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Hidden Caches

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Open a medical cache with a knife. Fully working it out gives at least one healing leaf in addition to random finds.

While Herbalist, Stone Sense, Scrapper, Path reader or Frontier Mastery is active, the second cache in a new group is medical. Your specialization still determines the first; a high Foraging skill alone does not provide this benefit.

Not everything valuable lies out in the open. Hidden caches are a personal reward for attentiveness and a well-prepared character: you first have to spot and uncover them, and only then dig out their contents. A random passer-by will walk right past and never notice a thing.

Hidden caches appear at a safe distance from the entire exit strip to the global map. A cache does not spawn directly on a transition or right beside it.

What a hidden cache is

A cache is a personal find belonging to a specific character. Possible caches are spread across different reachable places on the map and uncovered only for their owner. They appear only if the character has actually been travelling the global map beforehand. Waiting in place and a move blocked by an obstacle do not count, so leaving a map and stepping straight back in for a fresh batch will not work — you have to cover ground. Caches also never appear right next to the entry point itself.

  • Bound to an owner. Every cache has an owner. Someone else’s cache won’t open for another character just because they happen to be standing nearby.
  • Visible only after it’s uncovered. Once a cache is discovered, it becomes visible only to its owner and is marked with a cache icon. Undiscovered caches aren’t visible to anyone in advance — you can’t pick them out on the map; you have to search by the signs of the place.
  • Temporary. Personal caches are removed when their owner leaves the map — this is not a permanent personal stash.

How a cache gets found

Discovery takes preparation. Without the right abilities or bonuses, a character doesn’t notice caches at all, even when walking right past them. The ability to spot caches comes from developed gathering paths (bonuses to search radius, "instinct," and discovery experience).

  • The search runs automatically. While the character is on the map, a scan periodically fires around them and tries to uncover the nearest available cache (your own or an unclaimed, undiscovered one) within the search radius.
  • The radius grows with bonuses. The base radius is widened by a search bonus: a developed gatherer "feels out" more space and notices what others would miss.
  • The number of possible caches. A prepared character can have from 1 to 4 personal caches on the map: the base one plus additions for search radius, for "instinct," and for discovery experience. Finds are spaced apart: after uncovering one cache, keep exploring the map. Waiting at the same spot does not uncover the whole group in succession.
  • Experience for discovery. The mere fact of a find grants experience — even before you work through its contents. A discovery experience bonus increases this reward.

What’s inside and how to take it

An uncovered cache is essentially just another harvesting node. To get the contents out, you have to work it with the right tool, like any gathering node: keep applying the tool until the work is finished. You can’t simply "pick up" a cache by hand.

The contents are defined by an archetype. The game currently has seven cache archetypes:

  • Salvage — abandoned belongings, the basis for recycling and trade.
  • Tech — electronics, mechanisms, and parts for repair and crafting.
  • Frozen tech — mechanisms frozen into the ice, a special "winter" technical line of finds.
  • Winter resources — things useful in the cold and on a long road.
  • Hunting materials — loot tied to animal trails.
  • Medical components — medicinal ingredients.
  • Trails — finds from careful study of the route.

What the cache type depends on

The archetype is chosen from two things: the character’s gathering specialization and the character of the map.

  • Specialization. Your gathering bonuses shift the finds: a lean toward carcass processing pulls toward hunting caches, toward tech — toward technical ones, toward "all things winter" — toward winter caches and frozen tech, and "instinct" opens trail caches. With no clear lean, the type is taken from the map, and as a last resort it will be salvage.
  • Character of the place. The map type hints at the likely archetype: frozen labyrinths pull toward winter finds, wreckage of frozen tech — toward frozen tech, convoys and bunkers — toward tech, beast and mutant skirmishes — toward hunting finds, and scavenger raiders — toward salvage.

Deciding on the spot

A cache is almost always an opportunity, not an obligation. It pays to weigh the situation: take it now and risk lingering; mark the spot and come back prepared, with the right tool and free carrying weight; or walk on by if the group is wounded, overloaded, or still far from safety. The world rewards attentiveness — but the price of delay is paid by you.