Oregon Trail 2 (and 5) Guide
By Simfish/InquilineKea (simfish@gmail.com).
PLEASE e-mail me suggestions if you find holes in my FAQ. Thanks!
Disclaimer: feel free to distribute this guide. If you want to copy it
into your own articles, please e-mail me at simfish@gmail.com for
permission (and please ATTRIBUTE everything I write to this FAQ (and
by my Internet name - I go by both Simfish and InquilineKea - I'd
prefer it if you'd just use Simfish/InquilineKea for attribution).
As characters in the Oregon Trail don't even have a gender, I'll use
the masculine pronoun throughout.
NOTE: Oregon Trail 2 and Oregon Trail 5 are virtually identical with
the exception of the cutscenes. The only other change Oregon Trail 5
has to Oregon Trail 2 is the addition of fishing/gathering options.
=========
Guide created April 4, 2008
Version 1.0: last updated April 5, 2008.
=========
Background Info about me: I used to be known as simfish88 and as
Tonto_Simfish (Tonto being an online gaming clan) on various gaming
communities in the past (Microsoft Ants, Age of Kings Heaven) [Also my
location is Westminster, CO => Redmond,WA]. I later switched to
Simfish but then felt uncomfortable with the non-uniqueness of
simfish, which led me to permanently switch my Internet name to
InquilineKea.
=========
Table of Contents:
1: General Tips
2: Starting off
2.1: Professions
2.2: Wagon party members and ages
2.3: Maximizing Score
2.4: Items you probably should buy
2.5: Food
2.6: Meals
2.7: Time of starting
3: On the Trail
3.1: Health
3.2: Diseases and Conditions
3.3: Morale
3.4: River Crossings
3.5: Hills
3.6: Cutoffs
3.7: Location Location Location
3.8: Random Events
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1: General tips for the game
You really should read the guidebook for advice. The guidebook sounds
like it's produced for REAL pioneers of the 1800s rather than computer
gamers and so it has extra details that don't have any implementation
in the game. But it actually does a pretty good job of listing all the
details you need to know. You should also read the glossary - which
includes historical information about landmarks, diseases, and wagon
procedures.
You should generally avoid trading with people. It's rare for people
to offer you a deal better than one you could get through a fort or
general store.
There are a lot of actions/items that come without tradeoffs (unless
you were concerned about the score). A lot of the miscellaneous items
are useless and only make it more likely for your wagon to tip over.
In fact, the vast majority of items are pretty much useless (or are
more expensive substitutes for a cheaper item, without any additional
benefit other than possibly morale).
====
2: Starting off
====
2.1: Professions
The professions are ranked as according to how much money you get to
pay. Of course if you were only concerned with game mechanics (and not
with final score), then choosing one profession over another would
have no tradeoffs. If not for score, then there are many choices in
the game
2.2: Wagon party members and ages:
The additional members in your wagon party don't seem to do anything
other than consume food and get sick/die. For some reason you don't
get sick until everyone else in your wagon party dies. (however, you
can still get thirst/starvation or injured/[and yes even killed] in
hunting accidents). So in effect, this effective "buffer" is probably
the only reason for you to get more members if you were only concerned
with winning. But of course they help add points to your score - more
points than most other factors.
Age doesn't seem to affect anything other than susceptibility/chance
of death to various illnesses.
2.3: Maximizing Score
Start as a teacher in 1840 with 5 other people, don't put anything
into skills, buy lots of flour (45 cents for 20 pounds means 2.25
CENTS PER POUND, which makes it the cheapest food by far), and only
buy the basics I've outlined above. You may want to buy winter coats
if you start off in March. Avoiding delays will help you get to the
destination faster (muddy trail tends to occur in the East, rough
trail occurs in the West). You should predominantly rely on your
hunting skills (and gathering/fishing skills in Oregon Trail 5) and
only hunt when your food gets fairly low (as food tends to increase
the wagon load, which makes it harder to ascend/descend hills and
cross rivers).
You can save and restart the game if anything "bad" happens. There is
no intrinsic "best" way to play the game, but I think we can all agree
that it feels more "natural" to play the entire game without saving
and restarting (unless you encounter a bug or an unnatural event [aka
killing yourself with a gun when you go hunting - yes that has
happened to me before]). Generally though, the "not necessary if
everything goes right" items (medicines, ropes/chains, shovels and
saws for getting past fallen obstacles) aren't very expensive so you
probably should buy them anyways.
A lot of the items are extraneous, useless, and just force your wagon
to carry more items (which makes it more likely for your wagon to
tip/capsize/etc)
2.4: Items you probably should buy
A wagon + oxen: The game will not allow you to proceed without them.
You could also buy mules and horses but they cost more and have
additional negative qualities (horses require hay and can't feed on
the grasses, mules are just more expensive although I haven't seen
them refuse to move on for me). It might be fun to go to your
destination relying solely on horses (but I haven't done that before
yet)
Food: Your health will drastically suffer without food for obvious reasons.
Water kegs: These are the only items (that I know of) that can hold
water for extended periods of time. After South Pass you will
encounter stretches of territory without water and you will *quickly*
die of thirst without water.
Salt: preserves meat, and is helpful for a lot of illnesses (though
there is no option for increasing salt intake when someone gets
cholera - even though this is the recommended option in the guidebook)
Rope: For the "use ropes and chains" option when you have to
ascend/descend mountains/hills.
Items you should buy if you want to maximize score:
Rifle, ammunition, and gunpowder: A box of 20 bullets will cost around
10 dollars. You can bring down a 200 pound animal with one bullet.
Bacon costs 11 cents per pound. Moreover, since you don't have to
carry game meat until you shoot it, it doesn't pull a burden on a
wagon. You can easily go without those (especially if you start out
with a lot of money), but they're essential if you want a high score.
You should also buy antiseptics (iodine, hydrogen peroxide, isopropyl
alcohol) if you go hunting because accidents are surprisingly common
for some reason.
You generally don't need to hunt unless you've intentionally started
with a small amount of money.
Other useful items:
Winter coats: they help prevent frostbite and hypothermia during
conditions of extreme cold.
Spare axles/wheels/tongues: Your axle/wheel/tongues will break and if
you're unable to fix them when they do, you'll need to repair them
since you'll be forced to trade for them if you don't have them (and
the people will often trade them to you on terms unfavorable to you).
- I actually haven't found a "use" for sets of clothing. But I
generally bring sets of clothing with me anyways.
2.5: Food
There seem to be only 4 main purposes of food: (a) keeping you healthy
and preventing starvation, (b) preventing/treating scurvy, (c)
preventing/treating beriberi, and (d) keeping morale up. There are 4
main types of food: Meat, fruit, vegetables, and others (the status
bar will tell you when you don't have meat, fruit, or vegetables).
Meat is useful for preventing beriberi, while fruit and vegetables are
useful for preventing both beriberi and scurvy.
But in any case, I was able to keep everyone in high morale from
Independence all the way to Independence Rock without giving them any
meat (in fact, all they had were sacks of flour, and potatoes +
pickles + dried fruit/vegetables)
2.6: Meals
Unless you are low on ammunition or gunpowder (or somehow can't afford
getting accidentally shot/getting mauled by an animal), you should set
your meal options at filling (this is especially true for Oregon Trail
V, where you can fish and gather plants WITHOUT PENALTY [the plant
guidebook is 100% perfect for identifying poisonous plants in Oregon
Trail V]).
When meals are set to filling and pace is set to steady, your health
will usually stay at "good" for the duration of the trail (barring
illness).
The chances of getting shot in a hunt are actually pretty high (also,
gunshot wounds have a nasty tendency of happening to YOU for some
reason). As you only can carry 200 pounds of meat or so per session,
you're best advised to just shoot a single large animal and to then
carry it back (before the potential of incidents). The guidebook says
that buying sheaths would be useful for preventing accidents, although
I have no way to confirm this.
2.7: Time of starting
You can start from March to August. Of course, if you start in March,
you will start in wintertime (of course March in the Great Plains
isn't really that severe [as average highs tend to be in the 50s and
snowstorms tend to be isolated incidents], but the game seems to treat
March like January). If you start in August, of course, you run the
risk of getting trapped in the mountains in wintertime.
Cold weather seems to have several properties associated with it. From
my numerous instances of playing the game, it seems that people don't
get cholera or a lot of other illnesses when it's cold or snowy
(probably because a lot of micro-organisms generally thrive in warmer
climates). Of course, this doesn't apply for bad colds and the grippe,
which are more likely to happen during wintertime. You also run the
risk of frostbite and the rare events of freezing and "snowbound".
Of course, cold weather tends to freeze rivers as well (this could be
good or bad; it's explained in the "crossing rivers" section). It also
makes hills harder to climb/descend (this is very bad)
======
On the Trail: (3.0)
======
3.1: Health
Health goes on a linear scale, from good to OK to fair to poor to bad
to critical to dead. When a person is feeling less-than-perfect but is
ailment free, health will go from good to OK, poor, bad, critical.
With ailments, it goes from fair to poor, bad, critical (although
"good" seems to appear when you reload the game and the person has a
mild ailment).
- good means that the person is free of existing ailments.
- OK means either that the person has just recovered from some ailment
or that you're pushing yourself too hard on the trail (your health
also can go down to OK when you suffer from thirst).
- fair means that the person has some ailment, but it does not
differentiate between less serious and more serious ailments (i.e. a
person with smallpox will start with fair health, but so will a person
with a bad cold).
- If health is poor, bad, or critical, you better do something pretty
soon or else the person will probably die without intervention (set
rations to filling and pace to steady if you haven't done so already
and REST).
3.2: Diseases and Conditions
We can subdivide diseases/conditions into several categories. There
are relatively mild illnesses that rarely kill people by themselves
(as long as you select the proper treatment), more serious illnesses
that last longer and that could turn a person's health to poor in
days, and conditions that can kill quickly but otherwise seem to heal
quickly.
Unlike Oregon Trail I (where people died just as easily from broken
bones as they did from cholera (!)), there is definitely
differentiation between illnesses in Oregon Trail II/V.
There are two stages of an illness. Initially you will get a screen
displaying the illness. Then when a person's health becomes poor or
bad, another screen "a turn for the worse" pops up. This screen
usually only applies for the long-acting serious illnesses (it doesn't
seem to apply for cholera,
The mild conditions/illnesses are bad colds, broken legs/arms,
frostbite and concussions. I also think that measles, grippe (the flu)
and scarlet fever also belong to this category (from what I've read of
the guidebook), but I've rarely seen people getting them in my over 15
sessions of the game. Bad colds will usually resolve themselves even
if you don't address them (although none of the options other than
rest seem to really help with it anyways). The choice of treatment
should be obvious with broken arms/legs (immobilize/splint affected
joint) and frostbite (gradually warm affected area).
The more serious illnesses are smallpox, pneumonia, typhoid fever,
typhus, mountain fever, and possibly snakebite (historically of
course, all of them had high fatality rates, often above 10%). None of
them have an "obvious" course of treatment and all of them have a high
chance of causing the person to make a turn for the worse if you don't
rest him. At least these diseases don't kill people as quickly as
cholera does.
I haven't seen many cases of dysentery yet. But dysentery tends to be
chronic and so even if it doesn't make a turn for the worse, it has
the potential implication of forcing a person's health to be fair for
the rest of the journey.
Cholera belongs in a category of its own (realistically, its fatality
rate without treatment is over 50% but drops down to the single digits
with treatment). It kills very quickly (a person's health can go from
fair to dead - whereas you generally get a second warning for the
other serious illnesses if they make a turn for the worse). But if the
person survives the first few days, he'll probably heal quickly.
There are also internal injuries, freezing, near-drownings, gunshot
wounds, food poisonings, and animal maulings. These injuries can kill
you VERY QUICKLY if not taken care of, but they also seem to come with
varying degrees of severity (some of them will kill the person without
a warning screen [he'll just die right when you get them])
And finally, beriberi and scurvy. Those, of course, are food-related
illnesses. Scurvy and fresh fruits/vegetables can treat it. Beriberi
is treated with both meat and fruit/vegetables.
3.3: Morale
Morale seems to be only relevant for adventurers or tour guides
(although strangely adventurer/tour guide morale is based ONLY on the
morale of your party). It's displayed on your status bar and goes from
high to "nothing" to "slipping" to "low" to "very low". A lot of the
miscellaneous items MIGHT boost morale (but I've managed to get from
Independence to Independence Rock without miscellaneous items with the
party remaining at high morale). Morale is lowered when you go for
stretches of land without water (it's also hit when you run out of
fruit, vegetables, and meat). It also is lowered when you get into
accidents on river crossings and mountains, and poor health on the
part of ALL members also seems to decrease it. One would expect that
morale would increase with increasing proximity to the destination but
this does not seem to be the case in the game.
3.4: River Crossings
Historically, river crossings were the second biggest killer on the
Oregon Trail (after cholera). I actually haven't seen anyone drown in
a river yet (near-drownings have happened though). On the Oregon
Trail, there aren't a lot of particularly dangerous rivers.
The most dangerous river on the Oregon Trail is probably the Thomas
Fork of the Green River (it's almost always described as "very
treacherous" and it's almost always 8 to 9 feet deep). The Snake River
is also fairly treacherous. Other than those two rivers though, you
shouldn't have too much of a problem with river crossings.
These rivers are generally over 3 feet deep and you should caulk+float on them:
Oregon Trail:
Kansas River
Big Blue River
Laramie River
North Platte River (sometimes)
Green River
Thomas Fork (particularly dangerous, I've run into the most accidents at this)
Snake River
Other Trails:
Mississippi River
Missouri River
You can easily ford most rivers that are 2 feet or under (the main
risk is getting stuck in the mud, and double-teaming the animals seems
to come without penalty). The South Platte River is somewhat of an
exception as it's a mile wide and has quicksand.
Frozen rivers seem to be easier to cross than non-frozen ones
(percentage-wise) but the consequences are more severe (I actually
haven't tried this out yet) if you fall through a frozen river. There
doesn't seem to be much of a correlation between the "depth" of winter
and the difficulty of crossing a frozen river as there is no way to
measure how a river is frozen. I once managed to get to the "Three
Crossings" of the Sweetwater River in early May when the river was
still frozen - and still managed to cross the ice three times without
incident.
If a ferry is available and you don't want the money for extra points
in the end, you probably should take it. There are animations in the
Oregon Trail II folder that are associated with ferry accidents - but
ferry accidents seem extremely rare (this is probably also true when
you hire an Indian to help you). But if you like saving/reloading a
lot, then you could just rely on yourself.
3.5: Hills
There are two types of hills: hills and mountains. Somehow the game
doesn't seem to discriminate between them (although if you immediately
click on the game screen after ascending a mountain, the location
screen will show the name of the mountain you're ascending rather than
the words "on the trail"). This doesn't seem to make a difference
though, as the game doesn't seem to discriminate between them.
All of the options for ascending/descending hills are better than
"continue up/down the hill" so you should use them rather than
continuing up/down the hill (unfortunately you can't do several of the
options even if they were all possible in real life). I haven't
noticed much of a percentage-change difference between the alternative
options, but you should always use them since they don't come with any
penalties (although on a few occasions "continuing" up/down the hill
will work when the wagon tips over on other options for some reason).
3.6: Cutoffs
Read the guidebook for most information about each of the cutoffs.
Cutoffs from the main trail tend to be rougher and drier than the main
trail. As you'll see from the guidebook, cutoffs tend to have many
segments of miles without water (where you'll need water kegs if you
don't want your party members to quickly die of starvation). Moreover,
if someone gets a major illness in the middle of a "no water"
scenario, you're in a pretty serious condition (as resting is
oftentimes the only treatment for some illnesses).
Oregon Trail cutoffs:
Deep Sand vs. Three Crossings. I generally choose the Three Crossings
route. It's faster and the Sweetwater River is so shallow and narrow
that crossings are almost always without incident.
Sublette Cutoff vs. Fort Bridger: Depends on whether you're soon in
need of supplies. You should make sure that you have several water
kegs if you're planning on taking the cutoff as you go for miles
without water.
Lander Cutoff (only available in 1860) vs. road to Fort Bridger: The
Lander cutoff is like the Sublette Cutoff, only more extreme (longer
mileages without water and a rough trail, but you also save more
miles)
Three Crossings of Snake River vs. South Alternate Route: If you like
saving and reloading, just choose the Three Crossings of the Snake
River route. If you like playing the game more "naturally", choose the
South Alternate Route (which takes you longer, is rougher and drier,
and makes you avoid a potentially useful fort).
Rafting down the Columbia vs. Barlow Toll Road: Rafting down the
Columbia River really isn't that difficult as it plays kind of like an
easy arcade game. Moreover, the Columbia River's geography is the same
no matter how many times you play the game and so after your first
try, you should be able to raft down the river without difficulty
because you should be able to predict the locations of rocks and
whirlpools afterwards. With the Barlow Toll Road, you have to ascend
Devil's Half Acre and descend Laurel Hill, and Laurel Hill is the most
dangerous hill of the entire Oregon Trail (that COMBINED with the fact
that you have to re-ascend/re-descend hills whenever you wagon tips
over on them - though this also tends to happen on accidents along the
Columbia River). But rafting down the Columbia becomes quite
repetitive as you play more of the game and so the Barlow Toll Road is
sometimes more fun.
California Trail cutoffs:
Salt Lake City alternate route: this goes up from Great Salt Lake City
and saves you the trouble of having to go through. But on the way to
the Great Salt Lake, you have to ascend/descend numerous mountains.
You will also go for miles without water (although not for as many
miles as you
Hastings Cutoff: Read about the Donner Party and you can imagine how
difficult this cutoff is. Someone once got cholera when I was in the
middle of the desert - you could imagine how screwed I was. Still,
it's pretty fun to take since it probably is the most difficult part
of the game (also you have to go through
Truckee vs. Carson route: It's all in the guide.
Trail to the Rogue River Valley:
This is kind of an interesting trail that you don't tend to hear as
much about in the history books. You have to go through the Black Rock
Desert, but it's only 20 miles in length and so you could get through
it in 3 days.
3.7: Location Location Location
There seem to be three distinct regions. One is the humid region east
of Fort Laramie (Wyoming is a dry state). One is the region between
Fort Laramie and South Pass. And the last is the region west of South
Pass.
East of Fort Laramie, there is a very real risk of cholera (after all
cholera was quite prevalent in the East and the West was a means of
getting away from it) [unless you happen to be traveling in March]. At
least you don't have to worry about running out of water.
Between Fort Laramie and South Pass, the weather seems to be drier but
you'll always be following a river. This is probably the easiest
segment of the trail because extreme heat is rare, thick dust is rare,
and you'll usually be here when it isn't winter.
West of South Pass, your risk of cholera seems to decline (although
your risk of mountain fever seems to increase [although mountain fever
is a lot rarer than cholera]). Here the terrain is rougher and you
WILL encounter segments of terrain where
I haven't checked if food supplies deplete faster in the East than in
the West though.
3.8: Random Events
(good): Abandoned Wagon, wild fruits/vegetables, you've caught some fish
"free stuff!" I think you're more likely to catch fish when you rest
near a river for a day.
(neutral): Thick dust, heavy fog, thunderstorm
I just continue through such events as I've never seen anything bad
coming out of them. Thunderstorms seem more severe than the others but
I haven't seen anything bad coming out of them yet.
(could be neutral or bad): prairie fire, strangers at a distance,
fallen obstacles.
Prairie fires have the potential to set your wagon on fire (waiting
for it to end seems to decrease the risk - but prairie fires are rare
compared to the above events). Strangers could steal from you
(approaching them or continuing from a distance both seem to carry
similar risks of theft/continuing without theft). At least they don't
physically hurt you.
Oxen steps on hole/exhausted oxen: You could double team the animals
or continue. Such actions run the risk of causing your oxen to die -
however - this doesn't seem to happen that much even when I just
continue.
