Firestarting Skill Guide

Master the Fire Starting skill in Blackfrost: The Long Dark II! Learn how to choose the right equipment, understand success chances, and avoid common pitfalls to stay warm and survive.

Hey there, survivor! Let's talk about keeping warm, because in Blackfrost, that's half the battle. The Fire Starting skill is your best friend for this, letting you cook food, melt snow for water, and most importantly, keep that chilling cold at bay. It's also one of the easiest skills to level up, so don't stress too much about it! ## How to Start a Fire To get a fire going, you'll need a few things: a place to build it (like a Firebox or a designated spot for a campfire), an ignition source (like matches or a firestriker), some tinder to catch the initial spark, and fuel to keep it burning. You can even use accelerants to speed things up or give your chances a boost. ### Chance of Success Your chance of success is a combination of your Fire Starting skill level and the quality of the materials you're using. Higher skill and better gear mean a better chance. If you somehow get your chance over 100%, you literally can't fail – pretty sweet! ### The Attempt When you're ready, just hit that start button. You'll see a progress wheel as your character works their magic. A normal attempt takes about 6 in-game minutes. If you use an accelerant, it's a speedy 1 minute! Just be careful, though – aggressive wildlife can interrupt your attempt, and that counts as a failure. ### When Things Go Wrong If you're unlucky and an attempt fails, it'll eat up some time and cancel the process. You'll lose your tinder and any liquid accelerant, but thankfully, the fuel is usually safe. Matches get consumed, but things like torches and flares don't. Firestrikers lose a bit of condition with each try, while a magnifying lens is pretty resilient. ## Essential Gear Before you can even think about starting a fire, you need: * A Starter: This is your ignition source. You've got options like Cardboard Matches (0% bonus, consumed), Wood Matches (+5% bonus, consumed), Flares/Marine Flares/Torches (+5% bonus, not consumed but can burn out), Firestrikers (+15% bonus, lose condition), and Magnifying Lenses (+5% bonus, only work outdoors in sunny weather, don't lose condition). * Tinder: This helps the initial flame catch. You can break down things like Cardboard Boxes, Fir Limbs, Cedar Limbs, and Cat Tails to get Tinder Plugs. Once your skill hits level 3, you can actually start fires without tinder, which is a nice little perk. * Fuel: This is what keeps the fire going. You'll need things like Wood, Coal, or Newspaper. * Accelerant (Optional): Items like Kerosene or Alcohol can give your fire a significant boost in success chance and reduce the time it takes to start. Remember, always try to have a good mix of these items on hand, especially when you're out in the cold. Good luck, and stay warm!