Days Gone What It Takes To Survive Walkthrough

What It Takes To Survive is a Main Story Mission in Days Gone. This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of the “What It Takes To Survive” Main Quest and to clear out the mandatory Cave Horde.

What It Takes To Survive Starting Location

This mission starts at the northern Highway 97 area. Deek and O’Brian meet up for a last time. Probably.

After talking to O’Brian, head over to the Cave and inside.

Explore the Ice Wind Lava Cave

As mentioned above, doing an optional favor for O’Brian could be helpful to prevent a mission glitch. So, we want to keep our eyes peeled for all four NERO members, although only one is our main target.

While we are in the Cave and have not interacted with Cooper, who is in a distinct area with generators, there are no enemies inside the Cave to encounter. So, take your time and explore everything. As things look quite similar, it might take some time as you will likely come across paths you’ve taken before.

Generally, use Survival Vision and interact with prompted items on the ground, like bags or certain flares.

This will reveal footprints on the floor, which you can follow.

The first set will lead you to NERO member Hernandez, who can be seen after climbing up some small plateaus along the general way inside.

The second NERO soldier (Robinson) can be found at the bottom of two plateaus, after squeezing yourself through a narrow gap in the wall.

The third optional NERO researcher went by the name Patterson. He can be found at the end of a long way in the upper inner parts of the Cave.

Track Cooper

Once you have found all three optional corpses, head to the distinct area inside, which is rather well-lit. Cooper will lean on some rocks, close to the generators.

Kill the Reacher

After the Cutscene with Cooper, a new enemy type will be introduced – the Reacher. He is a very agile werewolf-type of Freak, who can soak up many bullets. Generally, he spawns to the right side, if you are standing in front of Cooper.
Between his attacks and while you are reloading, he will disappear and attack from another angle. Be on your toes and look around you all the time. If you are lucky, you can pump in a full MG-magazine into him, without ever being attacked.

Clear the Horde

Shortly after you have taken out the Reacher, a Horde will swarm in. There is not much time to prepare. They will spawn to the left side of Cooper, coming up the flight of stairs. This is a good spot to throw in some Napalm Molotows and Explosives.

Just like fighting a Horde outside, you want to switch between shooting and running, which can be a bit harder down here due to the narrow space and poor lighting. Make use of climbable plateaus to gain a bit of ground between you and them. This would also be a good spot to throw some more Molotows, as they all want to climb up at these tight spots.

Repeat the process of walking backwards while shooting and running, until they are all dealt with.

Once the Horde is down, Deek will hand over the blood and tissue samples to O’Brian.

This concludes the What It Takes To Survive Story Mission in Days Gone.

For all other Days Gone Story Missions check out the full Days Gone Walkthrough.