Cabin fever is an affliction that was added in the 'Tireless Menace' update.
Causes[]
Cabin fever is only dangerous when having spent most of six days inside a building. There is a 25-50 day grace period where this cannot happen, as this would only become an apparent problem long after having survived for a long time.
In Interloper difficulty, you can start developing Cabin Fever after the first 10 days.
Symptoms[]
The only symptom of cabin fever is that the player cannot rest inside for 24 hours.
Treatment[]
To treat cabin fever, the player must spend time outside until it goes away and cannot sleep inside for 24 hours.
- Cabin Fever risk can be dealt with in a number of ways, even on interloper.
- The first and most common way is to gather firewood and spend a day in a fishing hut. This method works on all difficulties, requires the most effort, but has the most benefits. It gives early game players a source of parasite free food while boiling plenty of water - a task that all players must do at some time during the week anyway.
- The second and by far the easiest method for dealing with cabin fever is to spend a day in the back of a warm cave. These give a +15 degree temperature bonus and with good late game clothing a player can stay warm in these 24/7 without any fire whatsoever. Spending a day in a cave once out of every 6 days is more than enough to eliminate cabin fever. Interloper players beware, even with complete fur clothing and dual bearskin coats, it is possible to freeze to death in a cave if you get a blizzard during late night/early morning when temperatures are the coldest.
- The third way to battle cabin fever is to sleep in cars or snow shelters. Both methods allow you to sleep outdoors even without a bedroll through the campcraft section in the radial menu (hold spacebar). Snow shelters give a +15 degree temperature boost but should only be used where the player is sure no wolves patrol as they do not stop wildlife attacks. Cars give a +5 degree temperature boost but stop wildlife attacks, and on the easier difficulties are all you will ever need to battle cabin fever. Spending 3-5 hours a day in cars sleeping, repairing, or simply passing time is enough to stave off cabin fever forever.
- The Mountaineer's Hut in Timberwolf Mountain, abandoned lookouts in Mystery Lake and Coastal Highway and the porch on the Pleasant Valley Farmhouse count as "indoors" for cabin fever.
Interloper:
On Interloper cars are still incredibly useful, but you must use them for the last 3-4 hours of the day and the first 2-3 hours of night when temperatures are the highest (a little before and after sunset). Keep in mind sleeping gives you a +3 degree boost for a total of +8 degrees. Even with no fur clothing at all it is possible to sleep 3-4 hours in a car at the end of a day in the first 30-40 days before the world temperature starts dropping really fast. They can also be used late game with crafted fur clothing during the same time of day, but once you have a bedroll you should really be sleeping in the backs of warm cave as it is much warmer and you can get a full 10 hours of rest there without fear of freezing to death.