The Long Dark: Walkthrough Guide

All episodes and chapters of The Long Dark in one place – with our detailed and complete walkthrough.

The Long Dark: Walkthrough Guide | All Episodes

All episodes and chapters for The Long Dark in one complete walkthrough.

Episode 1: Do Not Go Gentle Walkthrough

Mackenzie and Dr. Greenwood are separated after their plane crashes deep in the Northern Canadian wilderness. Struggling to survive, Mackenzie explores the small town of Milton, where he begins to understand the scope of this quiet apocalypse.

OverviewWill Mackenzie wakes up after his plane mysteriously crashes on Great Bear Island. While searching for his passenger, Dr. Astrid Greenwood, he comes across the small town of Milton. The town has been deserted, save for an elderly, blind woman named Grey Mother. While she seems to know more about Astrid’s whereabouts, she asks Will to help her prepare for winter in exchange for information.

While searching for supplies for himself and Grey Mother, Will encounters a strange man in the Orca gas station. The old man introduces himself as Methuselah and cryptically suggests that it was no ordinary storm that knocked Will’s plane out of the sky. Instead, he describes the storm as “an apocalypse of an apocalypse”.

Will encounters an escaped prisoner named Hobbs, who tells him that Astrid made it through the tunnel the night of the lights. Grey Mother then informs Will of an alternate path through the mountains and gives him some old climbing gear. Once he makes his way through the mountains, Will comes across a man being mauled by a bear and attempts to save him.

Important Events

• Will recalls the events prior to the crash
• Will discovers the town of Milton and its sole resident, Grey Mother
• Will meets Methuselah, who hints at the true nature of the Quiet Apocalypse
• Will learns that Astrid passed through Milton and made it through the tunnel
• Will chooses to either help or hurt Hobbs, an escaped prisoner from the bus crash
• Will helps Grey Mother, and in exchange, she tells him about an alternate route through the mountains
• Will comes across a man being attacked by a bear and saves him

Important Items in this Episode

• Distress Pistol/Flare Gun: Obtained by placing the distress pistol kit in the plane’s hatch during Chapter 1: Memories OR finding the secret cache on Spruce Falls Bridge. See the sidequest Highway Robbery for more details
• Mountaineering Boots: Obtained by completing the sidequest One Last Thing
• Rabbitskin Hat Blueprint: Unlocked by completing the snares tutorial. See the sidequest Basics of Survival for more details
• Rabbitskin Mittens Blueprint: Unlocked by completing the snares tutorial. See the sidequest Basics of Survival for more details

Episode 2: Luminance Fugue Walkthrough

Mackenzie’s search for Astrid takes him deeper into the savage wilderness. A mysterious trapper may be the key to finding Astrid. But can he be trusted?

Although Will manages to drive off the Old Bear, the trapper, Jeremiah, is badly injured. Will retrieves medication strong enough to help the old man. Jeremiah hasn’t seen Astrid but offers to let Will use his radio to contact Astrid’s most-likely location: Perseverance Mills.

However, the Old Bear continues to menace Will and Jeremiah. While Jeremiah fixes his radio, Will retrieves the Bear Spear of legend. Jeremiah then asks Will to fetch some transponders parts–which will boost the radio’s signal–from radio towers in the Forlorn Muskeg area. In the process, Will is attacked by the Old Bear and manages to kill it in its den.

After calling Perseverance Mills, the radio breaks. In exchange for Jeremiah’s help, Will agrees to relay a message using the Signal Hill radio tower in Pleasant Valley, which is on the way to Perseverance Mills. Will then travels through the abandoned Carter Hydro Electric Dam.

Important Events

• Will finds prescription-strength antibiotics in the Carter Hydroelectric Dam for the injured trapper.
• Will travels through the Forlorn Muskeg and Broken Railroad regions, retrieving the Bear Spear from the Hunting Lodge
• Will experiences his first Aurora
• Will retrieves three transponder parts from old radio towers in the Forlorn Muskeg region
• Will is attacked by the Old Bear and brought to its den. He recovers the Bear Spear and uses it to finally kill the Old Bear
• Will enters the Dam during an Aurora and is attacked by an escaped convict (Mathis)

Important Items in this Episode

• Deerskin Boots and Deerskin Pants blueprints: Obtained by completing the deer hunting tutorial. See “Sidequest: Basics of Survival: Deer Hunting” for more details
• Wolfskin Coat blueprint: Obtained by completing the wolf hunting tutorial. See “Sidequest: Basics of Survival: Wolf Hunting” for more details
• Snow Pants: Obtained by using a prybar on one of the lockers in Forlorn Muskeg’s hidden bunker. See “Sidequest: Aurora Hatch” for more details

Episode 3: Crossroads Elegy Walkthrough

In the aftermath of events in Milton, and enigmatic stranger rescues Dr. Astrid Greenwood from near-death. Facing the blizzards of Pleasant Valley, Astrid must bring all her skills as a doctor to bear on the survivors she encounters. But will she find Mackenzie, and get closer to the mystery that’s taking them to Perseverance Mills?

Astrid is rescued from freezing to death by a strange woman named Molly, who locks the doctor in her house. However, when Molly is cornered by wolves, she asks Astrid to bring her more rifle ammunition and tells her where the basement key is. While retrieving the rifle rounds, Astrid finds a dead body, which appears to be Molly’s husband.

Astrid reaches the barn, but with no sign of Molly. However, she does finds a flyer that directs her to the local town of Thomson’s Crossing. At the town’s Community Hall, Astrid meets the local priest, Father Thomas, and learns that a large airliner jet also crashed during the First Flare. She offers to check on the surviving passengers and eventually, Astrid agrees to search the wreckage of the plane crash for the one survivor’s insulin and for identification of the deceased passengers. While searching the crash site, Astrid discovers that one of the passengers, Gwen, is still alive and brings her back to the Community Hall.

After finding the missing survivors and stocking the Community Hall in preparation for a large blizzard, Astrid learns from Father Thomas that the only way out of the Valley is through an abandoned mine. She also receives a call from Molly, who tells her that the large radio tower on Signal Hill may be powerful enough to contact Perseverance Mills. While the radio initially fails, an Aurora that night brings it to life, and Astrid overhears the conversation Will had with Perseverance Mills in Episode 2. Molly also calls one last time, explaining how she left her husband to die to wolves.

Finally reaching the abandoned mine, Astrid is initially knocked out when one of the earthquakes on the island causes the mine to collapse. When she wakes, there is an Aurora that powers the mine elevator. After replacing the blown-out fuses surrounding it, Astrid takes the elevator down and exits the mine into Coastal Highway. However the sight that greets her is nature out-of-control.

Important Events

• Astrid is saved by a strange woman named Molly who lives at the Pleasant Valley Farmhouse
• Astrid reaches the Thomson’s Crossing Community Hall and meets Father Thomas
• Astrid helps the survivors of another plane crash and prepares the Thomson’s Crossing for the upcoming blizzards
• Astrid intercepts the radio transmission between Will Mackenzie and Perseverance Mills
• Astrid fixes the elevator of the abandoned mine and reaches Coastal Highway

Important Items in this Episode

• Revolver: Acquired during Chapter 1: Trauma
• Moose-hide Satchel: Acquired from finishing the Misty Cave portion of the Local Legends sidequest
• Rabbit-skin Hat: Reward for completing the Church Artifact sidequest
• Deer-skin Boots and Pants Blueprint: Complete the Ghost Stag part of the Local Legends sidequest
• Rabbit-skin Mittens: Found in the backpack next to the snow shelter at the Three Strikes Farmstead. See the Ghost Stag portion of Sidequest: Local Legends for more details
• Wolf-skin Coat: Find the Sasquatch mentioned in the Local Legends sidequest

Episode 4: Silence, Then Fury Walkthrough

A murderous gang of escaped convicts has captured Mackenzie. Desperate to escape one of the darkest corners of Great Bear Island, he must somehow survive his fiercest enemy yet. Can Mackenzie recover the Hardcase, continue his search for Astrid, and also save the innocents caught up in this deadly confrontation?

OverviewAfter the events of Episode 2, Will wakes to find that he has been captured by Mathis and his gang of escaped convicts. Despite a valiant escape attempt, he is imprisoned in the Blackrock Federal Penitentiary, which has been taken over by the inmates. The warden of the prison, who has been put in the cell next to Will’s, explains that Mathis is at Blackrock to free his son, Donner.

Mathis loses his temper and beats the warden to near death. Will then bargains for temporary freedom in exchange for getting medication for the warden. Will gains entrance to the prison infirmary and discovers that the last of the antibiotics and morphine has been taken down the road by one of the guards prior to the First Flare. He also picks up a phone call from a mysterious person who claims to be the reason Donner is still locked in solitary.

After retrieving the medication, Will returns to the prison and helps patch up the warden. Mathis reveals that he knows Will was let out and agrees to the situation under the condition that Will does his bidding. He then sends Will out to fix the power plant that supplies the prison. Once he reaches the power plant, Will is contacted again by the mysterious person, who reveals their name is Jace. After talking, Will agrees to help Jace sabotage the door mechanism that controls the solitary door.

Will then enters the steam tunnels and find the solitary door mechanism. He breaks it, and makes his way back to the prison. Inside, Mathis is furious that they can’t break Donner out, and reveal to Will that he knows someone is sabotaging the convicts. He intimidates the warden into revealing that there are old detonator caps at a nearby abandoned mine that could be used to ignite the old dynamite that Mathis found. As Will is let out to retrieve them, Mathis begins beating up the warden.

After getting the detonators, Will receives another call from Jace. She reveals that she is an astrophysics student studying under Doctor Atwood. Will learns that Atwood is at a research facility about 15 kilometers away, and the research there may provide an answer to the strange happenings since the First Flare. But neither of them come up with a solid plan to stop Mathis from using the dynamite.

Will returns to the prison, where Mathis reveals that Franklin told him everything about Will and Jace sabotaging the prison break. But before Mathis can kill Will, the dynamite explodes prematurely. Will then escapes with the help of Jace, and he makes his way to the warden’s office. After retrieving the hardcase, Will escapes to the power plant via the steam tunnels. He meets up with Jace, but they are cornered by the convicts. After a short fight with Mathis, Will and Jace make their escape via the river.

Important Events

• Will is imprisoned by Mathis’s gang of escaped convicts at the Blackrock prison
• Will makes contact with the mystery person opposing the convicts
• Will retrieves the medication for the warden and is recruited by Mathis to explore the region
• Will learns that the person sabotaging the convicts is named Jace and agrees to help her.
• Will breaks the steam mechanism that controls the solitary door.
• Mathis reveals that he has dynamite and sends Will to get detonator caps for it.
• Will learns that Jace is a student under Dr. Atwood, who can be found at a research facility
• Mathis’s plan to use dynamite to break Donner out backfires and the prison catches fire
• Will retrieves the hardcase and meets up with Jace at the Power Plant
• Will and Jace escape the convicts by jumping into the river
• In the credits, Astrid makes her way to Perseverance Mills via a boat

Important Items in this Episode

• Distress Pistol/Flare Gun: Found next to the body near the powerline at the intersection of the power plant and trailer. See Chapter 2: The Power Plant for more details.
• Revolver: Found in the Powerline convict cache as detailed in Sidequest: Convict Caches OR next to the body of the power worker in the trailer-see Sidequest: Lost Power Workers for more details-OR in guard locker #8 as explained in Sidequest: Guard Lockers.
• Moose-HIde Satchel: Found in the suspicious person’s bunker. See Sidequest: Blackrock Rumours for more details.