Days Gone: Oregon After the Collapse

The game calls its setting the Farewell Wilderness, and it has a town called Farewell — a name taken from Bend's old name, Farewell Bend. The story begins with Deacon, Boozer and Sarah trying to flee the outbreak; Sarah boards a NERO helicopter and Deacon stays behind with the injured Boozer. Bend itself never appears under its own name, because the designers focused on smaller central Oregon communities. Their studio is in the real Bend, where Pilot Butte, an extinct cinder cone, still rises inside the city.

Location precision: Farewell is a fictional town named after Bend's old name; the pin marks the centre of Bend.

Visitor guidance: Pilot Butte, the extinct cinder cone inside Bend, is the obvious place to start.

In the first act Tucker, who runs the Hot Springs camp near Three Fingered Jack, sends Deacon to Marion Forks to rescue a girl holed up in her family's old house. The town is full of Freaker nests, and there is a bear and gun-toting Rippers to watch for. The real Marion Forks is an unincorporated community on the North Santiam Highway, 15 miles south of Detroit. Its lodge grew from a cookhouse built with salvaged lumber; it burned down in 1972. A fish hatchery opened in 1951.

Visitor guidance: The hatchery and campground are south of the community on the North Santiam Highway.

The game's Hot Springs camp was once a resort and spa, now a forced-labour camp run by Ada Tucker, who works its residents to the bone in exchange for safety. The designers used pieces of Belknap Hot Springs in the map, and the game puts the camp at the foot of Three Fingered Jack. The real Belknap Springs resort was developed in 1869 and has run almost continuously since the 1870s; its spring emerges at 147–198°F and is piped into soaking pools. It is still a private resort on the McKenzie River.

Location precision: The Hot Springs camp is a composite; the pin marks Belknap Springs, which the designers named as one of its pieces.

Visitor guidance: Belknap Springs is a private resort on the McKenzie River; check opening times before driving out.

Boozer's condition worsens after the Rippers burn his arm, and Deacon sneaks into the Lost Lake camp to steal medical supplies. He is caught, but Iron Mike lets Boozer stay while a doctor amputates the gangrenous arm. The camp sits in the middle of the Lost Lake region; at the end of the story Deacon, Sarah, Boozer and their friends settle there. The real Lost Lake near Santiam Pass is a shallow, seasonal lake with a Forest Service campground — not the Lost Lake resort near Mount Hood.

Location precision: Iron Mike's camp is fictional; the pin marks the real Lost Lake campground near Santiam Pass.

Visitor guidance: The real Lost Lake is a Forest Service campground off Highway 20 near Santiam Pass; it is not the Lost Lake resort near Mount Hood.

Iron Butte is largely Rippers' territory and stays closed for much of the game. When Deacon and Boozer finally cross the tunnel from Lost Lake, they blow up the dam in the mission This Never Gets Old, flooding the main Ripper compound and reaching Carlos. The game's Iron Butte Ranch is based on Black Butte Ranch, a planned resort community begun in 1970 on a former cattle ranch. Its restaurant, golf courses and stables are open to the public, and the 6,436-foot Black Butte looks down on it.

Location precision: Iron Butte Ranch is a fictional stand-in; the pin marks Black Butte Ranch, which Sony named as its model.

Visitor guidance: Black Butte Ranch is a private resort community, but its restaurant, golf courses and stables are open to the public.

Diamond Lake is the militia's staging ground in the third act, and the camp only opens then. Crossing the mountains south, Deacon saves a group of men from a Rager — the game's name for an infected bear — and the encounter leads him to Captain Kouri. The real lake lies between Mount Bailey and Mount Thielsen, just north of Crater Lake National Park, and is named after John Diamond, who saw it in 1852. In 2006 the state poisoned it with rotenone, killing 95 million invasive tui chub.

Visitor guidance: Diamond Lake Resort on the east shore has lodging, restaurants and boat rentals; the lake is just off Oregon Route 138.

Sarah was evacuated to a military outpost at Crater Lake, now controlled by the Deschutes County Militia, and the lake dominates the third act. The real Crater Lake fills a caldera left when Mount Mazama collapsed about 7,700 years ago; at 1,949 feet it is the deepest lake in the United States, fed only by rain and snow. Rim Drive runs 33 miles around the caldera. Creative director John Garvin said the team recreated the lake "pretty faithfully."

Visitor guidance: Rim Drive circles the lake; in 2026 the Cleetwood Cove trail and marina are closed for a three-year rehabilitation.

Wizard Island holds the game's largest and most complex encampment, the headquarters of the Deschutes County Militia, where Deacon meets Colonel Garret. In the finale he attacks the militia headquarters with a truck bomb; the game lets players reach the island across one of two bridges. The real Wizard Island is a cinder cone at the west end of Crater Lake, 755 feet above the water, formed by eruptions after Mazama's collapse. Boat tours normally land there in summer, and two trails cross the island; public boat tours are suspended through the 2028 summer season.