You’re right, some locations in this game just do their own thing. I’ve seen areas where the lighting changes dramatically depending on exactly where you’re standing. One step to the left and everything shifts tone or colour, step back and it reverts back to normal.
And it’s not just lighting, either. For example, not everyone can see the gnome lying down near the woodshed, it shows up for some players but not others, even in the same session. Why does this game have to gaslight us all?
One of my favorite examples is a small cabin I found deep in the woods on the south coast of Östertörn. It looked abandoned, but there were signs someone had been staying there recently—like fresh food wrappers and a working radio. It made me wonder if it was a survivalist hideout or maybe a resistance safe house.
As for those small concrete boxes on Himfjäll—could they be old military communications bunkers or ammo storage points? The layout feels very strategic.
I visited the rock face and I think I can make out the words HELP US. I’ve marked it faintly in red below. Why it would appear in English and seemingly formed from natural rock I’m not sure. Most likely, it’s a case of pareidolia. Great find though @Gysbert
Yes, it’s definitely a case of Pareidolia. Interesting word though, I first thought it spelled Paranoia. Some time back I had found another case of Pareidolia. Looking to the island before it was called Aspholmen, the shapes of the rocks see from a certain angle looked like a lying dog.
It’s a great word! Simulacrum is another brilliant Fortean word for the same phenomenon. I love how both terms capture that strange line between imagination and pattern recognition.
I actually went searching for the famous turtle rock last week but couldn’t find it anywhere! But now I’ll definitely be hunting for this wonderful dog formation too. Always up for a good bit of Östertörn pareidolia spotting! I’ll try not to draw any paranoid conclusions if I find something!
I’m often guilty of seeing meaning in pareidolia where there is none, tying into that broader idea of mistaking correlation for causation, just because we see something doesn’t mean it ‘means’ something. But in a world like Östertörn, where strange details are around every corner, it’s hard not to let your mind run with it a bit!
This location has probably been shared before, but did anyone mention the unique sound here? It’s my favourite noise in the whole game! It’s in the Archipelago region : 2546.619. 2880.809
Here, a half-dead military tank lies with a dead soldier slumped against it. At the point I’m at in the screenshot, if you approach the tank’s head slowly, it lets out this deep, low-frequency mechanical groan; like a dubstep drop mixed with a dying moose.
If you’ve got a decent subwoofer hooked up, it shakes the room. It’s the tank’s final breath, and it really demonstrates just how massive and powerful these hulks are, even in death.
If you throw a field radio down nearby, you can fast travel away from the region and then jump right back in to experience that ultra-low frequency scream all over again. Hands down the most intense sound for me Exquisite industrial horror!
In my 5266 hour gameplay in GZ I have visited that site often. The sound is indeed intense, and it’s very cool that it can be experienced more than once.
You’ve probably got about double what I’ve managed! I’ve heard it takes 10,000 hours to truly master something. So you’re already well on your way to becoming a Generation Zero grandmaster!
But in all those hours I played I didn’t dedicate it all to combat, that’s why I’m only at level 235, I only fight when I am being attacked and I regularly do the base assaults / defends / for extra resources.
Haven’t done base defense for a long time now, but I don’t really need the ressources in general. I usually don’t craft that much. I have all that I need… Or I find it.