Ever wonder how weather would be in free roam? Well, In this guide, I will help you find weather patterns without having to deploy on a mission/side op, on each of the three separate maps and without mods.
I. Introduction
To start experiencing weather in this game, there are a few things to take into account of how the game portrays the intensity of the weather and what type of weather there is in the map. This guide is more about leaning towards no use of any mods like the improvement project which I still use sometimes but more about triggering weather in the vanilla release. The game itself is buggy and glitchy, and by this we’ll use it by our advantage. To start things off, I’m going to mention “In-game time” as in the time shown in the game(map), not the “Real-Time.” Also, I’m going to take into account that not everyone has the same bugs we encounter, but we can guarantee that there are familiar bugs that everyone experiences like 98% completion still showing in the statistics but not on the map which shows 100%, this can also be fixed by either reinstalling the game, the drivers, etc. or starting the game all over; we’ll talk more about this on “Village,” which leads to time being stopped by a glitch. A familiar glitch that is mentioned in this game is the 12am spawn after death glitch. The time of day in the game will always start at 12:00 am when starting a map or after dieath. The “Weather Trigger Cycle” is a term I’ll use to interpret how weather will start and end. The weather trigger cycle has nothing to do with how much time someone has slept in game, but rather how much someone has spent in game time free-roaming the map without dying(because of the 12am glitch). The map weather trigger cycle will only work for that map(changing maps) and not other maps because it’s like dying or spawning which resets it. One big bug in this game is how much in game time is slowed down and slower than real time when a player is standing still. In game time will go dramatically faster when a player moves faster in the map. The in game time is directly proportional to how much the player moves distance in the map. By this glitch we’ll use it by our advantage by driving the fastest vehicle which is the buggy, if you have the DLC, if you don’t, that’s fine since Lada truck will just do as good, plus you get wipers, back bed for sniping when laying or standing, and you get coziness(lol), the one disadvantage you get in this truck is not being able to possibly climb some of the highest mountains for better sniping spots; more about this in the “Village section.” Since the game is buggy, I have not 100% confirmed that each “Weather Trigger Cycle” is in the same time or the same intensity due to faultiness of the game, but the good advantage of this is we can repeat the weather trigger cycle to happen consistently by using the “bed sleeping method,” which is using fast point travel, sleeping until when the weather trigger cycle happened in game time, and spawning wherever you want from there. If you see sleet or light snow, then what happen was the “Weather Trigger Cycle” was not sufficient to have mass amounts of weather change I think.
II. Mining Town
In this map, everyone knows that this map can pour some serious rain due to the mission “Backup” in Act 2. This map I’ll treat it as in the time season, “Spring” because of the plant environment it has and the difference portrayed compared to other maps. The rain intensity compared from the mission “Backup” to free-roam is “rarely noticeable” or the “same” since the game has either sleet or pure pouring rain. I say this because sometimes you’ll see some sleet happening but that is not triggering the weather completely in this game. The way I experience weather being triggered is during specific in game time. For this map is “2:10pm.” In order to trigger this, you have to drive around the map till the in game time hits 2:10pm and you would see rain starting to trickle. It won’t work if you don’t drive for 13 hours in game time anywhere around the map. 15 hours was the minimum time I experimented in this map (13 hours might work, 1:00am start) to be the most shortest for now, that would be like 25 to 30 min real time driving around. To walk you through this, load a map, once you spawn in your safe house, go to bed and step increment(arrow keys, pc) to 11:00pm and sleep it, then wake up and drive around till it starts to rain at 2:10pm in game time. Don’t go to weapon cache or bed at all during this time of free roaming since that will reset the “Weather Trigger Cycle,” so in other terms free roam without any interruption. Once it starts to rain, you’ll have around 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours in game time of rain pouring, but remember that the more you move, even walking, time flies faster and it will stop raining, but if it stops raining, just go to safe house(FTP), and sleep it right before 2:10pm to repeat the rain process. Now the question is, how do you trigger rain in a different time say night time, well my theory is keep driving till it triggers in the night time, I haven’t drove that long because I was testing more on this on the “Village” glitch; later on this on next chapter. If you want it to sleet, then I think its around 10:30am or pm, I think.
The Blue outline is suggested travel where there is no enemy danger nearby to disrupt driving, yellow shows what time it starts to rain (on my end of in game time, hopefully is same for you). The orange is possible threat if maneuvered off the road a little bit. If you go to the South train tracks, just be careful with the incoming train and how close you get to it because the hit box of it is bigger than it looks. If you want to go to the Northeast train yard hill, then you have to use the buggy(possibly Lada) to climb on a specific hill(pic below).
When you want to have wipers working, just exit vehicle and enter again when it is raining.
III. Village (not fully complete)
“Mhmm mhe-mhe..mhhe,” Oh, excuse me, I wanna drive.” “I liikeae this Job.”
Oh man this map is so many things. To begin with, this map has a lot bugs when you spawn, the first one is weapon cycling, is backwards scrolling in mouse, the second is having two “Weather Cycle Registers” close by that will only be 12 hours apart, meaning it will only snow a little but not fully Snow(13 hours register) a lot like the mission “Remains of the Day” in Act 2. The Third Glitch is the worst of them all, this one is the problem which doesn’t allow you to roll the in game time because it gets stuck at 3:30am. In order to have “Weather Cycle to Register,” you have to have 13 hours free roaming, and by not visiting “Fast Travel Points,” “Weapon Cache,” or “Bed.” This 3:30am glitch also happens to occur in the “Improvement Project,” but in that mod, you can just simply sleep 30min starting 4:00am, and continue on. I’ve tried using the mod but you have to drive for 24 in game hours starting at 3am so the 2:30pm doesn’t register and wait for the 3:20am to happen, also it doesn’t seem to work or register the snowfall that easily. In the vanilla release, sleeping 30min after 3:30am will not work because time has stopped working and it’s stuck. The thing with this map is that the famous final glitch/bug happens in this map which is having 98% POI or possibly in other maps, but even though it says 100% when you’ve collected in this map, the statistics still show 98%. My theory is that people have to restart the entire game to remove this bug(risky, don’t think it has to do with time stuck), and not have the last side mission complete, so activating the side op will make time continue. For me this is not a solution, and it doesn’t mean I have not gotten Snowfall with the 98% bug(all ops completed) few times. Is there a solution, yes and no. The two in game “Weather Register Cycles” times are 2:30pm and 3:20-30am. The only big advantage in this buggy map is having the Snowfall in 3:30am since it will always snow wherever you go since time has stopped. I have also tried disconnecting from online, changing pc time manually and seeing if it registered, no. I even tried crawling for 2 hours real time and see if it would work, no. I’ve tried the technique where driving for 2 in game hours(Vanilla) and then sleeping(reset fail) at 12 again to continue “Weather Register Cycle,” but I don’t think that will do.
The solution does work but you have to use the “Improvement Project” in this map for now till I find the Vanilla solution. This map has two “Weather Trigger Cycles,” one at 2:30pm and one at 3:30am. The conflict here is that one drive is 11 in game hours and the other is 13 in game hours apart. But since we are using the mod, time will continue which visiting FTP or Bed wont cause it to fail. Both the Vanilla and the mod still have the 3:30am time stop. The other thing your not suppose to do is sleep 24 hours where you left at in between 3:30 and 4:00, since that will cause time to stop entirely.
-If you want to experience the night snowfall then start at 4:00pm(16:00) when spawning map, so first thing is sleep to 4:00pm, then drive around until you hit 3:30am, which will trigger the first “Weather Trigger Cycle,” at this point there will be light snow, from here FTP to Bed and sleep to 4:00pm, drive around and you will encounter a light snow fall around 8:40pm, that’s fine continue driving until you hit 3:30am, there will be now snow but you have triggered the second “Weather Trigger Cycle,” FTP to Bed, sleep to 4:00pm, drive around till you hit 3:00am, and enjoy! (The benefit of this one is you get to have travel distance without snowfall stopping).
-If you want to experience the daylight snowfall, then start at 4:00am or better 5:00am, from here drive around till you hit 2:30pm, light snowfall will occur but keep driving till light snowfall stops, then FTP to Bed and sleep to 4:00am and drive to 2:30pm, and the snowfall will begin. Remember if it stops snowing, then just sleep like 24 in game hours right before 2:30pm to have the snowfall repeat.
This map has pretty convenient driving path which avoids any threats(not the timber wolfs lol). Just drive around the biggest roundabout. In order to climb the biggest mountain I think you need the buggy to make it. Plus there are two added nice sniping spots I recommend trying (pics below).
Snow using the mod:
IV. Dam
Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8, RV 293, “Autumn” (L’autunno)
I. Allegro (in F major)
II. Adagio molto (in D minor)
III. Allegro (in F major)
This map is the most smoothest to experience weather and the mysterious one too since I think this map has “two?” weather types? This map has the environment of the Season Autumn where the leaves turn yellow and orange pigments for the reason of lack of chlorophyll and the retaining of anthocyanins. This map will add that extra effect where leaves will blow across the fields and across your scope. This map still rains but my question is can this map have intense winds high at 20m/s where leaves are constantly reviving the environment, probably. I’ve only managed to start the first “Weather Trigger Cycle” starting from 9pm to 10:50am where you’ll allow a 13 hour gap for the rain to pour. There are sometimes some flies flying around but you mostly see leaves blowing past you. I also realized that there are some pictures of the game when it was released where leaves are blowing in this map, plus the fact that they removed humidity levels showing in your scope when aiming. I have yet to test if more leaves will appear if more more time is spent free roaming. As far as I know this map and Mining Town both have fog and Village has snow sweep mist sometimes.
I’ve spent more time in the map using the mod (can also be done in Vanilla) and I realized that rain felt more intense when a player spends more time in the map and registering the “Weather Registration Cycle” the second time. This happened around 3am, while the first one around 10:50am. Now this map can reach wind speeds around 20m/s but mostly at night starting around 8pm and you can definitely see more leaves blowing across and near you when roaming.
V. Conclusion
In the end, I know truly this is not the most convenient way of making weather happen in this game but if you haven’t experienced weather in this map, then I hope this is a solution that has worked for you.
Another tip in the game is that I think it’s better personally to equip thermo goggles when it is pouring rain because sight becomes harsh to see far ahead but if weather hits at night, then equip night vision. Even though it rains or snows during daylight, it will be cloudy which may seem night but still affects sight.
