Quick Start Guide

Some quick pointers to help you along.
A fairly brief thing, never written guides before.

Note: This guide was written before the monk and hunter were released, along with some other creatures. Also it is written from the point of view of a player who hasn't finished the game, or even made it through most areas.
The comments have other players' experiences. Have a look.

Karma n UI

What little there is of it, anyway.

Holding down the map key brings up your food meter, rain meter/timer (the circle of dots) and Karma.

You get one karma every successful hibernation.
Every time you wake up from your hibernation you risk one karma. Quitting the game or dying will take it away.

Eating an yellow flower gives you a shield. It keeps you from losing a karma point when you die. If you get back to where you died you'll find the yellow flower again.

To pass the gates in between each area you need the amount of karma indicated by the background symbol. It doesn't deduct anything, it's just a bar you need to reach.

Movement tips

Having definite buttons (as with a keyboard) is better than analog stick. (see: XBOX controller)
The game doesn't support analog, and you may end up with awkward crouching/sticking to poles if you use analog controllers.

General

• Pressing down-eat puts the item in your hand down gently.
  
• Holding eat while having no food/being full and having a small inedible item stores it in your mouth for later. Do the same for bringing it back out later.
  
• Sneaking or fleeing is the main way to deal with enemies. Don't assume you have to or can kill anything.
  
• Crouch and hold jump until the slugcat raises its butt to perform the long-jump. It doesn't give any elevation but can clear a nice horizontal distance.
  
• Long-jumping into a wall and jumping off of it again apparently gives you a jumping boost.
  
• Holding up while falling will grab onto any pole you drop across.
  
• The slugcat throws the item in its right paw (our left) preferentially. Double tap the eat button to swap the items in your hands.

Running in the Open

• You're faster upright.
  
• The slugcat skids for a moment when you turn after a run. If you jump during this skid, you perform a backflip.
  
• Crawling makes barely any noise. Grabbing onto a pole is also quieter than landing from a jump.

Crawling in the Mazes

• Pressing down-jump in a vertical shaft quickly drops you to the bottom.
  
• Pressing jump in a horizontal shaft does a little push. When you're against a vertical wall, that push is more effective.
  
• Ducking before entering a narrow space lets you enter head-first.
  
• Holding the direction you want to face and pressing jump in a shaft allows you to turn around. It takes a small while.

Swimming in the Muck

• Changing direction increases your movement speed. Imitate a fish or an eel.
  
• Slugcats have very small lungs.
  
• You can leap higher if you have momentum and press jump just as you reach the surface. (theoretically, haven't succeeded at this myself)
  
• Pressing jump button while underwater gives you a small dash. It devastates your air supply though, so keep that in mind.

Good practices

Try to bring fruit with you into the hibernation chamber.
That way you can jumpstart your next cycle with five units of food, in case things go badly.

Always keep track of time. When the rain meter hits below half, it's time to start thinking about the nearest hibernation chamber.

It's okay to die. You lose a karma point or your karma shield. It's not the end of the world. You can't end up worse than you started off, unless you're in an impossibly hard place (how did you get there?)
The karma gates are easier to pass towards an easier area.

Check your map while the chamber opens. It's time you have to sit still, so why not make some use of it?

The tutorial-critter keeps glancing toward the room it wants you to go into. (if it doesn't then it doesn't seem to care.)

The red plant with long straight leaves attracts bats.

The red plant with round red pebbles on its stem will act like firecrackers when thrown.

When fighting lizards, throw a pebble before a spear to deflect their armored head away for a more effective attack.

Monster hints

General

• Each individual creature has its own set of variable traits, such as strength, intelligence or bodysize.
  
• Pay attention to how the creatures behave.
  
• The enemies do not automatically know where you are. They need to see or hear you to know you're there.
  
• Not every monster senses in the same way.
  
• Some creatures are hostile to one another.
  
• Enemies typically can't jump. They can fly or climb, but jumping is limited to only a few very specific creatures so far.
  
• Sometimes a creature drops you while carrying you to their nest. This is your chance to escape! Provided you weren't dead already. (Listen for the drums- one beat means you are still alive, two beats means you have died.)
  
• The tunnels show what color creature is moving through them. Bats are white. But so are white lizards.

Lizards

• Different lizard colors have different properties.
  
• Green lizards can't climb, and will eat blue lizards. Vultures don't seem to target them. They also fight each other.
  
• Purple lizards hate other purple lizards.
  
• Blue lizards climb on walls and have a short tongue.
  
• White lizards can change their color to match the background as well as climb on walls. They have long tongues to catch you with.

Cicadas

• The black ones go out to hunt. The white ones stay near their nesting area.
  
• They can't eat you, but they're your bat-hunting rivals. They'll try to harass you.
  
• You can grab them. Their struggling will help you jump higher.
  
• They understand that spears are dangerous, and will probably leave you alone if you carry one. Probably.

Vultures

• Watch the background for their shadows. They can move to any area with an open sky. Sometimes even areas without an open sky (but a missing ceiling).
  
• You can knock their mask off. The maskless vulture will remember this. Watch your back.
  
• While they can't enter narrow spaces, they can fit their head and neck in.
  
• Lizards and Scavengers are terrified of vultures. Cicadas aren't AS terrified.

Scavengers

• They love pearls. You can give them some to maybe make them like you. Especially colorful pearls. (as comments point out, colorful pearls are too valuable to give to scavengers.)
  
• PAY ATTENTION. Scavengers will hold their spears at the ready to threaten you. They will also make warning throws. (they're hideously good shots so chances are if they didn't hit you they didn't aim for you. yet.)
  
• Don't make sudden movements or throw things at them. Down-eat for putting items down, like spears.
  
• Narrow-eyed scavengers are likely to be mean. Don't mess around with them.
  
• White scavengers also seem more likely to be mean.
  
• Scavenger with the biggest horns is the boss.
  
• Be VERY careful about entering their territories. (areas wth pearl-decorated skulls)

Centipedes

• They can see from either end.
  
• They only hear when they sit still.
  
• If they can attach to you with both ends they'll electrocute you to death.
  
• The smallest onest can only stun you.
  
• You can eat any centipede. The small ones give two food points. (personally haven't tried eating the bigger ones)

[waffler1209]

i love that the creatures in this game have their physical appearance tied to their stats, the scavs especially

[Zeldasong]

2: Blue lizards are weak to the prepared, but if you go in unarmed they actually tend to pull through. Black lizards dont seem to care about one anothers presence, but also dont help one another in hunting. They are easy to sneak past and even just full on jump over. Pink lizards tend to perfer large, open areas with lot of poles. Green lizards like territory that is open and flat with few poles. Black lizards usually hang out in subterranian / subterranian sub area. White lizards perfer vertical or enclosed territory. Yellow / orange lizards like tunnely / enclosed areas.

[Zeldasong]

A bit on lizard territorial behaviours: Green lizards will fight other green lizards, aswell as pink lizards. They dont seem to care about blue ones, or white ones. White lizards get ignored by almost every lizard species exept for pink (theory in testing). blue lizards are weak, but they only get eaten when killed by the player and fed to any other lizard varient. Orange lizards are pack hunters. Their tactics suck, but dont get too smart about it or you`ll end up in a tunnel with 3 orange lizards behind you, one in front, all facing you.

[Boxell]

@[LimeHazard] "I think the "escape" maneuver should be clarified. Don't press "back" until lizards tuck you in their nest. The game over screen appears when you're in their jaws, but it disappears when they drop you. That means NEVER GIVE UP!"

thank you so much i just started playing and i always immediately respawned-THANK YOUU OMGG THE 6 YEAR OLD COMMENT COMING IN ABSOLUTELY CLUTCH

[Oelonyx]

A reminder to new visitors who've just downloaded the game, that little orange blob IS your tutorial. They will lead you to food/batflies, mark enemies, and light up with a triangular prism when you are going the right way/one of many ways. If they do not do that, wait for them to look up/insert direction here or wave their head to the direction they want you to go, through enemies or not. At half of the cycle/day, they will start pointing out locations to hunker down in. THEY WILL DISAPPEAR WHEN IT STARTS TO RAIN, so listen to them for however-long you want to do the main quest anyways,

[Gharial With a Gun]

without*

[Gharial With a Gun]

also, be sure to look at a group of poles, if one of them is completely clean (with things poking out the sides) it is most likely a pole plant, so be sure to throw a rock at it just in case

[Johnnysaurus04]

gamma what are you doing

[Gammaboy45]

Instructions unclear, attempted to grab pole plant to attract bats

[cruzycragus]

never happened to me so get gud morpheus