Woods Redressed - Raid 56 - Level 16

I've already had four shots at "Kill 3 Scavs Without Healing on Woods", and the stress from those failures has made me dread returning. Heck, I chose Factory over Woods as a way of avoiding it.  However, it is now my quest that pays the most XP, so I need to face my fears and venture in.

Raid 56

Loadout: Class 4 armor, my newly beloved ADAR with a canted dot sight and a basic Pilad 4x hunting scope, food and drink. No meds.

I spawned in some woods. I can see a sign for mines over there, and after some study I concluded that was the USEC encampment over there.  Well, the nearest scavs would be at that hideout with the radio tower. I checked the map, took a bearing and set a course. It seemed to take longer than I thought it should, as I recall they are pretty close to one another. So I began to second doubt myself. I stopped and scoped around. Is it possible that what I thought was the USEC camp was actually the scav bunker?  I had a bearing and a course and I should have stuck with them, but I let my doubt get the advantage of me and I ended up doubling back. I was right the first time - that's definitely USEC encampment. So I turned around and wandered off again.  Wasting time. 

I could hear intermittent weapon fire in almost every direction. I am missing all the parties.  I finally arrived at the scav bunker. There were dead scavs and open containers, no sign of anyone else.  I grabbed a bit of loot and headed on towards abandoned village.

I hate abandoned village.  There is lots of tall grass there that I cannot see through, yet it doesn't interfere with the vision of any scavs there.  The grass is worst near the river and there is less of it near the lake, so maybe I'll just approach from that angle.  I approached the abandoned village cover to cover, concealment to concealment. No sign of anyone. No bodies.  I looted a bit. Suddenly a scav shouted from god only knows where  - I ran for hard cover, but there wasn't any close by. He started firing and landed a shot. Ouch!  I took cover behind a building and peeked. No sign of him. Circled to the other side and peeked again. Nothing. Where the hell is he?  I ran to another building, hoping to bait him. He shouted  - I took cover and then spun onto his last position - just grass and bushes. Goddamnit, this is going to get me killed. I know I need the scav kills, but I can't fight what I can't see and I didn't bring any grenades.

I rose up the hill, used a tree for hard cover and then scoped the valley one last time. As luck would have it, the scav was on the move. I could just barely see him. I put the reticle on his head, lead him and fired and down he went. Yes! Way to go ADAR!  I guarantee if I'd been using the AKM the bullet would only just now be reaching him.  

I did not bother looting him. I want out of this death trap. I headed to the village.  I got to the village, there were a couple bodies in the road, but otherwise quiet.  The most common place of overlooking this village is up on the ridge at the other end of the road. I should be careful in case there is someone watching. Ran across the road, hoping to draw fire or excite a scav.  Nothing. Ran back the way I came, a scav shouted. I dove for cover, brought up my scope and peeked the corner. Nothing - wait, there is the scav. The scav was not looking at me, he was looking up the road. I headshotted him and returned to cover.  There might be someone up above. I should go clear it. I turned to go around the village when I stumbled on a scav in a bush (that I had cleared just a minute before). He scared the crap out of me - I started firing wildly and killed him. The "Quest Completed" sound played.  Huh. I checked my extracts - Northern UN Roadblock is the closest - I was heading that direction anyway to clear the ridge. But suddenly I became risk averse. I don't absolutely need to clear that ridge - I can just go around and I can get plenty of loot in the old sawmill.

So that's what I did - I followed the river a bit to go the long way round, descended into the old sawmill and filled my bags and rig full of random loot and then extracted.

Time In Raid: 33 minutes, 34 seconds
Exp: 1854
Kills ( ai scavs): Miron Fonar, Ilyuha Kiba, Yulian Koryavyy 
Ammo Used: 7, Hits: 3, Accuracy: 0.43  Damage to Body: 110

Mistakes

• was it carefulness or cowardice which had me avoid clearing the ridge?

Successes

• finished the quest
• survived

PostScript

Between the 7000 exp for my last reserve raid, the 9000 exp for The Bunker Part Two quest, the 7000 exp for todays quest and the 1854 exp from todays raid I had just enough to push me over to Level 16.  Yes.  But Level 17 is nearly 30,000 XP away. How many 0 exp raids will I need to reach it?