A17's desert biome Yucca fruit causes the game to be way too difficult.

[jemYZX]

I still had trouble on easy mode and other settings because gathering food is a pain that the game starts to get way to complicated to survive. The yucca fruit was one of the most important fruit items to survive in game from A16 but since it's poisonous in A17 makes it like you have to kill your character off faster then crafting and finding ingredients to make a antidote.

Hope yucca is not poisonous in later update and just make it rare in game because one it is a better challenge and two I would enjoy not dying on the fifth day every time. I kid you not because grinding too much sucks because it doesn't give you in your favor or by chance which is slim.

[blazha]

It was way too easy without poison effect. I started playing this game few months ago and I have never got to situation to run out of food and water. And I have never eaten raw food. There are plenty of animals out there, just not in the desert. After 300 hours I finally got 5 deaths achievement, none of them were related to food poisoning.

[leaderdog]

you can cook the yucca can you not? I gave up on Vanilla a long time ago, so not sure if that's a darkness falls mod option? Grilled Yucca ?

[jemYZX]

You can't grill yucca that is a mod. It really feels difficult when starting in the desert biome.

[jacobvandy]

It may be a slight over-correction, but a change needed to be made for sure. The desert was super easy to survive in before because yucca and aloe is everywhere, which meant you had unlimited food, water, and healing just from picking plants around you as you walked from place to place. There is still time for them to tweak the balance of things such as chance for food poisoning, but in the meantime I'd recommend you find a town to loot ASAP after starting a game. You need to invest in some skills and acquire proper equipment before you can effectively survive on your own in the wilderness regardless of biome.

[JCD]

Why are you relying on yucca? The traders have vending machines as well as food in stock, not to mention what you can find while exploring houses, hunting and scavenging eggs.
Start a garden as soon as possible, once you plant a seed you never have to replant, it just regrows.

[jemYZX]

You can't always rely to buy items at the trader, eggs don't last long and cause food poisoning if you don't cook it and couldn't find a pot or grill if possible, hunting is grinding unless is it possible I can get fish to build a fishing pole?; you can't build a garden unless you have build a wall firsts with access against zombie but also it attracts vultures which are deadly without a bow and a lot of arrows(grinding) though income more arrows. All of this is Grinding but I cannot do all of this if I can't reach all those goals at the time before fourth day since hordes.

Yucca poisoning increases more chance to be poisoned by it and the snakes. It would be very good if the plants were rare like two or one per desert biome without the poison unless add poison plants that are terrian to the player if not careful like the land mines in burning/city biome.

What is the best way to survive the desert biome by itself for five days till the sixth day?

[jollibee]

Go for the air drops and loot buildings, that should get you by until you have a garden set up, also go hunting.

[Rev]

My top tips: (all IMO)
Cooking pots are easier than GRASS to find. Search sinks and ovens. I found 7 in one house alone before. Plus sinks also have wrenches sometimes too. win. Win. WIN.
Trader locations sometimes have a forge in and they don't need an anvil to make iirc. So you could just craft one in the first day.

Snowballs for water.

Master Chef 1:
Bacon and eggs from day 1 >
+36 Max stamina and +18 Health. Need anything else until late late game? Nope.

Place wooden spikes Infront of boars pathing to ez trap and kill them.
20-30 meat Ish every time. 5 per B&E's - even on 2 hour (IRL) game days I rarely eat more than 3-5 of these per day with careful management. So I have a hundred meat just sat in a chest unused. Eggs are the issue here.

Level out a 9*9 roof. Or whatever you're using as a base. Make a garden up high on it. Not needing water. You can tend to it at night when you've got nothing to do.
Safe and secure. Shoot zeds with a bow and have 360° view from there too!

Gun safes 90-99% of the time contain guns and boolats. Using your 9MM at least on vultures is the smart play. 10/10 worth it. Ammo is plentiful and as Vultures are basically flying dogs now. Pop every single one you see FIRST PRIORITY ASAP. unless you have ferals, dogs or wolves on you in that order. Ez stacks of feathers for the regular zeds and house clearing.
With some firepower you can also be way more proactive about hunting the more aggressive, local fauna too! (Wolves and if you're careful and packing serious heat, bears)

Trader quests are fast and not too bad or tough early game. Rewards are decent too and traders sometimes sell meat if the local fauna is scarce.

Desert biome is rough without the proper clothing. Sunstroke really sucks. If you can do all the above and Chuck down a cobblestone 7*7 is my go-to route. But 3 day horde nights im on 2 hour days because it would be ludicrously hard otherwise.
-it was anyway. 3 day horde nights +64 zeds, no airdrops, 2 hour days. Zed speed on jog at max/warrior and everything else default and solo playing I still got overrun. Good challenge though. Gotta go fast!

Some small grinding for resources is absolutely essential in any survival crafting game. You just have to do it. Work hard. Play quickly. Use the time wisely and you'll blast past day 5 like nothing. Comfortably alive. Well stocked. Well fed and well prepared for the next horde.
But it all comes with time, experience and lots of practice and know-how!

[jemYZX]

I realize my character bleeds a lot do to dogs and vulture in deserts I know there is stealth but daytime is a lose, lose situation. All those tip I know are from A16.4 but some have been changed a bit. I would try to get the walls and the garden since desert doesn't give me a chance is I have to avoid that area as possible and sell more to reach garden status if I can get that perk and shovel without bleeding all the time. :3

[krzosu18]

well imho now its more balanced than it was - as stated above desert was one of the easiest biomes to stard with - and now it still holds some ealy bonuses but now it does demands more exploring - and thats what game devs wanted - their aim was to make you travel ans scavange while doing so - so move - explore nearby other biomes and cities and the flow of the game will feel more natural.

As for food - now its more demanding early on - if possible either try to find or buy a pot to cook the eggs - now eggs are very decnt food source ealy game = but they will require to obtain some glass jars - and that means pushing to get forge at lvl 10 - meaning asap.

Imho devs wanted to setup the game in the manner that in order to thrive you have to combine, your own intelect, skill (aka tactics, planning), dexterity (aka in combat) ,exploration, scaving, in game skills. equipment, farming, hunting and certainly when you do so it pays up nicely.

As for Yucca its main appeal was early game food and water - as it could provide both early on - so yah in comparison to earlier builds -i it was nerfed - aka food is minimal , and to make yucca jiuce you now need a boiled water jar - which is kinda/relatively hard to obtain very early game (aka just started). so yes its an obstacle but one that can be overcome via explorring.

[jemYZX]

krzosu18, lol the Devs could of at least make poisonous plants in the terrian to challenge you to dodge at night while being chase by enemies it would of work then yucca troll or just add both to the most easy settings ever plus bleeding to all the easiest mode ever. :3