how does one get exp needed to get to stone building?

[azhockeynut]

I see a lot of suggestions to skip thatch and even wood structures to get right to stone? New to the game so i am trying to understand the level up and research system for how best to acquire that knowledge? Is there a good walkthru some one can point me to? I see some things require a certain character level so assume starting at level 0. How long should this take in game? Solo game too open world

[Pach]

If you are playing open world or a mission, as long as you are gathering resources and crafting things (e.g. arrows), you will get experience, and get to level 5 (wood) in a few hours (or less... it goes really fast). Level 10 is a bit slower, but you will still get there pretty fast.

You do NOT need to learn thatch to learn wood (so it is NOT like ARK where you have to do this). Nor do you have to learn wood to learn stone, so you CAN go right to stone.

To do this, you have to be willing to live in rocks or caves as you will not have any other shelter until then. This is very easy to do, if you just skip thatch. A bit harder if you want to go straight to stone. Note that you can hollow out a large rock, and put your bedroll in it. If done right, this counts as a "sheltered" location, and voila! You have a respawn point.

The fastest ways to get levels:
- kill and SKIN (by hand, not on a bench) predators, if you can. Predators have higher xps for both.
- get resources: mine rocks, chop trees, pick up plants for fiber
- make things: you can make things and then destroy them for a portion of the resources back and then re-make them. bandages are a favorite for this, as they need basically fiber, which is all over the forest and riverlands.

Hope this helps...

[Cole Proto]

I skip thatch but not wood. Wood structures will come in handy in the late game when you need to place something in a cave or build a ramp to get up some cliff etc. They can help in missions a lot. Skipping wood is a weird choice to save a few blueprint points in a game that has them in unlimited amount. This choice will put a burden on you that will slow down your leveling speed as well. Stone buildables require metal and a bench. Wood is easy.