tips playing with 1 character?

[BoromiR]

i chosed 1 picture at the start of campagn, does that mean that i wont get to meat other people in this campaign?
also, how do i defend myself ? if i scavenge - i get raided, if i guard, i get ried and left without resourses.
btw its not "crime outbreak" time. but i still get raided 6 times in a row starting from day 3 to day 9.

[Ichangedmyname]

dont leave anything of value at your base bring all food an valuable items out with you scaviging and storing anything of value at locations on the map. only bring back what you need to do neccesary upgrades. I just came back to this game with the little ones update but when I did the marco challenge before it was actually really easy when you know what your doing.

[MazyRun]

This is a really cool scenario, the challenge of starting as a lone survivor really appealed to me to.. it is one of the more difficult stories to complete. You start only with Marko ('Skilled Scavenger').

I've found there are a couple of different methods you can use to complete this story, sometimes it's dependent on which random starting conditions you get. The main thing is to get Marko through those initial first days alone.. other survivors will join the house later.

It's random which survivors will show up, in my current playthrough using just Marko, after two weeks alone he was joined by Christo and Iskra (father and daughter - characters included in The Little Ones DLC).

Christo's skill is 'Determined Father', which means he's adept at protecting his daughter, this made him a good character to come along and assist Marko because Christo doesn't need much rest, he's determined to protect Iskra, this makes him a good worker and night gaurd and his presence keeps Iskra happy, which in turn keeps house morale up (plus Iskra can carry out some tasks in the house).

I think the key to success with this scenario is to scavenge and hoard in those first few days, then sit back and wait for help. You can sometimes build up enough food/supplies to haul up for days on end, you can sit out the entire crime outbreak if you stock up..

You can also sometimes sit back early and just pick odd days to go out and scavenge, but it seems better to be more active than inactive in those first few days.

When scavenging obviously the house will be ungaurded (until help arrives mid-game), so you will lose items to theft, I think you just have to take the hit. At first, the raids while you are out will be minor (before the outbreak of crime), you will perhaps lose food, water etc ..sure you can take some valubles with you to prevent losing them, but with Marko's backpack capacity you will be bringing back more stuff than you lose.

I've also tried things like keeping items in cupboards instead of the house inventory to prevent losses during raids (I'm not sure how well that works though, so I generally don't do that anymore).

During the first days alone, Marko will receive assistance from neighbours in the form of gifts (food/meds/wood), this helps a lot. You won't be able to build too much in the house.. I guess the priorties are bed, tools (crowbar essential, shovel can help to, perhaps just buy axe/sawblades from garage if you dont want to pile resources into workshop upgrades) you can get away without having a stove for a while, canned food is ready available.

Securing and fully boarding up the place (upgraded bench required) is a high priority to, crime will increase whilst marko is still alone, so prepare for it (craft knife/axe for early protection, guns and ammo will be required for outbreak), sleep deprivation might become a thing when he is having to guard every night, this is partly why it is sometimes safer to be out at night rather than risk injury during a raid, being alone and injured is bad news.. stay safe and sleep during the day either way.

Acquiring weapons before the outbreak of crime is a huge help, best way of getting a gun early is to kill a bad guy for one. Pay attention to which locations unlock during your playthrough, if you get a location that has a minor soldier/bandit presence, you will be able to pick one off using stealth/melee (it's ok to kill and loot bad guys, specially if you are saving an innocent in the process).. Guns enable you to defend the house well whilst alone (guard duty).

You can build workshops in late game, they can help but you dont always need to be self sufficient, as a solo surivivor you will probably be leaving crafting items at locations and only scavenging (and trading) essential materials and valuables, trading with Franko is key. Save some materials back for when you need to build a heater. Once your house becomes a home you can can work as a team during winter.

[kyroshill]

The big trick is to use raw materials to START building things, then stop. Bandits can't take what has already been removed from your inventory. They also won't take food off your stove.