Surviving with the tourist

[Soralka]

Hi there,

I have read and seen several comments/videos on this but somehow, I still struggle with the tourist. Never managed to actually survive, best I could do was long-term functioning while having constant delirious fever but eventually I ran out of water (I think it was already dry season).

I have seen several tips that seem useful but somehow I always end up having horrendous fever.

Would anyone please add other useful tips to these (or tell me if these are actually wrong)?

1. Washing inside of the plane rather than outside.

2. Burning snakegrass at campfire to get temporary bug resistance.

3. Washing wounds with unsafe water to save safe water for drinking (this one is something I just tried out and it never gave me any warning that it could lead to bacterial infection - could it, though?)

4. Try to stay hungry until I am at least just overweight to get rid of the initial movement penalty and save food (probably not 100% hungry all the time, though - what are the good points at which I should eat a little bit, even if still obese/overweight)?

5. People seem to be really divided on this one: I always figured exploring during rain is the best time to avoid bugs, however, I saw someone not recommending getting wet to avoid being cold. I myself would assume getting wet to cool down is always good until the temperature actually gets to the point where it says I am cold. Thoughts?

6. How on earth am I supposed to increase my mental state while being wounded and hungry?

7. What's the best way to avoid and battle bacterial infection and malaria? I had many runs where I was very careful with bug bites, always kept them low, and I ALWAYS caught infection. Always. Haven't had a single run without infection -> fever. Mostly ended up catching malaria later, too. Just... Am I missing something obvious?

8. What's the best water source? I would go for 1-2 reservoirs and a well (unless I don't know what to do with resources). Don't see a point in the water filter since I have to have fires regularly anyway, similarly cistern is a late-game feature imho.

I always stay in the wetlands & just go explore to the other regions during the day, if that makes a difference.

Thank you in advance!

[Soralka]

Oh and also 9. How much clothing should he wear? I typically keep only one shirt, shorts, socks and sneakers, to protect from bug bites but not get too warm. Maybe that's a mistake??

[Vitlöksbjörn]

I started playing a fatso character (obese), and now I'm at day 100 something. I got camp fever from bugs once so now I avoid them as much as I can...

I always try to have bug repellent on, or only explore during rain. The only times where cold was ever an issue was during storm season.

As for being fat - this is a bit of a tricky one, if you starve yourself too much your mood will drop REAL fast, and that can cascade into getting a dreamy visitor too early.

Oh and water source? I really like banana trees. I found them the most reliable, but I also supplemented myself with some nipa sap (good eating too) and that little water spring in wetlands cave. Occasional coconut water too, why not.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, that's probably not very useful.

[Soralka]

Originally posted by Vitlök:

I started playing a fatso character (obese), and now I'm at day 100 something. I got camp fever from bugs once so now I avoid them as much as I can...

I always try to have bug repellent on, or only explore during rain. The only times where cold was ever an issue was during storm season.

As for being fat - this is a bit of a tricky one, if you starve yourself too much your mood will drop REAL fast, and that can cascade into getting a dreamy visitor too early.

Oh and water source? I really like banana trees. I found them the most reliable, but I also supplemented myself with some nipa sap (good eating too) and that little water spring in wetlands cave. Occasional coconut water too, why not.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, that's probably not very useful.

Thank you! Glad to hear you explore during rain without issues (apart from storm season), otherwise there'd be very limited exploration time outside. I am trying out another run, just caught another bacterial fever LOL Really don't know what's up, my bug bites were minimal to none.

[Hana]

Bacterial fever comes from being soaked wet. if you look at the wetness tab, you'll see what it affects, being wet will lower fever and increase bacterial fever. If you are wet for too long without antibiotics to make up for your compromised immune system, you'll always get a bacterial fever. Bug bites increase malaria, which is different.

If you build a reservoir in the wetlands, the bug population will overflow into your plane and they can bite you in there too. I recommend building them at least one area away if you must build them.

I recommend getting a woven hat as soon as you can so that you can get some protection from the sun and rain. a seashell necklace or two and kava will help you a lot with your stress and mood problems. Get your herbology up as much as you can as it both unlocks the ability to grow crops and makes finding wild plants easier/ more common.

You should wash wounds with clean water, I think salt water lowers mood and unclean water doesn't do as good a job removing infection, if you are low on water though, you can use aloe vera gel to wash your wounds.

If you need to lose weight but dont want to be hungry all the time, starve for one day and then eat something that isn't nutritious, like ground snakegrass or fish scraps. Bone broth is filling and will help you lose weight though in all honesty you probably are not going to unlock it fast enough for it to be useful.

[Soralka]

Originally posted by Hana:

Bacterial fever comes from being soaked wet. if you look at the wetness tab, you'll see what it affects, being wet will lower fever and increase bacterial fever. If you are wet for too long without antibiotics to make up for your compromised immune system, you'll always get a bacterial fever. Bug bites increase malaria, which is different.

If you build a reservoir in the wetlands, the bug population will overflow into your plane and they can bite you in there too. I recommend building them at least one area away if you must build them.

I recommend getting a woven hat as soon as you can so that you can get some protection from the sun and rain. a seashell necklace or two and kava will help you a lot with your stress and mood problems. Get your herbology up as much as you can as it both unlocks the ability to grow crops and makes finding wild plants easier/ more common.

You should wash wounds with clean water, I think salt water lowers mood and unclean water doesn't do as good a job removing infection, if you are low on water though, you can use aloe vera gel to wash your wounds.

If you need to lose weight but dont want to be hungry all the time, starve for one day and then eat something that isn't nutritious, like ground snakegrass or fish scraps. Bone broth is filling and will help you lose weight though in all honesty you probably are not going to unlock it fast enough for it to be useful.

Thank you!! Huh, well that's bad news on the reservoir, i think I just built one yesterday :-/

What's the strategy on preventing bacterial fever & malaria + exploring with the tourist then? As it kind of seems that whatever I do, I am always screwed: can't go out in the sun - get burnt & bitten by bugs, can't go out in the rain - get bacterial fever... Yikes! Is there a balance or should I just be going outside for very short times during dry weather, or...?

Also how can I get enough water if I shouldn't really build a reservoir? Would you have any advice?

[Philtre]

Originally posted by Soralka:

What's the strategy on preventing bacterial fever & malaria + exploring with the tourist then? As it kind of seems that whatever I do, I am always screwed: can't go out in the sun - get burnt & bitten by bugs, can't go out in the rain - get bacterial fever... Yikes! Is there a balance or should I just be going outside for very short times during dry weather, or...?

Also how can I get enough water if I shouldn't really build a reservoir? Would you have any advice?

Do build a couple of reservoirs, just not in the wetlands; put them one area away (and build a path to that area once you can). They'll still fill with rain even if you are not in the same area.

For malaria, avoid bug bites (pin the bug bite stat so you can keep an eye on it, use bug repellent and try to keep the bug population where you live low). Also keep some dried cinchona bark on hand, or quinine once you have the skills and equipment to make it. Dry and store some spider lily and kava once you can; it takes a lot of medicince to get through one bout of sickness, so you will also want to grow a few of each of those in crop plots so that you aren't reliant on finding wild plants in a pinch. Maybe grow a cinchona tree or two as well, just in case.

For bacterial fever, avoid being cold and wet for extended periods, don't wash with dirty water if you have wounds, and don't drink dirty water. If you do get sick, pin the bacterial fever stat and take some spider lily tea whenever the arrow starts pointing upwards. The sooner you start taking it and the more rigorous you are about keeping the infection suppressed, the faster you'll get over it.

[from the river to the sea]

I'm very much not an expert, but: personally I disagree with cistern being a late-game feature - especially if starting in the wetlands where it's that much easier to get mud so you can get a reservoir out of the way fast. The reservoir is way less important, and has big cons (bugs, dries out). Cistern is the first thing I always rush to unlock in advance of the first dry season. The hardest part about this one, other than mud (not applicable here), is getting your woodworking high enough fast enough to unlock the shovel so you can build it, but it's not impossible.

Once you have the cistern, you can feed any fresh water you get into it so that you're not losing a bunch of water to evaporation. e.g. maximize your banana tree stump water yield by dumping the water into the cistern as soon as the container is near-full, same thing for water filter. You can get through a full dry season with 1 cistern, a couple of banana trees, and a water filter (drawing water from the mud pools + inside the cave > put into filter > put into cistern, rather than let the pools dry out ineffectively). You don't have to drink as soon as character says they're starting to get thirsty, try to notice how much each time you drink water generally refills the bar and wait for that space to drink.

As for bugs + sun: aloe vera gel. Always. Forever. Constantly. Unlocks almost immediately on low herbology, helps with the sunburn and the bug bites and prevents more while active. You'd just have to be mindful to apply it *after* you cool yourself off with a bath, not before (otherwise you'll wash off the gel completely ahah).

As others said, you *can* explore during the rain, just try to avoid being wet for too long. But beyond not exploring during the sun or during the rain... you always have night time. Citrus candles would be ideal here because, again, bugs, but that would probably take a while to unlock vs other more important things. You could maybe focus on unlocking closer to the coast locations for lower bug population areas in the beginning. On some tougher dry seasons I pretty much turn the character into a night owl - sleep during the hottest part of the days, go out during the night. Night time exploring is usually best with a clear goal though, not pure exploration.

As for clothes, it's a give and take. *Anything* you have on will increase temperature. You could also have an early day routine: get naked + 1 foot protection, wash yourself for lower temperature, apply mud to your body, and go out.

[Nadude95]

Originally posted by a gravidade:

I'm very much not an expert, but: personally I disagree with cistern being a late-game feature - especially if starting in the wetlands where it's that much easier to get mud so you can get a reservoir out of the way fast. The reservoir is way less important, and has big cons (bugs, dries out). Cistern is the first thing I always rush to unlock in advance of the first dry season. The hardest part about this one, other than mud (not applicable here), is getting your woodworking high enough fast enough to unlock the shovel so you can build it, but it's not impossible.

Once you have the cistern, you can feed any fresh water you get into it so that you're not losing a bunch of water to evaporation. e.g. maximize your banana tree stump water yield by dumping the water into the cistern as soon as the container is near-full, same thing for water filter. You can get through a full dry season with 1 cistern, a couple of banana trees, and a water filter (drawing water from the mud pools + inside the cave > put into filter > put into cistern, rather than let the pools dry out ineffectively). You don't have to drink as soon as character says they're starting to get thirsty, try to notice how much each time you drink water generally refills the bar and wait for that space to drink.

As for bugs + sun: aloe vera gel. Always. Forever. Constantly. Unlocks almost immediately on low herbology, helps with the sunburn and the bug bites and prevents more while active. You'd just have to be mindful to apply it *after* you cool yourself off with a bath, not before (otherwise you'll wash off the gel completely ahah).

As others said, you *can* explore during the rain, just try to avoid being wet for too long. But beyond not exploring during the sun or during the rain... you always have night time. Citrus candles would be ideal here because, again, bugs, but that would probably take a while to unlock vs other more important things. You could maybe focus on unlocking closer to the coast locations for lower bug population areas in the beginning. On some tougher dry seasons I pretty much turn the character into a night owl - sleep during the hottest part of the days, go out during the night. Night time exploring is usually best with a clear goal though, not pure exploration.

As for clothes, it's a give and take. *Anything* you have on will increase temperature. You could also have an early day routine: get naked + 1 foot protection, wash yourself for lower temperature, apply mud to your body, and go out.

I actually agree although I have never played the tourist but cistern is my first main goal...especially after devs changed the wet season to be the first one

[Soralka]

Thank you all!! This is some great advice, really appreciate it :)

[Vitlöksbjörn]

Originally posted by a gravidade:

As for bugs + sun: aloe vera gel. Always. Forever. Constantly. Unlocks almost immediately on low herbology, helps with the sunburn and the bug bites and prevents more while active. You'd just have to be mindful to apply it *after* you cool yourself off with a bath, not before (otherwise you'll wash off the gel completely ahah).

For some reason, the "workaround" for this is diving instead of washing yourself. If you're next to the sea, that is. Otherwise, yeah, bathing washes off both aloe vera and the bug repellant.

Also, you can apply the aloe vera gel directly to your wounds for cleaning and faster healing! This is a little non-obvious, but you can do this, saved me from a monitor bite.

[Soralka]

Originally posted by Vitlök:

Originally posted by a gravidade:

As for bugs + sun: aloe vera gel. Always. Forever. Constantly. Unlocks almost immediately on low herbology, helps with the sunburn and the bug bites and prevents more while active. You'd just have to be mindful to apply it *after* you cool yourself off with a bath, not before (otherwise you'll wash off the gel completely ahah).

For some reason, the "workaround" for this is diving instead of washing yourself. If you're next to the sea, that is. Otherwise, yeah, bathing washes off both aloe vera and the bug repellant.

Also, you can apply the aloe vera gel directly to your wounds for cleaning and faster healing! This is a little non-obvious, but you can do this, saved me from a monitor bite.

Nice, thanks! :)

[Soralka]

OK, I have encountered a potential bug (??). Noticed it yesterday, but when I loaded the game today, it's still there.
Basically, it looks like my morale is dropping for no reason.
At first, it didn't even register all the morale-boosting things (shell necklace, skirt). Today, it's showing these two things under "influenced by", and no negative things, and yet, my morale is still dropping.
Any ideas why? For now, I am still feeling "fine" but at this rate, not for long, and I am not even hungry/thirsty. At a loss here.

[Neomare]

Originally posted by Soralka:

OK, I have encountered a potential bug (??). Noticed it yesterday, but when I loaded the game today, it's still there.
Basically, it looks like my morale is dropping for no reason.
At first, it didn't even register all the morale-boosting things (shell necklace, skirt). Today, it's showing these two things under "influenced by", and no negative things, and yet, my morale is still dropping.
Any ideas why? For now, I am still feeling "fine" but at this rate, not for long, and I am not even hungry/thirsty. At a loss here.

Some days you start by waking up on the Left foot.

There is a hidden influencer to morale it can be positive or negative and it changes every now and then. Nothing you can do about it just accept it, but it is not to bad.

There is also a tendancy for your morale to gravitate towards the midle of the Bar. So if your morale is higher than midle it will go down, if your morale is lower than midle it will have a tendancy to go up.

If you are closing by to being depressing you will really appreciate this last thing.


If your character is well. Not hungry, not sick, not in pain you will not get depressed. yes your morale might drop a bit but it will stabilize at some point before hiting depression.


Just take good care of yourself and you will be fine.


Good luck!

[Neomare]

Originally posted by Soralka:

Hi there,

I have read and seen several comments/videos on this but somehow, I still struggle with the tourist. Never managed to actually survive, best I could do was long-term functioning while having constant delirious fever but eventually I ran out of water (I think it was already dry season).

I have seen several tips that seem useful but somehow I always end up having horrendous fever.

Would anyone please add other useful tips to these (or tell me if these are actually wrong)?

1. Washing inside of the plane rather than outside.

2. Burning snakegrass at campfire to get temporary bug resistance.

3. Washing wounds with unsafe water to save safe water for drinking (this one is something I just tried out and it never gave me any warning that it could lead to bacterial infection - could it, though?)

4. Try to stay hungry until I am at least just overweight to get rid of the initial movement penalty and save food (probably not 100% hungry all the time, though - what are the good points at which I should eat a little bit, even if still obese/overweight)?

5. People seem to be really divided on this one: I always figured exploring during rain is the best time to avoid bugs, however, I saw someone not recommending getting wet to avoid being cold. I myself would assume getting wet to cool down is always good until the temperature actually gets to the point where it says I am cold. Thoughts?

6. How on earth am I supposed to increase my mental state while being wounded and hungry?

7. What's the best way to avoid and battle bacterial infection and malaria? I had many runs where I was very careful with bug bites, always kept them low, and I ALWAYS caught infection. Always. Haven't had a single run without infection -> fever. Mostly ended up catching malaria later, too. Just... Am I missing something obvious?

8. What's the best water source? I would go for 1-2 reservoirs and a well (unless I don't know what to do with resources). Don't see a point in the water filter since I have to have fires regularly anyway, similarly cistern is a late-game feature imho.

I always stay in the wetlands & just go explore to the other regions during the day, if that makes a difference.

Thank you in advance!

1. Always do all the actions you can inside the plane, including Washing because you are protected inside the plane from the bugs. So whatever you can do inside, do inside. Only thing you should be doing outside is resource collection and exploring.


2. Burning snakegrass at campfire is good early game way of getting your bug resistance up. Remember however that washing will remove it so plan acordingly. It is best however to get to 20 herbalism and unlock bug repelant because it is more efficiient and easier to use. you will also unlock farming which makes run way easier.


3. Boiling water is very easy, you can make all the safe water you need by boling any unsafe water you have. I do not know if unsafe water is bad for cleaning, never had to do it. You can boil couple of days worth of unsafe water every night.


4. I suggest to lose the obese thing as soon as possible to explore easier. Best way is to grind and eat snakegrass. It will keep your belly full so you do not lose morale due to hunger but it will not increase weight. Win win.

Crushing snakegrass will also increase your herbalism you need 20 for bug repelant and farming.

you also want to eat when you are hungry but do not fill up the bar. This will lower your appetite and you will have to spend less time eating so you can save some snakegrass for crafting and open more time for other activities.

Your belly fat is the resource use it well, ignore the food early game and focus on other things.



5. Exploring during rain is the best. Bugs are big problem on Tourist and this will help you out a lot. Try to explore during day so you are not cold but even if you are that alone will not get you sick unless your morale is really low.

even if you get sick from bacteria it will pass in a day or so. Just take one of the antibiotics you start with or a spider lily portion or two and you should be fine.


6. You are not but that is fine. Tourist start is really demoralizing but once the wounds heal it will recover really fast. Just do not worry to much about it. Play safe, do not get wounded again, use your antibiotics if you get sick and work on your infrastructure.

Once the Wounds are gone Tourist is easier than a Perkless character because it starts with more resources.


7. Pin the Bug Bar and never let it raise to much. hard to say how much exactly but my advice is to keep it almost empty. Explore during the rain or with full bar of bug repelant from snakegrass burning or proper bug repelant. Also use all the clothes you have while exploring.

You only get Malaria and Camp Fever if the bug bar raises so much it shows up without being pinned. You can sometimes unpin the bug bites bar and if it stays that means you messed up. If it disapears that means you are still 100% safe from malaria and Camp Fever.

To avoid cholera you should avoid your dirt bar getting to high. Up to half is safe. Try to keep it lower than 30% or so. I think hte actual threshold is around 60-70% maybe hard to say but its pretty high. Just stay clean and you will be fine.

Other than cholera, malaria and Camp fever there are no other serious sicknesses. if you can avoid these 3 the common cold you sometimes get will seams like mild inconvinience in comparison.


8. Best Water source is rain and staying chill. Make sure to have enough Water storage by day 60 and between 60 and 90 go to regular walks to the Beach and get Salt Water. Use Salt Water to not be hot or very hot that way you will have to drink way less.

I use 2 Reservoirs for water storage. The amount it actually evaporates is very insignificant. Trust me on this I have 1000 hours in this game 2 Reservoirs are way easier than building a Cistern.

If you build 3 Reservoirs they will store more water in 60-90 days than cistern ( even after evaporation ) and they are still easier to build. IN my experience 3 is a bit much but they are not hard to build so if you want to be extra safe go for it.

Cistern is a late game thing and a luxury item I would advise to stay away from it it will slow you down dramatically.


If you do not like to watch water evaporate make 30 to 40 pots instead of the Cistern. Nice and easy to make, you can make 6 to 10 each time you are fealing fine and scale it up whenever comfortable.


-------------------------------

Other than these here is what I advise.


1. Learn how to get bugs under control properly otherwise your runs will be miserable.
Use the bar as info explore when needed but not to much, do all you can inside, use repelant if you need to go outside and do lots of exploration.


2. Get 20 Herbalism and plant 1 or 2 spider lilies. This will be huge. This should be enough to survive a Camp Fever once you get it and you can only get it once per run. Once the spider lily grows up you can explore more without worying to much about bugs. However do not let it get out of hand. malaria is harder to get but you will get it if you over do it.


3. Once you build a Reservoir bug population will increase so keep that in mind. You can put oil into it to counter the effect.

Hopefully once you start building reservoirs you do not need to spend as much time outside anymore.


3. Break down the plane seats for scrap. Scrap is very powerfull and it makes the Tourist run one of the more comfortable ones.

Make a scrap axe and chop wood with it for double yield. This will reduce your time outside and help with bugs. Do not waste it on small trees though becauase normal axe is just as good.

Use this resource to get ahead but also have a plan on how much you want to save for advanced woodworking later on. Personally I use it all and just go for copper tools once i run out.


4. Plane Crash is amazing. Free Hut! Well almost. Saves you a lot of time. Spend most time inside it to recover from bugs. it cannot have all the improvements but it can have enough.
You will want to move out eventually but for early game it is a life saver.


5. I would probably advise to save the painkillers for after the wounds are gone because they do not help enough. I feel like first couple of days you can mostly just chill. I suggest going outside to grab snakegrass and clay and work on cords and clay with hands until you lose obese.

I would not waste to much time exploring early on other than to go and find the sticks for a tourniquete but you probably know that already.



6. Use antibiotics as needed for when you get Fever. If you mess up and get Camp Fever at the start of the day 6 antibiotics is almost enough to go trough with it but you might need to explore to find a spider lily or two as well. It is not ideal but you will have to worry about bugs a lot less if it happens. Some people prefer it this way. I think it is not necesary.


7. Use the Suitcases for getting more goods around. Really nice for grabbing sand at the Beach for clay stuff.


8. You can use snake grass fiber and ash instead of sand early game if you decide to make bricks and do not explore towards beach until obesity is gone.


9. Spend most times inside the Jungle only go to beach if you really need to. Your skin is pale. You should not have problem with sunburns unless you spend lots of time outside jungle.


10. Plant Bananas for nice food source and emergency water supply if you get really unlucky with rain.




That shoudl be way more than enough feel free to ask if anything is still unclear.



Good luck!

[Soralka]

Originally posted by TheNeomare Youtube:

Originally posted by Soralka:

Make a scrap axe and chop wood with it for double yield. This will reduce your time outside and help with bugs. Do not waste it on small trees though becauase normal axe is just as good.

Firstly, thank you SO MUCH for such a comprehensive guide! Also, I had no idea that the scrap axe gives more yield?? :-o I just thought it takes fewer cuts to cut a tree or so. Good to know! Thanks a million once again, much appreciated!