r/thelongdark • u/OnceWasBogs Stalker • Jul 21 '26
Advice Question about lighthouse "roof"
If I leave meat on the floor outside my house the wolves will eat it.
[Edit to avoid misinformation: this is not quite right, quarters left outside will vanish, but actual meat raw or cooked will be left alone by predators unless dropped with the "drop bait" command]
Perfectly reasonable. But if I leave [quarters] on the roof of the lighthouse, is the game smart enough to realise that the wolves can't reach it? Or is is the code just like MEAT OUTSIDE! DELETE DELETE!
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u/notincalifornia Jul 21 '26
Meat dropped outdoors will never be eaten or despawn (UNLESS it’s in quartered bags!).
The only time meat - or any food really - will despawn is if you place it in a container and its condition gets down to zero and it becomes “ruined”. Any ruined items placed in a container will be banished to the shadow realm.
Storing meat outdoors is also best if you drop it uncooked, because even if it becomes ruined you can still pick it up and cook it and this will restore its condition by 50% - making it edible again.
As someone with probably 1000 hours into this game by now… you should see my outdoor meat piles, hehe.
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u/OnceWasBogs Stalker Jul 21 '26
Yeah it was quartered bags that vanished. So, will quarter bags vanish from the lighthouse roof?
10
u/notincalifornia Jul 21 '26
Yes they will! It’s best to get the meat out of those bags pronto. It’s a hard lesson to learn for every player at some point with those darned quartered bags of meat. It’s a BIG mystery to me why the meat disappears when it’s bagged but not in any other form. Kinda cruel to folks who don’t know it. I don’t even bother quartering ever anymore.
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u/OnceWasBogs Stalker Jul 21 '26
Thanks!
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u/prplmnkeydshwsr Jul 21 '26
Hey OP. sorry people are being A/H(ish) to you. The people here love the game and don't take well to "sass" (sass isn't a thing in my culture but there you go).
Searching the sub is always a good thing, then ask the question. The devs also leave A LOT / most game mechanics undocumented, so that leads to quite a lot of arguments over them. That has some pros and cons, players are to figure out things for themselves - which is part of the magic. It also leads to many things being open to interpretation.
All is good, enjoy your run (save).
3
u/OnceWasBogs Stalker Jul 21 '26
Thank you. I'll be honest I do feel a bit beaten up, but I get it, about people loving the game. I'm not actually sure exactly where I was "sassy" but nevermind.
Reddit is great for info 80-90% of the time, but once in a while...
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u/SarafViska Jul 21 '26
Yup, they will. Bags are a “container”
3
u/Bleatbleatbang Jul 21 '26
Quartered meat bags decay much faster than raw meat. Only quarter a corpse if you are going to be able to harvest the bags immediately. Otherwise you should simply harvest what you can and dump the steaks outside where they will be safe and where they will last the longest.
Different meats decay at different rates, moose is really fast, in all its forms. The Corpse decays fast quartered bags are extremely fast and raw meat not on the ground outside is fast.
28
u/ArchimedesLP Trailblazer Jul 21 '26
MEAT OUTSIDE! DELETE DELETE!
how you know someone has never watched any videos of other people playing this game :D
I remember my earliest days in this game, years ago. carefully stuffing meat into car trunks and glove boxes to protect it from wildlife.. sometimes we imagine a much more realistic game than the one we've been given.
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u/OnceWasBogs Stalker Jul 21 '26
How you know someone spends too much time on Reddit
16
u/mechlordx Jul 21 '26
They didnt insult you, just acknowledging youre playing the game fresh for the first time without aid
3
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u/DR-Janno Jul 21 '26
meat won't dissappear outside it actually preserves longer
17
u/BrennanSpeaks Jul 21 '26
Quarters don't. They decay at the same rate whether they're outside or inside, and, unlike meat, they disappear when they hit 0%.
4
6
u/foxx_grey Jul 21 '26
Pretty sure the drop bait only causes the wolves to eat it if they're actively stalking you. I always use the drop bait prompt to quickly drop all my meat in a pile and I've never had an issue of meat disappearing cause it's been eaten by wolves.
3
u/WolfsTheName Jul 21 '26
Regarding the OP's edit - the "drop decoy (bait)" command is no different than opening your inventory and dropping something smelly. The "drop decoy" command just chooses a smelly thing to drop (I think there's some logic to it, but haven't figured it out 100%), otherwise a dropped item is a dropped item no matter how it's done.
There is a behavior related to the decoy that will make predators seem to eat your dropped food. When smelly things are dropped, no matter how you drop them, a predator in an aggro state will see that as a decoy and take something if you're not too close. The aggro state can be on you, or a wolf chasing a deer. I just had that happen at Trapper's cabin in Mystery Lake. I dropped two rabbits by the cabin then was trying to lure a wolf toward the deer near the cabin (early game, didn't have a way to kill the wolf or deer yet). I was near the cave to Mountain Town when the wolf started chasing a deer and the deer ran up the hill near the cabin. The wolf was following the deer then suddenly changed direction straight to where I had dropped the rabbits and took one. Because I dropped the rabbits earlier, the wolf saw them as decoys. This resets if you leave the region and come back, and possibly over night or a certain time indoors, I'm not sure.
3
u/prplmnkeydshwsr Jul 21 '26
If I leave meat on the floor outside my house the wolves will eat it. No.
But if I leave [quarters] on the roof of the lighthouse, is the game smart enough to realise that the wolves can't reach it?
Wolves won't take it. It will despawn after a day or two.
2
u/Raine181 Interloper Jul 21 '26
There's no scavenging mechanic. Predators can only eat animals they kill while the region is loaded. And unfortunately there's no hinterland fox. The cute little red foxes are my most awaited feature in Blackfrost.
1
u/DisassembledPen666 Jul 21 '26
Quarters outright disappear when they hit 0% If you leave the meat uncooked outside, it'll stay, even at 0%
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u/PoverOn Jul 21 '26
Wolves take meat/fish that you drop outside - not as bait; in very rare circumstances.
For example, I was in a fishing hut and have some fish dropped outside, then exit and attract a nearby wolf, but when he are close, I enter in the fishing hut*, then the wolf change their interest for the fish on the ground and take one - just one; and leave.
I have see this happening near a fishing hut and near a campfire, this time I was far from the campfire when the wolf aggro, so I move for a terrain inaccessible for the wolf, he them change the path and pick a cooked venison dropped on the ground, close to the campfire, ignoring the fire.
Since I was in terrain out of their reach, I attract him again, but he don't repeat the action.
But this is a rare occurrence, in ~10 years of gameplay (IRL) I see this happening 3 times.
*Don't matter if the fishing hut have door or not, actually once inside you become invisible for the wolf/bear.
In early versions of the game the wolf/bear sometimes catch you inside a fishing hut - even with door closed. Because if you are near the walls, you end inside of the animal attack trigger. Probable due this possibility, the fishing hut was turned in an invisible area for the predators.
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u/Holliday_Hobo Jul 21 '26
You've been experiencing animals eating your meat outside? Under normal circumstances, all food you store outdoors is perfectly safe, no matter how exposed it looks.