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Giving the facts and clearing away the Burn Bonus misconceptions
How the fire time burn bonus actually works
Most players somewhere along the way notice that fires sometimes last longer than the time noted on the fire. There is a load screen tip that gives a clue to why that says something like “Wood burns slower in cold temperatures”. Because a load screen tip tells us about this we can tell that this is not an unintended bug, but instead a planned and intended feature.
There are many misconceptions of how this works. These misconceptions lead to mistakes and keep players from taking advantage of what we will call here the “Cold Temp Fire Bonus”.
The biggest misconception about this bonus is in the name that many use to describe the bonus, often calling it an “outdoor burn bonus”. The bonus has nothing to do with the fire being in an indoor location or an outdoor location. Nothing AT ALL.
So what is the “Cold Temp Fire Bonus”?
It is very simple, but with a few important details.
When the ambient temperature where your character is (without the bonus from the fire) reaches -10C fires will start lasting longer than the time shown on the fire. As the temperature gets colder from that starting point of -10C the fire will last longer and longer up to reaching a max of 2x the shown fire duration at a temp of -30C. This affect does not work across load screens.
It is as simple as that. Notice there is no mention of indoors or outdoors. Why? Because indoors or outdoors makes no difference and has no effect on the fire bonus.
Even many very experienced players will make a fire in the “outdoor” portion of a cave and sit in the “indoor” portion of the cave believing they will get the best fire bonus and be as warm as possible. Instead they are getting a worse fire duration bonus than they could get by sitting in the outdoor portion of the cave.
This is extremely easy to test and if you have doubts I suggest you do. Find the line that divides the indoor and outdoor parts of the cave. You can do this by checking temps, dropping hide or gut to see if they cure, or by simply noticing where walk speed changes.
Now build a fire on each side of the line, stand in the indoor part of the cave, note the fire times, then do an activity like reading for an hour, passing time or sleeping for an hour and then check fire times of both fires. You will see that both fires lost the same amount of fire time.
Now do the same test while standing in the outdoor side of the cave, again you will see both fires lose the same amount of time, but likely less time than when you were standing on the indoor side of the cave.
So it is the players position that determines the the bonus, not where the fire is. In a cave then you can decide what is most important to you, if you need long fire time with a limited fuel supply, place the fire in the outdoor side of the cave and be in the outdoor part of the cave. If fuel is not a problem and want a long sleep without concern for freezing it may be best to place the fire and be in the indoor part.
Here are a couple of other situations to think about.
If you are using a snow shelter with a fire outside of it you will get the burn bonus of the temp inside the snow shelter (possibly no bonus) and the fire would last longer if you were outside the snow shelter if it is -10C or colder. But again depending on what is most important, fire time or warmth you can make the best decision.
If fuel is in short supply and you are at the Spence Farmstead while forging should you sleep in the bed or use your bedroll in the lower part of the shelter? It is 3 degrees warmer in the upper part of the building, you will get a better burn bonus sleeping down below.
These are just a couple, but there are lots of situations where a proper understanding of the burn bonus can make a difference.
Load Screens
As mentioned in the definition the burn bonus simply doesn’t work across load screens. So while the bonus is based on where the character is the is no benefit to building a fire in a building and going outside. You also won’t get a bonus on a fire in one zone if you cross to another zone.
Do you need to pass time to get the bonus?
No. While the difference is most obvious when you pass time, it works regardless. You can easily see it if you put something on a fire to cook when you have a hefty burn bonus and watch as the fire time and cook times don’t match.
Can you really get a burn bonus in a true indoor location?
Simply put, yes you can, and will if the temp is -10C or below. Thing is in the base game there is probably no true indoor location that gets that cold. There was an event where indoor temps did get colder, I believe it was called Winters Embrace where I did get a burn bonus indoors as would be expected. You could load the version that has the event in the Time Capsule and check it out.
There are also mods such as Relentless Nights where you can set indoor temps to scale with outdoor temps and you will get a burn bonus indoors consistently up to the 2x bonus at -30C. Check Loonsloon”s youtube playlist “Mod Soup” where he has the world temp drop by 80 degrees and indoor temps scaling with outdoor temps. Check the later vids in the playlist and you will see he constantly has a 2x bonus indoors.
Summary
The main thing I would love to see is the TLD community stop referring to the burn bonus as an “outdoor burn bonus” since that description is inaccurate and also leads to misunderstandings and then actions that do not reflect the reality. Calling it something like a “Cold Temp Fire Bonus” is a much more accurate description and would lead to fewer misunderstandings.
Credits
While I long ago knew that you can get a burn bonus in the indoor part of a cave (that has always been where I make my fires) the details of the -10C to -30C, the max bonus and some of the other details came from Loonsloon. On his youtube channel check out his TLD “science lab” series where he did 2 vids on the burn bonus. He starts with the same misconceptions that many players have, but gradually hones in on the facts. Loonsloon also has lots of other good TLD content though he may drive you nuts with his obsession of not using matches (nah… most of you TLD players are like that). Did you know Kimiota did a match challenge and found over 450 matches in the world on interloper and 3 or 4 firestrikers?
If anyone finds anything they believe to be inaccurate or anything that should be added please let me know.