regions, it is worth knowing their characteristics and challenges, as you will likely be spending some time in these regions at the start of your runs:

Mountain Town has a lot of shelter in town and plenty of manufactured resources. The areas outside of town have a lot of natural resources, too. The biggest danger with this region is that it has a lot of wolves, which may ambush the player behind houses or vehicles.
Coastal Highway is arguably the easiest region to survive in, with plentiful shelter, resources, and warm temperatures. It is also generally easy to avoid wolves and bears, though you should be careful of ambushes if you're around the Quonset Garage.
Mystery Lake has a balance of shelter and wilderness, and moderate temperatures. The greatest hazard here is that the rolling terrain may make it difficult to spot predators from far away, requiring good listening skills.

Fire and Match Management

Matches are quite rare in this difficulty, so use them sparingly, and light a torch with your match before lighting a fire. Try to use the Magnifying Lens once you obtain it. If the weather allows it, pull several torches from a fire and extinguish them in order to start Daisy Chaining. When your lit torch is about to go out, drop it, then take one of your unlit torches and light it using the lit one. This allows you to carry fires long distances, and will provide minor warmth buffs and keep wolves at bay.

Make sure to carry a good stock of coal when travelling as well, as it provides a +20C warmth bonus, which can ward off even the worst weather as long as the fire isn't blown out.

Food and Drink

If you go to a region with houses, staying hydrated is not difficult for the first few days. Just get water from toilets and you will be able to quench your thirst long enough to search for matches, which you will need in order to start melt snow/boil water at fires once the toilet water runs out.

Food can be a bit more challenging. Manufactured food is quite rare, and each major region usually has only enough of it to survive 3-4 days if you're trying to get the Well Fed benefit early on by avoiding starvation. Cattails are a popular food found along watercourses. If you are unable to find cattails, don't forget about drinks. Rose Hips, Reishi Mushrooms, Birch Bark and Burdock Root can all be brewed into teas that give 100 calories and the Warming Up benefit when consumed hot.

If you have purchased Tales from the Far Territory, you will have access to Frontier Cooking recipes. You will want to find a Cooking Pot early on, as that will enable you to cook porridge from Running River Oats. One container of oats can make 8 porridge, which can provide 2,800 calories, as well as provide the Warming Up benefit when consumed hot. Most importantly, porridge can be cooked off the bat.

It is highly desirable to level up your cooking skill early on, as this will improve the caloric value of foods. This is even more so if you have purchased Tales from the Far Territory, as getting to Level 2 cooking (along with finding a Cooking Skillet) will enable you to use plentiful Old Mill Flour and Cooking Oil to make Pancakes (requires Maple Syrup) and Bannock. Once you get to level 3 cooking, you will be able to make various pies, which can provide useful buffs.

Tools

The most important tool you will want to acquire in Interloper is the Heavy hammer. Prybars, hacksaws and Can Openers are desirable, but not essential for progressing.

The Heavy Hammer the most important, as it is necessary for forging, and useful for breaking up wooden furniture. MAKE FINDING A HEAVY HAMMER YOUR #1 LONG TERM PRIORITY when you start every game in Interloper -- otherwise, you will not be able to hunt. It is required for making the Improvised Knife, which is necessary for creating the Survival Bow, as well as for forging arrowheads. It is also the best available weapon early on for dealing with a wolf struggle.
The hacksaw is not strictly necessary, but it will make getting the metal required for tool forging much easier. It can also be used for harvesting carcasses and cutting limbs/saplings, though there are better options for the latter.
The prybar is most useful for opening up locked Car trunks and lockers. It can also be used in a struggle in a pinch, but isn't recommended if anything else is available.

It is possible to forge all the improvised tools you need -- arrowheads, improvised hatchet and improvised knife on Day 1, but this requires quite a lot of luck. Forges require at least 6 pieces of coal to reach operating temperature. An efficient player should be able to complete tool forging within the first 5-7 days at most. The improvised tools are as follows:

Arrowheads are placed onto arrow shafts to make simple arrows, which are used for hunting with the Survival Bow.
The improvised knife is the best tool for harvesting non-frozen carcasses, especially if you're trying to get hide and guts. It can also be used in a struggle.
The improvised hatchet is useful for breaking up limbs for firewood, and is quicker than the hacksaw. It is also good for harvesting meat from frozen carcasses, and makes a decent struggle weapon.

Crafting the tools requires 8 Scrap Metal, and most players will want to acquire 10-12 to get a good supply of arrows. This can be obtained by searching the world or by cutting up metal objcts using the hacksaw. Two pieces of cloth are also necessary, but these are generally easy to find.

Clothing

High-quality manufactured clothing is not available, so you will have to make your own. When you get a hacksaw, start harvesting deer carcasses and get all the meat and guts. It's advisable to cure them in the nearest indoor location, to avoid drawing predators' attention. You can pick up the cured and non-smelly hides later for crafting. To make the two most important early-game clothing pieces -- deerskin pants and deerskin boots -- you will need five deer hides. Wear combat pants underneath your deerskin pants, and your legs will stay toasty warm. The warmest sweaters available are the Thin Wool Sweater, Festive Sweater or the Hockey Jersey.

Choosing jackets

Many players swear by a double Bearskin Coat, as it is the warmest option with excellent protection, waterproofness, and windproof ratings and can scare off wolves, but it is the heaviest and imposes a severe stamina penalty. making the Technical Backpack or Moose-Hide Satchel is almost a must, and is likely only desirable in very cold regions (i.e. Forsaken Airfield). It also requires killing two bears per coat, which may make obtaining it a bit challenging.

A Moose-Hide Cloak is also best worn on the outside, as it is the option with most protection and waterproofing. The higher protection may make it desirable when exploring Bleak Inlet or Blackrock, where Timberwolf attacks are likely. The biggest challenge with this coat, however, is likely going to be killing the Moose.

The Wolfskin Coat can also be used as an outer layer. It isn't as warm as a Bearskin Coat but it is lighter and it can also scare away wolves when worn. Wolf hides are easier to obtain than bear or moose hides, as wolves can either be hunted with a bow and arrows, or you can search Great Bear for pre-spawned carcasses. The Wolfskin Coat is also warm enough to make a decent inner layer.

Finally, there are some jackets that are best suited as inner layers. The Mackinaw Jacket is a popular choice underneath the outer jacket. A Ski Jacket or Simple Parka are a bit lighter, and only half a degree colder than the Mackinaw Jacket, but on the long run you should look into more warmer and durable animal clothing options instead.

Improvised Insulation

If you own Tales from the Far Territory, you will likely want to craft some Improvised Insulation. It requires killing two Ptarmigan and getting their down. This garment weighs a mere 0.25 kg, but gives you an extra 2^oC warmth bonus and goes in the accessory slot. It can greatly help make up for the lack of availability of good sweaters in this difficulty.

Weapons

The Survival Bow will be your main in-game offensive weapon. It's best to acquire this as soon as possible, by curing a maple sapling and gut. Curing guts and saplings will take 5 in-game days, and you will need a knife to craft the bow, which takes around 12 hours. On a good run, you can have a bow and arrows by day 6, but 7-10 days is a more realistic timeframe for most players. In time you'll be using it for hunting big game with simple arrows, with birch shafts and iron heads that you forged yourself. But for now, you'll be using it with fire hardened arrows. These arrows can't harm large animals, but can kill a rabbit or ptarmigan, and are capable of driving away a charging wolf, and help improve your archery skill, so you don't need as many arrows to kill animals.

Firearms will not spawn on Interloper.

You may also find a flare gun, but use its shells sparingly as they are hard to come by.

Wolves

Wolves are deadly in Interloper. Unless you are at full condition and have an improvised knife or hatchet, your chances of surviving a struggle bare handed are slim. Use torches to keep wolves at bay and prevent them from charging. If it gets windy, keep a flare at the ready and don't be afraid to use it.

Once you have obtained a Survival Bow, you can use it to deal with wolves. A direct hit on a charging wolf with a Simple Arrow will kill it. A Fire Hardened Arrow will not hurt the wolf, but will scare it away. But be careful! A missed shot can lead to a game-ending struggle. It's best to try and stay well away from wolves and not carry large amounts of smelly food to avoid attracting attention.

Hunting

Before you get a survival bow, your hunting opportunities will be quite limited. You can try stunning rabbits or ptarmigan with stones, but this tactic can be tricky and frustrating, and you'll have to move fast to collect your prey before it becomes concious again.

It is possible to hunt deer without a bow...with some help from local wolves. This works best with a lone wolf, and involves either luring the wolf towards the deer, or chasing the deer towards the wolf. Once the wolf kills the deer, it can be driven away with a stone or thrown torch. The one danger with this method is that the wolf may still be nearby when you start harvesting, and carrying around large amounts of smelly venison is likely to attract attention.

Once you get the survival bow, you will want to use fire hardened arrows to hunt rabbits and ptarmigan, and simple arrows for deer. Unless you're interested in the hides, it's generally not advisable to hunt wolves or bears early on, as their meat can give Intestinal Parasites until you get level 5 cooking. Moose are also not recommended for new players, despite their high-quality meat and excellent hide, as they do not bleed out when shot and take multiple arrows to down until you improve your archery skill. If you run out of arrows while moose hunting, you will likely lose all the arrows (and have to forge new arrowheads) when the moose despawns. You can try killing the moose and getting your arrows back using the Distress Pistol or even Noisemakers, but neither Flare Shells nor Noisemakers are particularly easy to obtain.

If you are going to be sticking around an area for multiple days, it is a good idea to set some snares to catch rabbits automatically, instead of hunting them. This will save wear and tear on your bow, and will produce more rabbits over the long haul.

Sleeping

As you do not get a bedroll when you first spawn into the world, you will have to think carefully about where you travel, as getting stuck in a location without a bed can be unpleasant at best and dangerous at worst. Until you obtain a bedroll, you will want to make sure that any location you visit in the wilderness is within a day's travel of a bed -- this means it's important to know the locations of beds on all the maps you are planning to visit. It is also possible to sleep in a vehicle without a bedroll, but this requires mild outdoor temperatures and/or warm clothing.

Once you do find a bedroll, it is a good idea to kill three Ptarmigan (ideally with fire hardened arrows), and get 10 down. This, together with three cloth, will enable you to convert your normal bedroll into an Improvised Down Bedroll, offering you 8^oC warmth for only 0.10 kg of extra weight.

If you are unable to find a manufactured bedroll, or find that it doesn't offer enough warmth for your liking, you can shoot two bears to get their hides, and make a Bear Skin Bedroll. This offers a 12^oC warmth bonus, but is very heavy at 3.00 kg.

When you need to sleep in a location that doesn't have a fixed temperature (i.e. a shallow cave, a car, or outdoors), do not sleep for too long at a time (4 hours at a time -- tops!). Otherwise, if it suddenly gets colder, it's possible to freeze to death in your sleep. Lighting a hot fire can help, but a sudden change in wind direction can blow out an exposed campfire. Houses, cabins, and other indoor locations with beds are the simplest and best options, as they are always warm enough -- but do be aware that you will not be able to sleep indoors if you catch cabin fever. Sleeping in shallow caves is a good idea, as they provide a warmth bonus, are sheltered from the wind, and do not contribute to cabin fever risk as they are considered outdoor locations. Snow Shelters are also a good choice to combat cabin fever, with the advantage of being able to be built right outside most safehouses and thus being easily reachable during even storms or at night.

Fishing

Although there are fewer fish to catch in Interloper than on other difficulty levels, fishing is still a very useful source of food, and it is a good idea to have a safe house near a fishable body of water. The trick here is to make several Fishing Tip-Ups as this will enable fish to be caught while you're busy doing other things. One of the most efficient ways to get fish is to free-form several tip-ups around an Ice Fishing Hut and let them passively catch fish while you're fishing yourself. This method can provide a lot of fish in one day, which, when cooked, provide Lantern Fuel and can help ward off Scurvy.

Skills

In Interloper, increasing skills can greatly help your chances of survival. Rifle Firearm, Revolver Firearm, and Gunsmithing are irrelevent, due to the lack of firearms.

Archery

Higher Archery levels make it easier to aim the bow, provide modest increases in damage, and improve the bow's durability. At level 5, the bow can be fired when crouched, making hunting dangerous predators (i.e. bears, moose) much easier. Archery can be raised fairly quickly and cheaply by making a bunch of Fire Hardened Arrows and hit rabbits or Ptarmigan. However, this is likely not the most important skill to raise early on.

Carcass Harvesting

Increasing Carcass Harvesting makes getting meat, hide, and guts faster, which reduces the amount of time you'll have to spend outside when harvesting deer, wolves, moose, cougars, and bears. The safest way to level this skill is to harvest the rabbits and ptarmigan you shot while practicing your archery. However, this skill will tend to level itself up over the course of the game, so it isn't worth putting too much emphasis into.

Cooking

Cooking is arguably the most critical skill to increase, especially in the early game, as it boosts the calories obtained from any cooked food, which, given the scarcity of food in Interloper, can be extremely important. Furthermore, reaching level 5 prevents Food Poisoning and Intestinal Parasites. While this skill will raise gradually on its own, some tips to quickly raise cooking include:

heat every canned food you find
gather all the reishi mushrooms, rosehips, birch bark, herbal teas, burdocks, and coffees you can find and convert them into drinks. They're fast to cook.
Harvest meat in 0.50 kg increments from carcasses -- cooking anything, whether it's a 5 kg fish or a 0.1 kg piece of venison, gives the same amount of experience.

Fire Starting

Having a higher Fire Starting level should be prioritized, as it reduces the amount of matches wasted upon failed fire starting attempts if you forgot to bring a torch. Once you've got a Magnifying Lens, gather a bunch of sticks and tinder plugs and wait for a clear day. Then light a bunch of campfires, one after another. If you use 2 sticks per fire, you should be able to use the fires to cook teas and rapidly raise cooking skill at the same time.

Ice Fishing

Raising Ice Fishing requires you to ice fish, manually -- not using a tip-up. Prior to the introduction of the tip-ups, this was a very desirable skill to raise quickly, but since then, it's no longer quite as important. While it does help catch larger fish faster with less risk of line breakage, it's a skill that will likely level itself up over time.

Mending

Higher levels of Mending speed up repairs to Clothing, as well as increasing the chance of success and reducing wear on sewing equipment. This tends to be an extremely slow skill to increase, and having a low mending level is not likely to seriously impede your ability to survive.

Travois

If you have purchased Tales from the Far Territory, you may wish to harvest one extra deer carcass and four extra maple saplings in order to make a Travois. While by no means an essential tool for surviving Interloper, acquiring a Travois at any stage of the game is extremely useful:

It will enable you to carry a large amount of raw meat, guts, or fish without increasing your visibility to wolves and bears, as items stored on the Travois don't contribute to your scent. Care must still be taken to move 0% ruined items into the Travois, as they will disappear just like with any other container.
The Travois is the easiest craftable tool to increase your hauling capacity (the Moose-Hide Satchel needs to be crafted, and Moose are hard to kill), and, depending on where you are on Great Bear, may be quicker and easier to obtain than the Technical Backpack.
If playing with the Trader enabled and aiming for top-tier clothing such as Wolfskin Pants and Wolfskin Hat, it is almost mandatory in order to haul multiple Car Batteries from their guaranteed spawn points to Coastal Highway

The one caveat with the Travois is that it does not fit into narrow spaces, cannot be used on steep slopes, can't go up or down climbing ropes, or be deployed in transition caves such as Abandoned Mine No. 3. If you are planning to spend most of your time in a region that consists of mainly flat, open terrain (Pleasant Valley, Coastal Highway, Forlorn Muskeg, or Forsaken Airfield), then prioritizing Travois-making is probably a smart move. If, however, you are living in a region that's very hilly (Hushed River Valley, Ash Canyon, or Timberwolf Mountain), then the utility of the Travois may be limited.

Later game

Once you have successfully acquired a full set of improvised tools, a bow, simple arrows, and animal hide clothing, you are fully set for survival in Interloper. Be extremely careful if you choose to complete Tales, as aurora wolves are even deadlier than normal wolves and can't be scared using torches, fires, or flares. Noisemakers may be your best friend here as they will scare off predators, however they are not easy to acquire due to needing an Ammunition Work Bench.

If you choose to visit Bleak Inlet or Blackrock, make sure you are well armed with several simple arrows and torches or marine flares. Timberwolves kill in seconds and packs are extremely hard to fend off with just a bow, so don't be afraid to quit and reload the game to preserve your save file if you hear a pack howling and running towards you if you are not well prepared.