How to start your survival. Guide with easy steps and explaining.

[Vulturas]

G'day. If you got here you probably either wonder "What am I supposed to do here?" or "Lets see what tricks this other guy uses to abuse the game code and gain endless phat loots and survival". If you're from any group, feel free to read, and drop in yer thoughts about what ya think of the thing.

If you just started, chances are you don't have anything researched, have 0 science points, and are butt-naked(standardized start for everyone). Now, you'd ask yourself, WWVD? (What Would Vulturas Do?)

Look for this: Grass, Flint, Saplings, Carrots, Berries. Gather as much as you can within half of the first day, when the needle reaches to bottom, when it reaches bottom, most probably you will have 2 Twigs and 2 Flints. Craft them into an Axe from the Tools tab on the left, upmost tab, the one with the axe and pickaxe crossed. Now, cut trees. Pick up the Acorns and Logs, and cut as many trees as you can until the orange-like part of the clock. Once you reach that, leg it for a safe spot.

A safe spot is where is there is NO spider lair. Open the map via the icon in the lower right, and you can see the map, you can zoom in via the mouse-wheel or the up and down buttons. If you don't see any circles with eyes and strings out of them near the place you want to camp out, you can start out by making a fire.

There are three types of fire so far.

Campfire

Made by usign 3 Grass and 2 Logs. It won't stay through all the night most probably, so you may have to fuel it via the use of Acorns, Logs, Grass, Twigs, so on and so forth. If the fire goes out, it's out. You need to make a new campfire; and if you're in the middle of the night, you will have to do it quick. This type of fire will NOT appear on the map.

Fire Pit

The more expensive 2 Log+12 Stones counterpart. This fire WILL appear on the minimap, and will also use less fuel when making, why? Because the place will stay there where you decide to make it. Very fuel efficient and is the way to go if you decide to make a base.

Torch

This is a 3 Grass+1 Twig fire, often used to guide Pigmen when the night starts to settle, or to guard thineself against the darkness. It burns out quickly, and is just a way to help you make your fire in case of trouble. Always have a torch in your inventory. Do note that the Torch is used only when equipped.

As a light source there are also the fireflies, but they offer too little light, and are most often decorative.

Now, you probably know how to survive the night, and if you didn't find food after the first night, it's high time to do it. The easiest food to get is berries, and carrots. Berry buses appear on the map, so they're easy to locate. This is the most basic of food.

Now, you will not settle to make a town in the spot you first decided to camp; there are better places. The best places to set up a permanent camp is in the forest areas marked by brown soil (not to be mistaken with swamp soil, which has tentacles and spiky stuff) and contains lots of trees. Cut some trees before preparing the fire, because fire in this game is a very destructive force.

After getting used to the place, time to make a Science Machine, a 2 Rope+3 Plank+4 Stone item. When built, you can shove items in it, and get Science Points. Science points are visible in the topmost part of the screen, and they help you research new items, and make the recipe available. Amongst the best things to research is the Pig House, Meat Effigy (if you play Wilson), and Chest... and always the mighty Top Hat. Top Hat doesn't do nothing. It's a top hat. What more could you want?

The Science Machine costs exactly 12 Grass, 18 Logs and 12 Stone. After refining the materials (Diamond icon on the left), you can build the machine. Do note that when you build the machine, it can't be moved. So be wary of where you want to set it in. Amongst the best things to research is the Gold Nugget(from mining stones and sometimes found on ground or in graves or near them), Silk(from spiders/ killing spider den), and the Amulet(which comes from graves and brings a considerable 60 points).

Now, Chests let you store items, offering you a safe place to store your items, a chest is 4 Planks -> 24 Logs, and it has 6 storage slots. Which is very useful I might add.

After a day or two of only Berries and Carrots you might want a real meal. If you ever saw a rabbit, pay him a visit, and stay away from him. The standard technique is baiting a rabbit via the use of a trap with a carrot under it, but it's ineffective, and costs a lot of resources. The best way to do it is via "Midlemanning" the rabbit hole. The trick implies you cutting the rabbit on his way to his rabbit hole, rabbits run ONLY to their holes when threatened. If you want to have a sure chance at getting the delicious rabbit Morsel, you will have to form a line that has the Rabbit, the Hole, and YOU; and the line has to be straight. If the rabbit is far enough from the hole, click the rabbit, you will run after the rabbit, and hit the rabbit when he reaches you. If the rabbit was far enough from the hole, you have a Morsel, if he wasn't... well... your morsel is in another hole.

Assuming you have the morsel you will have to cook it via an open fire for maximum effectiveness of the food. This is the most basic way to get meat items as food.

Now, onto the Pig House. Once built it gives you a Pigman, and if you feed the Pigman meat, he will follow you, and if you attempt to cut a tree, he will help too. Pigman if your friend that will often help you cut down forests, if you bring his friends, or make more, and attack spiders when he feels like it. Spiders can overwhelm one Pigman, but the more you have, the bigger the fight gets. Also note, Pigmen Houses can appear randomly generated by the world too.

A good use of the Pigman is Manure; might be weird to say it, but getting the stuff and making farm plots is one of the best ways to make a steady income of food, though until you get enough manure to do that, it will take a time.

Another use of the Pigman. Go hunting for rabbits, click on the rabbit, and click elsewhere. The Pigman will charge at the rabbit and kill it with one blow. If the Pigman isn't hungry, you'll get a very easy morsel. If he's hungry, well, try until he's full.

Now onto the dangerous stuff that can kill you.

Firstly, never attack pigmen, they're your friends and can pretty much finish you if they're all neutral to you and you decided to attack them.

Secondly, if you want to kill Spiders take note: you will have to kite them, and have a weapon (pickaxe or axe). Whack on the nest (avoid doing it at night for multiple reasons including death, and other spiders helping out), and some spiders will pop out. Remember, there are three tiers of Spider Nests #1 Is one big bump, #2 has a bump on the bump, and #3 has a bump on the bump on the bump. Do not engage the 3rd one unless you're very skilled at kiting around the nest while trying to whack at it.

Kiting means running after hitting the nest and attacking the spiders one at a time while avoiding their attacks. A Spider will sustain two attacks before dying, and will drop Silk or Monster Meat. (Monster meat can be cooked, will restore hunger, but will injure you). After killing the nest you will probably get Silk, and some Spider eggs. Plant the eggs, get another Spider Nest, enjoy.

Now, the darkness. Stay out in the darkness without light for a long time and you will die. Period. Stay in light when the night time falls.

Hunger is a main factor of the game, you starve to death, you die.

Another threat is the Swamp. Go there and tentacles can end your life if you stay near them and admire the Japanese fantasy that the devs added.

This is all for now, I might add later when I get more ideas of what to write.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Vulturas