Sleep is the player's most efficient way to both eliminate Fatigue and regain Condition. Selecting a Bed, or deployed Bedroll, will open up the sleep interface. While inside a Vehicle, the option to sleep can also be accessed via Campcraft in the Radial Menu.
Duration and interruption
Up to 12 consecutive hours may be slept in a row, with the amount of time being adjustable by whole hour increments. The amount of time the player will sleep may not be exactly the number of hours selected, but may vary by 10 minutes. The player will also stop sleeping when their Fatigue bar is full. Sleep cannot be interrupted manually by the player once it has started so care must be taken that all needs will remain met (safety, warmth, thirst, hunger).
Animal attacks will interrupt sleep if they happen while the player is sleeping. Further, sandboxes on the Pilgrim or Voyageur experience modes have a chance to wake the player when they are nearing death or threatened. Other experience modes do not provide any such warning and allow the player to sleep themselves to death, so more attentive need management is required, although stalker does warn the player if he/she starts to freeze.
Sleeping Locations
Beds
There are several variants of Bed, some found only in specific types of locations, and each providing a different amount of Warmth when slept in.
- Full (most often found in houses) will provide + 8 °C ( +14.4 °F )
- Twin (most often found in houses) will provide + 5 °C ( +9 °F )
- Cot (often found in cabins or remote buildings) will provide + 5 °C ( +9 °F )
- Bunk (usually in cabins or other remote structures) will provide + 3 ~ 6 °C ( +5.4 ~ 10.8 °F )
- Mattress/Blanket (found on the floor in some large industrial or community buildings) will provide + 3 ~ 5 °C ( +5.4 ~ 9 °F )
- Hay (found in some barns/outbuildings) will provide + 2 °C ( +3.6 °F )
- Tuffet (a makeshift bed made of conifer branches and leaves often found in caves) will provide + 2 °C ( +3.6°F )
- Medical Cot (found inside the crashed Final Approach helicopter) will provide + 2 °C ( +3.6°F )
- "Beds" (a blanket and pillow thrown over a cardboard box, found in abandoned Prepper Caches and trailers) will provide + 2 °C ( +3.6°F )
The player also has the ability to create beds via Safehouse Customization (Rustic Bed, Quilted Bed, Bear Hide Bed).
Bedrolls
A list of Bedrolls that allow sleeping almost anywhere include:
Bedroll (+ 5 °C (+ 9 °F )
Improvised Down Bedroll (+ 8 °C (+ 14.4 °F)
Bear Skin Bedroll (+12 °C (+ 21.6 °F)
Sleeping in Vehicles
Vehicles with doors that lead to interiors also function as beds but are not directly selectable. To sleep in a vehicle, open the radial menu while inside, then activate the bedroll function through the Campcraft option. The sleep interface will then appear whether or not the player has a bedroll. No bedroll is required or used when sleeping in a vehicle. As a result, bedrolls in the inventory will not decay when sleeping in vehicles.
The list of vehicles a player can sleep in include:
All vehicles offer +3°C warmth bonus and are windproof, but even if the player has a bedroll with a warmth bonus greater than 3°C, it will still provide only 3°C. If the player is getting too cold in a vehicle, a Campfire can be lit outside the vehicle to warm the interior, though be aware that it can become windblown.
Sleeping outside
While it is generally preferable to find a location that offers at least partial shelter before sleeping (i.e. house, cave, vehicle, fishing hut, etc.), or to build a Snow Shelter, sometimes sleeping outside can't be avoided. In such cases, it is strongly recommended to pick an area where there are few predators and which is surrounded by wind-blocking obstacles on multiple sides. Lighting a campfire will help provide safety from dangerous animals and cold temperatures. To avoid freezing to death while asleep, it's often best to sleep in short increments. Warmer bedrolls, such as the Bear Skin Bedroll and the Improvised Down Bedroll, can also help ward off the cold and, in the case of the Bear Skin Bedroll, potential predators.
Warmth bonus
All bed types offer some level of insulation for the player while they are being used. This is displayed on the sleep interface as the warmth bonus. For all intents and purposes, this will raise the character's feels like temperature by the indicated amount for the duration of the sleep.
Satisfying fatigue
Some fatigue is eliminated with each hour of sleep. A full 12 hours of sleep are required to completely fill the fatigue bar from empty. If the player sleeps for less than 12 hours, fatigue will fill at the rate of 1/12th of the bar per hour. The player will wake up early if their fatigue bar completely fills.
Restoring condition
If all needs are met, meaning their bars are not empty, sleep also restores lost condition. Condition is restored on a progressive scale that rewards sleeping for longer periods. This can be further accelerated gaining the Affliction Improved Rest, gained by eating the following foods:
| Food and Drink | Duration | |
|---|---|---|
|
Cup of Herbal Tea | 6 hours |
|
Stalker's Pie | 6 hours |
|
Thomson Family Stew | 3 hours |
|
Ranger Stew | 3 hours |
|
Ptarmigan Stew | 3 hours |
|
Rabbit Stew | 3 hours |
|
Trout Stew | 3 hours |
|
Venison Stew | 3 hours |
Note: If all needs are not met or need meters fall below zero while sleeping, condition still drops. It is quite possible to die in one's sleep if not interrupted. Thirst and Hunger will worsen as one sleeps.
Drinking Cup of Herbal Tea or Birch Bark Tea before going to sleep will restore additional condition. For herbal tea the benefit of a full cup will remain for 6h and will provide an extra 2% condition per hour slept (Interloper +1%). See Improved Rest.
In Interloper
In Interloper experience, recovering condition during sleep is seriously reduced. Each consecutive hour returns usually more % of condition than the previous (check table below), maxed at 5% per hour. Sleeping for 1 hour in any sort of bed besides the cloth bedroll returns 1% of condition. Sleeping 2 hours returns 1% for the first hour and 1% for the second hour totaling 2%. Sleeping 3 hours returns the 2% (1+1) for the first two hours and 2% for the third totaling 4%.
NOTICE: If you sleep for more than 10h, you're taking Condition damage during the 11th or 12th hour due to Thirst fully draining and you'll actually lose 2% Condition each hour. This makes the sleeping for only 10 hours the best possible way to heal in one session (+32% max possible condition gain).
Sleeping in a bed or Bear Skin Bedroll:
| Hour | Restores - interloper | Total Condition | ^100% From |
| 1 | 1% | +1% | 99% |
| 2 | 1% | +2% | 98% |
| 3 | 2% | +4% | 96% |
| 4 | 3% | +7% | 93% |
| 5 | 3% | +10% | 90% |
| 6 | 3% | +13% | 87% |
| 7 | 4% | +17% | 83% |
| 8 | 5% | +22% | 78% |
| 9 | 5% | +27% | 73% |
| 10 | 5% | +32% | 68% |
| 11 | -2% | +30% | see note above |
Sleeping in a cloth bedroll;
| Hour | Restores - interloper | Total Condition | ^100% From |
| 1 | 1% | +1% | 99% |
| 2 | 1% | +2% | 98% |
| 3 | 1% | +3% | 97% |
| 4 | 2% | +5% | 95% |
| 5 | 3% | +8% | 92% |
| 6 | 3% | +11% | 89% |
| 7 | 3% | +14% | 86% |
| 8 | 4% | +18% | 82% |
| 9 | 5% | +23% | 77% |
| 10 | 4% | +27% | 73% |
| 11 | -2% | +25% | see note above |
In non-Interloper difficulty levels
If all needs are met, meaning their bars are not empty, sleep also restores lost condition. Condition is restored on a progressive scale which rewards sleeping for longer periods. Each consecutive hour returns 1 more% of condition than the previous. Sleeping for 1 hour in any sort of bed besides the cloth Bedroll returns 2% of condition. Sleeping 2 hours returns 2% for the first hour and 3% for the second hour totaling 5%. Sleeping 3 hours returns the 5% (2+3) for the first two hours and 4% for the third totaling 9%. This can be further accelerated by use of Cup of Herbal Tea.
| Hour | Restores | Total Condition | ^100% From | Calories burned | Cal / Condition |
| 1 | 2% | +2% | 98% | 60 | 30 |
| 2 | 3% | +5% | 95% | 120 | 24 |
| 3 | 4% | +9% | 91% | 180 | 20 |
| 4 | 5% | +14% | 86% | 240 | 17 |
| 5 | 6% | +20% | 80% | 300 | 15 |
| 6 | 7% | +27% | 73% | 360 | 13 |
| 7 | 8% | +35% | 65% | 420 | 12 |
| 8 | 9% | +44% | 56% | 480 | 11 |
| 9 | 10% | +54% | 46% | 540 | 10 |
| 10 | 11% | +65% | 35% | 600 | 9 |
| 11 | 12% | +77% | 23% | 660 | 9 |
| 12 | 13% | +90% | 10% | 720 | 8 |
If the player sleeps at a cloth bedroll, the one difference is that the starting amount is 1% (thus reducing all consecutive hours by 1% each as well).
| Hour | Restores bedroll | Total Condition | ^100% From | Calories burned | Cal / Condition |
| 1 | 1% | +1% | 99% | 60 | 60 |
| 2 | 2% | +3% | 97% | 120 | 40 |
| 3 | 3% | +6% | 94% | 180 | 30 |
| 4 | 4% | +10% | 90% | 240 | 24 |
| 5 | 5% | +15% | 85% | 300 | 20 |
| 6 | 6% | +21% | 79% | 360 | 17 |
| 7 | 7% | +28% | 72% | 420 | 15 |
| 8 | 8% | +36% | 64% | 480 | 13 |
| 9 | 9% | +45% | 55% | 540 | 12 |
| 10 | 10% | +55% | 45% | 600 | 11 |
| 11 | 11% | +66% | 34% | 660 | 10 |
| 12 | 12% | +78% | 22% | 720 | 9 |
Herbal Tea + non-Interloper difficulty levels
Sleeping for 1 hour in any sort of bed besides the cloth Bedroll after drinking herbal tea returns 4% of condition.
| Hour | Restores | Total Condition | ^100% From | Calories burned | Cal / Condition |
| 1 | 4% | +4% | 96% | 60 | 15 |
| 2 | 5% | +9% | 91% | 120 | 13 |
| 3 | 6% | +15% | 85% | 180 | 12 |
| 4 | 7% | +22% | 78% | 240 | 11 |
| 5 | 8% | +30% | 70% | 300 | 10 |
| 6 | 9% | +39% | 61% | 360 | 9 |
If the player sleeps at a cloth bedroll after drinking herbal tea, the one difference is that the starting amount is 3% (thus reducing all consecutive hours by 1% each as well).
| Hour | Restores bedroll | Total Condition | ^100% From | Calories burned | Cal / Condition |
| 1 | 3% | +3% | 97% | 60 | 20 |
| 2 | 4% | +7% | 93% | 120 | 17 |
| 3 | 5% | +12% | 88% | 180 | 15 |
| 4 | 6% | +18% | 82% | 240 | 13 |
| 5 | 7% | +25% | 75% | 300 | 12 |
| 6 | 8% | +33% | 67% | 360 | 11 |
Note: If all needs are not met or become unmet, condition loss will continue or begin. It is quite possible to die in one's sleep if not interrupted. Thirst and Hunger build as one sleeps -- at 55 ml & 60 calories per hour. Thus, 12 hours of sleep will completely dehydrate a character who had no thirst when starting. Therefore, it is wise to always drink water before sleeping.
Impaired sleep
There are many Afflictions that impair sleep. Food Poisoning and Dysentery will not allow condition to be restored during sleep. Coupled with this, Burns and Hypothermia will immediately reduce the condition to 75% if it is above that the moment sleep starts, and prevent it from ever rising above until the affliction is cured. Insomnia has a chance of causing a survivor to wake up early in a sleep cycle, denying them the full benefits of sleeping for long periods of time.
Gallery
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