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Starting Tips/Newbie Guide


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Well, if anyone's like me, the first thing you did when you started playing is go straight to the forums to look for tips. There are a couple threads for cooking recipes, hunting, etc. but I'm going to post a more contained "newbie" guide here. I'm only on day 40, so if you have any ideas or discoveries to share from extended play periods, by all means post them here. With your permission, I will add your ideas to this post.

Starting-

First, a warning. Unless you need charcoal, do NOT go past "The fire is nice and comfy." when adding logs to it. To check what "stage" it's at, if you will, you click on it to examine it. If it says the fire's getting low, add 1 or 2 logs to it.

Moving along.

Gather whatever is nearby. Prioritize. Flint and saplings are your best friends in the beginning. You will need these to make various tools, including an axe. Once you make an axe, chop down any trees that are nearby. Stay away from the areas that look like a swamp- nasty purple tentacle monsters will pop up and swing in circles hitting anything near them. Although these things do drop a fairly effective weapon, at very early stages of the game weapons are not your priority.

Once you chop down a few trees, pick up the logs AND pinecones. If you so desire, you can also make a shovel and dig up the stumps. Each stump (no matter how small) will give you an extra log. Use the pinecones to plant more trees. If by some weird chance one of the trees turns into a "Tree Guard" (Big angry tree monster.) then make sure you have at least 4 or 5 saplings handy. Plant them nearby him and he will revert to an ordinary tree.

Make a fire. You can see what materials are needed for this by looking to your left. I'm assuming you've already figured out how to navigate this menu, so I won't tell you where to find the specific "build" options. If you want, you can make a pickaxe and mine several rocks. This may be a better option because it will not only set you on your way to making science machine, it will also allow you to make a "firepit". These things are useful for a few reasons. One, they are contained. If you accidentally add too many logs/other materials to your fire because it got low it won't set the whole bloody forest on fire. Two, you will never have to gather the stones to make it again. (Unless you want to make a new camp site. Also, Stones ARE useful for other things, so that's not to say "you'll never need stones again".) And three, you simply have to add things to it in order to get it burning again. You do not need to waste extra materials making another temporary fire.

Try to make a camp within a pig "town". These guys will not only fight spiders that come nearby, you can also give them monster meat, regular meat, or morsels (Probably other things too, I'm sure.) and they will follow you for a long time. They will fight for you, chop trees for you, and possibly mine rocks too but I have not tested that yet. Be careful, though- they can die. Don't worry too much if they do, though, as they will simply repopulate back at their town/house. I'm not sure if you need a minimum of two pig people for them to repopulate, so I recommend never taking more than 3 pigs with you at a time. When it's dark, they will hang around your fire. If you haven't made a fire yet, don't worry. Unless there's spiders around, they will simply run back to their town.

You CAN dig up bushes and grass. DO THIS ALWAYS. No, not "pick". Dig. If you have established a home base somewhere, take all berry bushes and grass you find with you. You can plant them there and have very easy, very quick access to them whenever they re-grow. I get about 100 grass every few days because I made this discovery. If you'd like, you can pick before digging, but this will waste some precious time. You can choose whether you want to go for speed or efficiency here.

Don't underestimate flowers. They don't fill your hunger up, but I'm pretty sure they heal you a little bit. If you are low on health, stuff your face with flowers. You will need a lot, but they are very easy to obtain.

If you know of one or two locations where tallbirds live (Marked by an egg on your map.) DO NOT KILL THEM. I'm not sure if you can "replant" their nests elsewhere by getting whatever they drop, but I have not tested it yet. So if you want to be the one to test it, by all means kill them. Anyway, the reason I say not to kill them is that they give you a steady source of food. Every time you return there (It may take a day or two, I know it's at least a day.) they will plop another egg down. Wait for them to move a few steps away, and quickly grab the egg. They will chase you a little while, but they are easy to outrun.

I have not come across "beefobison" or whatever they were called, so I cannot offer any advice there.

Don't murder all spiders nests you find and burn their eggs. You NEED spiders for silk. Instead, take the eggs from their nests and plant them in a location you can access later easily. I don't recommend planting them too close to your base of operations, though. They will keep away from your fire, but they will also murder any pigs you have nearby. The pigs will fight back, of course, but there are still heavy casualties on both sides.

Do not take any risks unless you've gotten a meat effigy. I needn't explain how to obtain one of those. Chances are, if you are that far in the game to have all materials and such needed for one, you won't need my help. I cannot stress this point enough. See that tallbird? IGNORE IT. See that spider nest? Ignore it. Early on, your survival is more precious than some beast meat. As previously stated, if you are in a pig village and there are spiders nearby, the pigs will beat them up for you.

That's all for now. Sorry it's so long, I'll work on editing and shortening it later.

Edited by Polycount
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there are a few things i think can be altered her, when you say, dig instead of pick, you can actually pick it, then dig it :p

one thing that i think needs to be stated in each guide, DON'T TAKE RISK at all until you have a meat efiggy thingymajig

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there are a few things i think can be altered her, when you say, dig instead of pick, you can actually pick it, then dig it :p

one thing that i think needs to be stated in each guide, DON'T TAKE RISK at all until you have a meat efiggy thingymajig

I've found that it's sort of a waste of time to pick ALL of them and then dig. You lose a lot of time and you'll find yourself making far more trips back and forth than you should have to. Much easier to just pick what you need for a couple days, and dig them all. It's annoying to pick, pick pick, *switch to shovel* dig dig dig *switch back again* etc.

Still, noted, and added to the original post as a note.

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You can make 1 campfire last the whole night without ever needing to fuel it.

After "the sun is setting down" phase (the orange one on the sun dial), the place will start to get dark.

As Soon as it gets pitch black (or just moments before complete darkness), build the campfire. If you are in doubt have a torch at the ready. You will see that the fire will put it self out as Soon as the day is about to start.

This is easier with Willow, where you can wait awhile in the dark and build the campfire.

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