New Player Looking for Help - Forge, Workbench

[Joe Majewski]

Hi, fellow survival fans. I picked up this game recently and am very much enjoying it. I've restarted quite a few times as I have learned more of the game's mechanics, but I'm curious about some things.

Is there a reliable way to find the recipes for the forge and workbench? Do most players spec into these things, or wait for a recipe? On my current file, I'm nearing the end of Day 6, and still haven't found a recipe for a forge yet, so I decided to get it using a perk point.

The reason I ask is because on a couple of my other playthroughs I found the forge recipe early on, so I was not sure if that was a fairly consistent drop to find. Do certain recipes drop based on your level, or maybe your gamestage?

What are some good recommendations for perks for a solo player like myself? I tend to put a lot of points into strength, myself. Outside of the strength tree, lucky looter is the other perk I have getting regularly.

I have 90 minute days on, so keeping that in mind, is level 11 by Day 6 sub-optimal? On my first couple attempts I was finding my level increasing about once per day, so I know I've improved, but I'm sure there are ways I can get better.

Also, how much should I focus on trader quests?

I understand this is an open world survival game, and I'm free to do just about anything I want, but having not looked too much into the way others' play this game, I'm curious how I can better optimize my progression.

Lots of questions, I know. No need to answer everything; any advice is appreciated. Thanks :)

[Shurenai]

Sub-optimal is super relative- The game balances itself around your progress. So even if you're only level 11 by day 20, you'll get a game balanced around what you should reasonably have after 11 levels and 20 days. So don't stress too much about your level gain... It's not like it was 6 alphas ago where the game got harder every week whether you were ready for it or not.

Optimizing progression also means optimizing the game against yourself too- If you get stronger/higher level faster, the game gets harder faster. Best to just chill and take the game at whatever pace suits your fancy.

As for reliable ways to find the recipes for forge and workbench, no, not really. The only reliable and surefire way to get them is to perk into it (Thats why those perks exist). That said, You have a higher chance of looting that specific recipe from destroyed workstations of the same type. EG; You'll find the Forge recipe in Destroyed Forges, and the Workbench recipe in destroyed workbenches at a 25% drop rate. Not quite a guarantee but, at least for workbenches, easily obtainable if you know where to look for workbenches.

With that said, you absolutely do not 'need' the forge to succeed- it just helps. So don't feel compelled to buy the skill if you'd rather wait. You can get forged iron in other ways.

Yes, Certain recipes only really start to appear later in the game; Like the crucible recipe. But it's not totally impossible to find it through sheer luck early in. (IE; It starts with insanely low drop chances that goes up as you gain gamestage.)


I personally typically perk into the forge, but just wait till i find the workbench recipe by chance; Forge is very useful, Workbench is a little more niche.

I personally do a fair amount of trader quests- It gives me a reason to go travel out to other places. Otherwise I just end up systematically looting the nearest city building by building.. Neither way is really wrong. At the very least you'll want to do all of your Tier 1 quests ASAP in the early game, as it often gives you a bunch of food or medical supplies like antibiotics that are super useful. T2 and beyond though arent as important to grind out.

Hope this all halps.

[Teresa]

Regarding the forge and workbench recipe (as well as the chem station and cement mixer), I believe there is a 20% chance of finding the schematic in destroyed stations.

The problem is with the forge. There are very few pois that have forges. If your initial trader does not have a destroyed forge with the schematic inside, I always spend the 1 point in advanced engineering to get it.

All of the other workstations appear much more regularly in pois, so i wait for the schematics for those usually.

As for perks, you will get many different recommendations. Some people will say THIS perk is mandatory, while others will say it is useless. You may want to experiment with short playthroughs focusing on each attribute to find the ones you think are mandatory.

With that said, I will recommend that you wait until your gamestage is at least 40-50 before investing in lucky looter. It gives a % boost to your gamestage, which has very little effect until your gamestage is higher.

Leveling speed doesn't matter much. It increases your gamestage, which improves the loot you find, plus gives you extra perks. However, it also increases the difficulty level of the zombies you encounter and the bloodmoon horde. As you get more familiar with the game, you probably will level faster naturally. But there is no real reason to rush while you are learning.

I personally enjoy the trader quests. They give decent rewards, both dukes and items. The t1 quests are not super exciting, but after doing 10 of those you will open up both t2 quests and a special quest to locate a 2nd trader. 10 t2's open t3 and a third trader and so on til t5, which are the hardest.

Good luck and have fun!

[Teresa]

Pfft, shurenai types too fast. Said basically the same thing i did, but posted her response while i was still typing, lol.

[Joe Majewski]

Thank you both very much for the information. And it's okay that you both said similar things, I wanted to find out what the general consensus was, and this was very helpful.

I have done a lot of restarts, but not enough experimenting with different builds. It sounds like sometimes the decision for as to what to do with perk points may depend on what the game has offered me in terms of loot.

As I mentioned, I am about to start Day 7 on my current run, and I was actually just offered my first Tier 2 quest and the location of the second trader.

My main concern right now is this first horde night; I scoped out a couple POIs for a base, but haven't picked one yet. I've been storing all of my loot in chests that I placed right outside my trader. I was kinda waiting to get a forge before moving into a base, but since the recipe never came, I've got a lot of work to do on this seventh day.

Very exciting but also a bit nerve-wracking. I like how this game constantly saves and makes you face the consequences of your actions.

Thanks :)

[Khissi]

You're doing the right things! First hoard is usually very easily managed from a rooftop with just a bit of prep time. Every restart of the game is a little easier since you know more than you did the previous time. However, the RNG (random number generator) sprites can be very annoying and every game will be different because of them. You may just find your missing recipe in the first sack of garbage you open on the next run. That keeps things interesting, for sure, but not being afraid to start again when things go sideways is wonderful! I'm glad you're enjoying the journey. The early days are incredibly fun and exciting and, to me, the best part of the game.

[Joe Majewski]

While I did survive the first horde night, it wasn't as easy as I'd hoped. It may have been easy had I stayed put, but I was really worried that they were going to take down the house so I dropped down off my safety ledge to take a peek. Within a couple seconds a giant dog turned the corner and wounded me pretty bad. I managed to jump to my ladder just in time and made it to safety with exactly 14 health and it was depleting fast, but fortunately had a first aid kit on hand.

I waited it out the rest of the night, killing the occasional zombie that managed to move into my range of visibility.

After it was all over, I took a look at the damages and it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. They tore through a few walls, maybe 50 blocks total I had to repair. I know the game has structural integrity mechanics, but I haven't had a house collapse on me yet, so I don't know the margins I have in terms of allowing them to tear apart my place. Also, I keep my secure storage chests up top as well. If things did collapse, would my gear be gone?

[Khissi]

Originally posted by Joe Majewski:

While I did survive the first horde night, it wasn't as easy as I'd hoped. It may have been easy had I stayed put, but I was really worried that they were going to take down the house so I dropped down off my safety ledge to take a peek. Within a couple seconds a giant dog turned the corner and wounded me pretty bad. I managed to jump to my ladder just in time and made it to safety with exactly 14 health and it was depleting fast, but fortunately had a first aid kit on hand.

I waited it out the rest of the night, killing the occasional zombie that managed to move into my range of visibility.

After it was all over, I took a look at the damages and it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. They tore through a few walls, maybe 50 blocks total I had to repair. I know the game has structural integrity mechanics, but I haven't had a house collapse on me yet, so I don't know the margins I have in terms of allowing them to tear apart my place. Also, I keep my secure storage chests up top as well. If things did collapse, would my gear be gone?

If a chest falls filled with goodies, and doesn't get squashed by other stuff right away, sometimes a bag will appear with the items in it that will last just a few moments... and I do mean a FEW moments. Your best bet is to keep all your workbenches and chests separate from where you are on hoard night. If you're only going to hide anyway, choose another building to hide in... a sturdy rooftop over a cement building is perfect, and, since the zombies come where you are, they'll leave your home alone.

Also, hoard night is XP night! All that lovely xp going to waste! Gank a few of those dead heads and level up! Build yourself a nice ledge of wooden bars, or upgrade them to iron bars that you can run around on just on the edge of that rooftop. You can shoot blunderbuss, arrows and bullets through bars! Make em dead! 8)

[Joe Majewski]

I'll have to keep that in mind. That would be devastating if I lost all of my loot -- and it was with me on Day 7.

But... I'm beginning to get the hang of this, I think. I played a TON more this past day, and now I'm on Day 15. That means I finished my second horde night!

And this time I spent two full in-game days preparing. I would typically spend my nights in my house not doing too much (kept a little busy after getting a forge). But on Day 13 I mined for the very first time underground. I went inside my garage and dug down and managed to get a ton of materials. This helped immensely.

I began building my horde base around mid-day on the 13th, mined overnight again, and then finished the base and some defenses on the 14th.

I built my horde base outside of a hospital in Diersville. The parking lot was flat and made of strong material so I built there. I made my base a 13x13 square. I used the best blocks I could muster up. and those two days of preparations really paid off. Nothing was made of wood this time. I experimented with different blocks so I ended up with a base made of a combination of everything, really. Lots of wet concrete, flagstone, and brick, and a bit of the rebar and iron frames (which I felt like they were tedious having to upgrade, but I didn't know that when I was making them).

Anyways, 13x13 square, four tiles high. I surrounded it with spikes and barbed wire. Two perimeters worth. I had found a recipe early on for an SMG turret, and I found a generator recently as well, so I set up my first ever turret (and first electricity usage), and aimed it at the door.

In the center of my base, I made a column of blocks and a ladder leading up to the roof with a hatch. On the roof, I built another ceiling, this time three tiles high, but instead of closing myself all the way in, I only put blocks on the corners to support the roof, and built railings along the edges everywhere else. I tried using iron bars so I didn't have to expose myself at all, but I only had enough for one wall, so the rest were just the fences.

And as a final safety measure, I made a very small room surrounding the hatch, that way there was three layers of separation between me on the zombies.

Horde night was crazy. I had a double barrel shotgun and a machine gun (don't remember which one, but not a great one). I came very close to dying several times. Less than an hour into the horde and they were already breaking through my door, so I had to head down to the bottom and patch things up. I did not have many blocks left at this point, so I was building wooden frames and closing holes up as fast as I could. After getting things under control I realized that the zombies must've moved to a different spot after I added the extra layers of support to the main entrance, because out of nowhere I get attacked by a dog, and then turn around to see a gaping whole and zombies flooding in.

I was losing control of the situation, and were it not for my turret, I don't think I could have survived. Not even close. My turret actually kept the first floor clear for some time after I managed to get back up the hatch.

Then I started shooting over the railings, and that's where it made all the difference. Horde night ended at around 1:30, which I didn't know that could happen, but I killed a ton of zombies and had 5 skill points when it was done.

Sorry, that was way too in-depth, haha. Had a very fun time playing and looking forward even more to playing tomorrow now that I have a grasp on things.

Day 15
Gamestage 48

[Teresa]

Lol, glad you had fun!

Just fyi, if your horde finishes early and you log out before 0400, you will get a fresh new horde when you log back in.

If by chance you did this, and don't want to redo the horde, turn the horde off in the menu before you log in to your game. After 0400 but before midnight, log out again and turn the horde back on.

This will keep you from having to redo the horde, while not changing the day the next one is due to come.

[Joe Majewski]

I was actually going to log out before 4 a.m., but I intentionally waited it out as I was not sure how the game would react to me logging back in again during horde time. Thanks for confirming my suspicions, though. :)

I am beginning to encounter a lot tougher mobs now, and I'm feeling a little under-prepared as I used most of my ammunition and almost all of my resources against that horde.

Somehow I'm still playing a deathless game, but I don't know for how much longer that will remain true. For crafting ammunition, it seems like lead is a critical resource, and I've not figured out good methods to find it. I read that mining works best, but I haven't encountered any in the hole I've dug in my garage. xD

I also spent all of my dukes on some pistol parts in order to craft that turret, so I can't even buy the lead.

[Teresa]

For mining, you may need to make more than one mine. To figure out where to make your mines, look for the surface boulders.

Smooth, gray ovals in a pile of 2 are stone only. A single black round one is coal. Spikey white ones are nitrate. Square silverish ones are lead. Triangle shiny rainbowed ones (only in the desert) are oil shale.

If you need lead and haven't found any in your basement mine, scout around for one (marking the others on your map as you find close ones). Once you find the node you are looking for and mark it on your map, you can destroy the node and dig under it. There will be a vein of ore, sometimes small, sometimes massive enough to last you for the rest of the game.

If you make it an actual mine and keep digging, you will often also come across other ores. I have gotten lucky and dug a mine under a coal node and ended up with a mine rich in all 4 ores (not counting oils shale, since it's only desert).

Once you really need gasoline and oil, a well-stocked trip to the desert is a great idea. Bring plenty food, drinks, coffee, mining candy from the vending machines, repair kits, first aid, and your best digggy tool and shovel. Spend several hours, up to possibly a whole game day mining oil shale and killing all the zombies that aggro to you.

It is easily possible with one long trip to the desert to get enough shale to last the rest of the game.

[Joe Majewski]

I have a very small amount of shale in my storages, but I'm not sure where I came across it, and haven't found a use for it yet.

Maybe I'm not paying attention enough to the fine details, but from what I can recall, I've definitely seen and destroyed a few of the spikey white rocks with nitrate before, and everything else I've encountered has just been stone (as far as the overworld rocks).

That mine in my garage is giving me a ton of stone, a good deal of nitrate, and some clay (although it seems clay is everywhere).

I made a bit more progress (before reading this comment) and built myself a second forge, so now I have two of them running non-stop taking in stone to make cement. By the time the next horde night is here, my plan is to have a ton of of the wet concrete blocks to build my base with. I'll probably continue upgrading my horde base from before, but haven't decided yet - I still have a bit of time.

[Teresa]

You turn shale into gasoline in the chemistry station, once you have both the chem station and the recipe for gasoline. You can also turn it into oil in the chem station, along with empty cans.

Keep watching for the overworld rocks. The gray oval-shaped pile of 2 is stone. If you need lead, you are looking for the shiny square silverish rocks.

Not sure if you know this, but if you make rebar frames in your forge, you can skip making the wet concrete blocks. Just upgrade the rebar frames with concrete mix, and they dry dirctly to reinforced concrete without needed the extra upgrades step.

Plus if you use frames, you can see how it looks and pick them up and change them around. Once you place a wet concrete block, the only way to move it is to destroy it lol.

[Khissi]

Sounds like it was an incredible hoard night, and you survived!! I know you learned a lot and you'll put that new knowledge to good use. Don't give up! Also, even though 13 x 13 is not too large, even smaller is easier to defend and takes less resources to upgrade and keep repaired. You're getting the hang of things!