Is Days Gone Camp Trust Worth It? The Tier 3 Grind Guide

Wondering if Days Gone camp trust is worth it before heading south? We break down Tier 3 rewards, math, and why grinding early camps wastes precious hours.

Running low on fuel in the Oregon backwoods while staring at an empty credit balance is practically a rite of passage in Days Gone. Every survivor camp locks survival tools behind arbitrary loyalty meters: run chores, rescue survivors, turn in bloody ears, and slowly buy access to basic upgrades.

Early on, maxing out northern settlements before following Deacon's story looks like smart preparation. You want bigger fuel tanks, deadlier sidearms, and durable bike parts. Yet spending dozen-hour blocks clearing infestations and hunting deer to squeeze out points quickly reveals a harsh truth: the game baits you into an unnecessary grind.

Here is how the loyalty math actually works, which camps deserve your bounties, and why rushing Tier 3 early wastes your time.

The Trust Math: How the 25,000 Loyalty Wall Actually Works

Deacon starts at Tier 0 or Tier 1 with regional outposts, facing steep point requirements. Each camp runs on an identical cumulative scale:

Hitting Trust Level 3 demands 25,000 cumulative points per settlement.

Mandatory story missions and regional camp jobs leave you barely past Level 2. The narrative alone will not close the gap; you are left with an 8,000-to-10,000 point deficit that forces repetitive open-world cleanup.

Camp economies are also isolated. Credits and Trust points earned in one camp do not carry across borders. Bounties sold to Copeland's butcher do nothing for Tucker's gun bench down the road. Every single camp demands its own 25,000-point investment from scratch.

If you play Days Gone on Steam, pacing your progression matters. Burning out on bounties in the first fifteen hours ruins what is otherwise a great open-world curve.

The Early Camp Trap: Tucker and Copeland Reality Check

Copeland’s Camp in the Cascades and Tucker’s Hot Springs in Belknap consume most of your opening hours. Both demand 25,000 points for Tier 3. Neither justifies the time.

Copeland’s Camp handles bike parts exclusively. Manny tunes your engine, patches tires, and welds basic frame improvements, but his merchant carries zero firearms. Level 2 gives Deacon enough horsepower and fuel range to survive comfortably. Pushing Copeland to Level 3 before seeing the rest of the map is pointless because mid-game settlements replace those early bike parts immediately.

Tucker’s camp sits at the opposite extreme. Hot Springs is a forced-labor camp with a well-stocked arms dealer, yet Tucker offers zero bike modifications. Reaching Tier 2 unlocks capable early guns like the MWS rifle. Pushing Tucker to Tier 3 for high-tier rifles is a mistake; superior guns unlock at the very next settlement you visit.

Stop splitting bounties evenly. Turn in just enough bounties at Copeland to hit Trust Level 2 for basic bike range, buy a starter rifle from Tucker at Level 2, and push the story south.

Where Trust Actually Pays Off: Lost Lake and the Southern Outposts

Lost Lake changes the formula. Iron Mike’s camp combines both survival branches in one location: mechanics sell substantial bike parts, and gun dealers stock hard-hitting weapons.

Iron Mike’s armory outclasses Tucker’s stock immediately. Because Lost Lake upgrades both your bike and your weapons locker, every point of Trust earned here pulls double duty. If you spend extra time hitting Trust Level 3 anywhere in the north, do it at Lost Lake.

Then the southern map opens up. Riding over the mountains brings you to Wizard Island and Diamond Lake, settlements that completely outclass northern gear.

Wizard Island merchants sell weapons that outperform northern inventories right at Trust Level 1. The camp also sells the Chicago Chopper, a 275-round drum-fed submachine gun that tears through hordes. Meanwhile, Diamond Lake carries the best bike upgrades in the game, including top-tier nitrous systems, radiators, and large-capacity fuel cells.

Grinding Hot Springs for six hours to reach Tier 3 makes no sense when the southern camps give you superior loadouts with a fraction of the work.

Free Gameplay Loops: Fastest Way to Get Camp Trust Days Gone

Do not roam dirt roads hoping for random encounters. If you want to push a settlement toward higher tiers, focus on high-yield objectives:

Hordes deliver the largest single Trust dumps in the game, handing out thousands of points per cleared zone.

For passive income, grab Green Thumb and The Butcher early in the Survival tree. Green Thumb doubles the yield of every plant gathered, while The Butcher doubles meat harvested from deer, wolves, and bears.

Doubling kitchen payouts cuts foraging time in half. If you are clearing camps on the Days Gone PC edition, turning in meat between missions provides a steady credit cushion without dedicated farming runs.

Hostage events offer another fast injection. Sending a survivor to Tucker yields 200 Credits but zero Trust points. Copeland gives 500 Trust and 100 Credits. Lost Lake gives a massive 1,000 Trust points per survivor. Never send survivors to Hot Springs.

The Freaker Ear Economy and Inventory Caps

Bounties form your day-to-day income. Every Freaker drops an ear, but inventory caps can cause wasted effort.

Swarmer ears cap at 999 per stack. Once your inventory reaches 999, ears left on the ground cannot be collected and despawn when you leave the area. Cash in at bounty stalls before tackling major swarms.

Community records often disagree on horde figures. Some older guides claim ear capacity is unlimited, but the counter caps at 999 and turns red. Guides also split on total hordes, reporting either 38 or 40 across Oregon (40 includes 3 story-mandated encounters and 37 optional groups). Target counts can also differ, such as the Chemult Station mission listing 125 target kills while field reports count 300 Swarmers. Regardless of exact enemy counts, empty your pockets before engaging large nests.

If you clear every encampment job and still fall short of Tier 3, use the settings menu. The developers included a Reset Jobs option, letting you respawn Ambush Camps, Infestation Nests, and Hordes to farm Trust without starting New Game Plus.

Horde Killer Milestones: Skipping Camp Merchants Entirely

You do not need camp gunsmiths for top-tier loadouts. The game's built-in Horde Killer storyline rewards you with top-tier firearms automatically:

• 4 Hordes Defeated: SMP9 (A high-tier sidearm that shreds close-range targets)
• 10 Hordes Defeated: Auto Shotgun (Devastating burst damage for nest management)
• 20 Hordes Defeated: IDF Pup (One of the most accurate, hard-hitting assault rifles in the game)
• 24 Hordes Defeated: MG 55 (A heavy machine gun that tears through late-game hordes)

The SMP9 unlocked after killing just 4 small Cascade hordes beats every sidearm Tucker sells at Tier 2 and Tier 3. Later, the IDF Pup makes camp-bought primary rifles redundant.

By taking down hordes with environmental explosives, attractors, and pipe bombs, you build an endgame armory without spending credits or farming plants.

Settlement Breakdown: Should You Hit Tier 3 Before Riding South?

Before Deacon rides south over Thielsen Pass, a point-of-no-return warning appears. This prompt makes many players assume northern settlements will be locked permanently.

The lockout is temporary. As the story reaches its final act, northern highways reopen completely, allowing you to return to Copeland, Tucker, and Iron Mike with late-game weapons equipped.

Copeland and Tucker are resource sinks that exploit early completionist habits. Lost Lake, Wizard Island, and Diamond Lake offer practical upgrades that justify your time.

When Free Grinding Hits a Wall

Days Gone is a long, deliberate campaign. Amassing 25,000 Trust across five separate camps solely through bounties and kitchen turn-ins requires dozens of hours of hunting and foraging. When patience wears thin, follow the yellow story markers.

The game never requires Trust Level 3 to reach the ending. If you are picking up the PC release on nxpgame Days Gone, ride straight through the campaign and skip the northern bounty grind.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is grinding Camp Trust to Tier 3 worth it before heading south?

No, grinding early northern camps like Copeland or Hot Springs to Tier 3 is unnecessary because southern settlements offer vastly superior weapons and bike parts right away. Pushing the main storyline unlocks higher-tier equipment much faster with far less repetitive farming.

Which early game camp should players prioritize for Trust?

You should prioritize Lost Lake (Iron Mike's camp) because it is the only settlement that sells both high-tier weapons and essential motorcycle upgrades. Copeland's is only worth leveling to Tier 2 for basic engine parts, while Tucker's camp can be largely bypassed.

Do camp credits and Trust transfer between different camps?

No, each survivor settlement tracks an independent Trust meter and separate credit wallet. Any bounties, kitchen meats, or rescued survivors turned in will only award points to the specific settlement you physically visit.

What is the fastest method to grind Trust to Level 3?

Clearing regional Freaker hordes, Ambush Camps, and Infestation Nests provides the largest lump-sum Trust points. Unlocking the Green Thumb and The Butcher skills also doubles all plant and animal meat yields, cutting your kitchen turn-in farm time in half.

Can you permanently lock yourself out of reaching Tier 3 at northern camps?

No, the lockout that occurs when Deacon travels south is strictly temporary. The northern regions reopen during the late-game storyline, letting you finish off incomplete camps whenever you choose.

What happens if you hoard Freaker ears past the inventory limit?

Common Swarmer ear storage has a strict limit of 999 units of a single type. Any additional ears dropped by dead Freakers past this limit cannot be picked up and are wasted, so turn in bounties regularly.

Does Tucker's camp sell any bike upgrades?

No, Tucker's camp at Hot Springs only features a weapons merchant and basic survival supplies. If you need motorcycle upgrades in the northern map, you must visit Copeland's camp or Iron Mike's settlement.

Final Verdict: Stop Grinding the North

Grinding Days Gone Camp Trust Level 3 in the early game wastes your time. Tucker wants you clearing Belknap to buy mid-tier weapons that Lost Lake renders obsolete an hour later. Copeland wants wolf meat in exchange for bike upgrades that Diamond Lake easily outclasses.

Stop farming deer. Stop turning in 3-point Swarmer ears in Belknap. Level Copeland to Tier 2 for basic bike mobility, grab an early primary weapon from Tucker if needed, and ride straight toward Lost Lake and the south. Wizard Island and Diamond Lake carry the gear that counts, and reaching them naturally through the story saves dozens of hours of unnecessary work.