The Flame in the Flood

Probably the hardest part of this is getting through without getting too cold. You can make fires to keep warm, but the thin clothes you start with won't help once cold and rain hit you.

Luckily, there's a built-in workaround. If you didn't notice (and I didn't, the first time through), if you **DIE** (before finishing the campaign), anything in your dog's inventory carries over to a new game.

So if you get a full bear outfit, transfer it to your dog, and then kill yourself, your NEW GAME will begin with the outfit in your inventory. Now you're set for cold. Just make sure you play on Traveler difficulty so you don't lose it.

I wasn't sure what constituted "killing," so I did not eat grubs or night crawlers. I did eat jerky that I found along the way.

The other problem is at the second story checkpoint. See the spoiler in case you haven't played the story yet.




Some tips, in case you're looking at this before you start.

Huge thing to remember in the campaign (have not tested in Endless Mode yet): the game saves right after you dock and right when you leave. So if you are docked and about to die, make a mistake or have to use a lot of supplies after getting injured, quit to the menu (I didn't have to restart the whole game in my run) and continue. You will restart the same dock and everything will be in the same place. This is helpful when hunting bears (different playthrough) and getting clobbered.

I ran off the assumption that speed is best. Without the need to build up to bear clothing (meaning no need to kill animals for hides along the way), I moved about 2 miles/day. It took 21 days, but the second story checkpoint advanced my clock by 2 days.

Here is how you should prioritize, assuming you have bear clothing. (Some things are found anywhere.)

-Farms (early on) for Corn and plants.
-Campfires to cook food.
-Hardware Stores for Old Lumber, Nut N Bolts, and Jars. Jars are ESSENTIAL for rain water.

All you need are plants, obviously. Starting at the beginning, load up on as many dandelions, corn, and yucca as you can find. Make Dandelion Tea with your water whenever possible.
-Dandelion Tea (4 dandelions): +10 nutrition, +30 hydration
-Ash cake (2 corn) = +20 nutrition
-Cooked Yucca = +12 nutrition
-Wild Garlic = +5 nutrition

I found that in my campaign, my Hunger went down by about 25/day. Fatigue isn't as much of an issue; just make sure you're on land so you can collapse safely.


On your raft, focus on the Rudder, Frame, and Storage. Motor would be nice, but once you hit around Mile 20, only focus on Repair Patches (1 Old Lumber + 1 Nuts N Bolts). Also, try not to repair at all in Region 6 (unless you literally only have a sliver of raft health).

Once I hit Region 6, I tried not to stop at all. I stopped 3 times in Region 6 while I looked for raft supplies for upgrades. Once you hit Region 7, the Elder Wolf will hunt you. Since you can't kill it, exploring becomes rather useless. I pulled off occasionally just for save points in case my raft got damaged.

Hope this helps!

This isn't a guide, as the others here already do a well enough job on that, but an exploit I found by chance that helps a ton.

First, craft a torch. Now when you're on foot (not on the raft) use the left trigger and press right to see the quick use menu with the torch in it. Use the torch and you will see the circle above your head that gives you an idea of how much is left before the torch is used up.

With the torch equipped and burning, use the left trigger to bring up the menu again and highlight the torch, but don't press anything yet. Now when the circle empties the torch is extinguished and you lose it from your inventory. At least, that's what usually happens. However, at the moment the percentage on the torch reaches 0, shown by the circle being empty and even more helpful when you HEAR the sound of the torch going out, press A immediately to unequip it.

You should now be able to use the left trigger and once again look in your inventory and you should have the same torch at 0%. This torch will now last forever, no matter how long or how many times you use it. It won't appear lit but it will still have all the effects of a torch.

You're now free to explore any area without fear of attack from wolves or boars and can even use it to move snakes around to where you can use them to help you kill other animals for skins and meat.

Enjoy, and hopefully this helps someone as much as it did for me!

The achievement's description is a bit intimidating; it suggests you can only live off plants.

But the achievement seems to be glitched so that you'll get the achievement if you just reach the end of the campaign regardless of diet!

Just finish the campaign and it will pop. I don't know if it is going to be fixed soon, however, so you should just get on it now.

As of recent updates, merely finishing the campaign does not pop this achievement as it had previously. It also seems that the updates have glitched the achievement into unattainability. :(

Achievement is fixed! Will pop if you just stick to plants. Cooked yucca is very nutritious but dandelions are far more common and eating a stack will replenish a good amount of nutrition.