Feats

Feats are passive bonuses unlocked in The Long Dark.

Overview

Feats are a form of persistent progression, offering passive bonuses to Survival Mode characters. They cannot be used while playing Wintermute, Challenges or Misery Mode. As of Tales from the Far Territory Part 5 (June 2024) there are 13 different Feats, each with unique effects. Feat progression is acquired while playing Survival Mode or Challenges.

As of V 2.0.0, Wintermute no longer provides progression towards unlocking Feats.

Feats must be 'Activated' for use when creating a new Survival sandbox.
To Activate a Feat is must be unlocked by completing it's requirement(s) (E.g. "Spend 100 days outside" for "Cold Fusion").
Feat progress may be made during a Survival sandbox or Challenges (except "Custom" sandbox: which allows Feats to be used, but does not allow feat progress).
Feat progress is persistent even if a survival mode character dies.
Once a sandbox game has been created Feats used for that save file cannot be changed.
Feats are similar to Survival Skills, but Feat progression is tied to the player's account whereas Survival Skills are tied to a specific game save file.

The number of active Feats allowed in a game depends on the selected difficulty:

Difficulty	Active Feats
Pilgrim	5
Voyageur	4
Stalker	3
Interloper	2
Misery	0
Custom	5

Feat slots may be left empty, even deliberately for added challenge.

List of Feats

Each obtainable Feat is listed below, along with their requirements for unlocking and unique effects.

Base Game

Feat	Requirement	Effect	Added
Book Smarts	250 hours of Research	10% benefit from each completely researched book	23 June 2016
Cold Fusion	Spend a total of 100 days outside	Permanent +2C bonus to Air Temperature	23 June 2016
Efficient Machine	Survive 500 days	Consume 10% fewer Calories	23 June 2016
Fire Master	Start 1000 fires	Survivors start with a Level 3 Fire-Starting skill	23 June 2016
Free Runner	Sprint 50 kilometers (31.07 miles)	Sprinting burns 25% fewer Calories	23 June 2016
Snow Walker	Travel 1000 kilometers (621.37 miles)	Stamina bar recharges 20% faster	23 June 2016
Blizzard Walker	Spend 20 days outdoors during blizzards	Speed reduction for walking into wind reduced by 25%	10 December 2019
Expert Trapper	Snare 100 Rabbits	Snares are now 100% more effective.	10 December 2019
Straight To The Heart	Use or consume 250 Cup of Acorn Coffee, Cup of Coffee, Go! Energy Drink, or Emergency Stim	The effects of Cup of Acorn Coffee, Cup of Coffee, GO! Energy Drink, and Emergency Stims last 25% longer	10 December 2019
Darkwalker	Complete the "Escape the Darkwalker" Challenge. (Collect all 10 diary pages and Banish the Darkwalker.)	You are less Fatigued at night, but more Fatigued during the day.	29 Oct 2020

DLC Content

The following feats require the Tales from the Far Territory expansion to be installed to be unlocked and used.

	Settled Mind	"You recovered a Tales from the Far Territory relic." (Obtain the Security Chief's ID Badge)	You are immune from Cabin Fever and Research actions happen 20% faster.	24 June 2024
	Celestial Navigator	"You recovered a Tales from the Far Territory relic." (Obtain the Security Chief's ID Badge)	You walk faster during a clear night or during an Aurora.	24 June 2024

Legacy

The following feats are legacy and cannot be obtained.

	Big Cat Killer	Successfully kill 3 Cougars in a single game (Required the Tales from the Far Territory DLC)	Wildlife are less aware of your presence.	24 June 2024

Feat Mechanics

Book Smarts completion requires 10-62.5 books to be fully read to complete. This is typically more books than an entire Voyageur world, but is possible in a single (lucky) Pilgrim playthrough. When active, completing a research book which normally grants 10 skill points will grant 11 instead. A copy of "Advanced Guns! Guns! Guns" yields 10% of the credit for Book Smarts, by fully reading it (25 hours).
Settled Mind when active (reduces Research time) has negative synergy to unlock Book Smarts (unlocked by Researching).
Cold Fusion's warmth bonus is the same as wearing a Wool Toque. Despite claiming to give a flat +2C bonus, it actually warms the player against ambient temperature and windchill, giving a +3C bonus.
Efficient Machine affects all sources of Calorie Burn: being awake or asleep, climbing ropes, sprinting, harvesting, sawing metal and walking uphill. This makes "-10% calories consumed" stronger than "+10% calories",
Fire Master is equivalent to beginning the game having started 50 fires. This increases base fire start chance from 40% -> 65%, makes fuel last 10% longer, and makes tinder unnecessary.
Free Runner reduces the Calorie Burn of Sprinting, which is the second most calorie-intensive action (only to Rope Climbing), to 75% of its initial value, but does not affect its fatigue drain, and Sprinting while already starving carries no benefit.
Snow Walker allows more sprinting by shorter breaks between back-to-back Sprints, but has no effect on single short Sprints and negligible use in Rope Climbing.
Expert Trapper doubles the chance of capturing a Rabbit in Snares placed inside of a Rabbit Grove (e.g. increasing 20% to 40%). Unfortunately, there is a hard limit to how many Rabbits can be caught at a given time, with most Groves having a Rabbit snare limit of 2-4 every 12 hours.
Straight To The Heart only affects the duration of the Benefits from Cup of Acorn Coffee, Cup of Coffee, Go! Energy Drink, and Emergency Stims (e.g. "Fatigue Reduced" from 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes), but has no effect on the hydration or calories or other effects of these items. Coffee is renewable through Trading and Go! Energy Drink is renewable by Beachcombing. Emergency Stims are renewable by either Trading or Beachcombing. This makes Acorn Coffee the only non-renewable item affected by this feat.
Darkwalker gives a bonus of halving Fatigue drain at night from 8:30pm - 6:00am (9.5h), but suffers a penalty by doubling Fatigue drain during the day from 6:00 am - 8:30 pm (14.5h). This penalty is however a permanent boost if the "Endless Night" setting is chosen in a Custom game, as the game is permanently set to midnight.
Settled Mind provides a permanent removal to Cabin Fever Risk and Cabin Fever, as well as increasing Research Book bonuses by 20% (usually minus 1 hour research times).
- Cabin Fever is not present on Pilgrim, making Settled Mind partially redundant on that difficulty. Most useful on Interloper, where there is no Cabin Fever grace period.
Celestial Navigator increases the player's movement speed by 10% during a night where the stars are visible, and becomes useless when the weather becomes cloudy or foggy at night. It is useful when paired with Darkwalker during an "Endless Night" Custom game.
Big Cat Killer halves detection range, sight, hearing, and smell from all animals, allowing the player to get much closer to all Wildlife before detection.
Unlike all other Feats, progression for Big Cat Killer required killing all three Cougars in the same save file. It also didn't show the percentage progress in the menu.
The only legitimate way to obtain Big Cat Killer is to clear out your survival profiles, play version 2.28 (the version with the old Cougar) and kill three Cougars in the same save file, then update the game. Profile editing is necessary to merge the Feat unlock into a newer profile (otherwise the newer profile, without the Feat, will take priority). This process is equivalent to having obtained the Feat in the old version during the short time it was available.
Big Cat Killer has been deemed a legacy Feat due to it "no longer seeming appropriate" for the reworked Cougar. It's planned to be replaced with a different "Cougar-related" Feat.

Trivia

2 unreleased icons for the Feats Expert Crafter and Mountain Goat have been in the game files since 2019, but are considered Cut/Discontinued Content.