Um... what am I doing?

[Sailor Paladin]

Just what it says in the title.
What am I doing in this game?
Is it as simple as "get 4 food, get back to the shelter, repeat"?
Is that the goal?
Because currently I'm very confused.

[Xander]

Follow where the little yellow guy says to go. You'll find some important things eventually.
If you are still in outskirts, try hibernating to get your karma level up (the symbols when you sleep) enough to go through these gates, they lead to new areas.

[Sailor Paladin]

Originally posted by Xander:

Follow where the little yellow guy says to go. You'll find some important things eventually.
If you are still in outskirts, try hibernating to get your karma level up (the symbols when you sleep) enough to go through these gates, they lead to new areas.

Um...
I made it to the gates.
Had maximum Karma.
Not sure how to open them.
Gave up and just kept going through the "get 4 food, sleep" cycle.
Got an achievement.
... Yay?
Did I beat the game (honest question)?

P.S. Yellow guy pretty much points to food and then to shelter.
... ok.
Did that. Several times. Not exactly hard. Not exactly fun.

[Delta_Uncle]

Gates should open when you walk near them and wait for a bit. The yellow guy will show you the way and tell you your mission from time to time by projecting images.

[Nyan Bunny]

To open the gates you have to stay still inside in one of the sides until some mechanical sounds starts and water start to fall. This game isn't like others, you cannot play it as if you were playing Mario.

[Sailor Paladin]

...
Yeah, what I'm getting is that, the plan is: "go to the wiki, read the instructions there and then execute them".
Fine. Played games like that before. Thanks for clarifying.

[Jimmerzz]

In the game when you get to the gate it shows you what to do visually. It shows you an outline of yourself to wait at the entrance of it and then it opens.

You don't need to just read the wiki and execute what is said. You can do that if you want to but that is not the intended way to play the game.

You are supposed to explore and follow the little yellow guides direction. He will not always be there in every moment to tell you exactly where to go as you are supposed to explore but when you start going through the wrong gates and everything it will pop in to guide you.

The way the guide tells you where to go is it shows an icon of a slugcat (you). When it does that it is pointing you where to go. When it is stuff like food or shelter it is telling you where one of those are as it thinks you may need them. If it is not showing the slugcat icon it is not pointing you in the direction for progression.

There is a ton to the game in terms of enemies and areas and things you pickup that change the mechanics. There is also a story and multiple slugcats each with their own stories and things.

"get 4 food, get back to the shelter, repeat" is I think misrepresenting the game. Yes you need to get food and go back to a shelter and repeat that. However you are supposed to be progressing to new areas and moving shelters. The shelter is sort of your safe heaven to explore around it until you find a new one. It is your anchor in the world.

[MadArtillery]

Follow the overseer or explore and you'll eventually meeting people who will give you much more direct verbal instructions and things become much more clear. The Survivor, Monk, and fat man are pretty lax and don't have the most direction for quite some time but every other character tends to have far more set in stone goals. If you want something more specific then the glowy noodle boy going up very high then right or right then down into the depths of the darkest places where light has been forgotten will get you where your looking to go for more direction. Up may require some parkour skills that aren't covered like the backflip downward spear throw depending on route and has a lot of very challenging parkour puzzles that look initially impossible while right is very spooky and you may need to make friends with the natives to get what you need to progress. No crazy parkour though. Nothing overly specific just general directional suggestions as I know the noodle isn't the most reliable source of direction. Once you get to someone more communicative you shouldn't have any questions after that.

[Sailor Paladin]

Ok, I'll...
I'll try to explore.

Sorry, I just expected either a hardcore survival game (it's not. Getting 4 food and coming back to the shelter is really easy), where the goal is self-explanatory ("just don't die") or... well... directions of SOME KIND.

I actually really-really hate wandering around aimlessly. I have enough of that sort of thing IRL.
Give me a concrete goal to work towards, damn it!

... thanks, in any case.
I'll give it a shot again... later. When the frustration is gone.

[MadArtillery]

Originally posted by Sailor Paladin:

Ok, I'll...
I'll try to explore.

Sorry, I just expected either a hardcore survival game (it's not. Getting 4 food and coming back to the shelter is really easy), where the goal is self-explanatory ("just don't die") or... well... directions of SOME KIND.

I actually really-really hate wandering around aimlessly. I have enough of that sort of thing IRL.
Give me a concrete goal to work towards, damn it!

... thanks, in any case.
I'll give it a shot again... later. When the frustration is gone.

Honestly sounds more like hunter is what your looking for. You have a designated quest though without playing another character you probably won't know exactly where to go though it is pretty simple just keep going right till you win, much harder survival mechanics, with a challenging time limit to top it off. If it wasn't going to be so incredibly difficult both combat wise and to route it efficiently enough without previous map experience I'd honestly recommend it. It does lack for again a proper dialog to introduce it which is stupid given the character both knows language and was given the quest by someone but thankfully it's impossible to get lost on it as all routes right lead to your destination.

Shame the dlc character aren't unlocked by default as all of them pretty much offer a similarily goal driven experience that survivor and monk are severely lacking and can definitely be a turn off to new players. Honestly a toned down version of hunter with opening dialog and not starting in farm arrays would probably be a better introductory experience for people to dip their toes in then current offerings, especially given the direction the dlc went with more narrative and objective focus. A short guided tutorial that introduces both mechanics and does a bit of world building would do wonders more for inspiring a sense of adventure and exploration then outskirts and points to shelter man.

[GetSluggyWithIt]

Gonna give my own input: It does suck that the overseer guy isn't always the best at pointing you towards the direction that you should be going and is more interested in just "here food, ooh you're full, here shelter," I've played this game a lot and it still irritates me too. I get not holding the player's hand is one of the big things about the game, but at some point it's more annoying than helpful when you're lost and don't know where to go but it just keeps saying "lookie, shelter! it nap time honk snoo!!!" or it just sits there staring at you.

Generally though if it helps you more, after you leave Outskirts you should generally head right. However, don't be afraid to explore new regions if you want to, there's no rigid set path you have to follow to get from point A to point B or consequences if you decide to investigate an area more (Outside of accidental deaths, anyway.). I hate wandering aimlessly or feeling like I am too. Good luck, hopefully your experience with the game improves.

[RCMidas]

The two things you're going to need to to learn with this game are: patience and patience. I say it twice because it's twice as important as anything else you need. The only time you should be frantically jumping around and turning around in circles is to escape an oncoming predator or the rain. Most of the rest of the time, you should simply slow down and observe what is happening around you.

For instance, at the gates, had you stopped moving around and taken a breather to examine your surroundings, your accompanying yellow friend would've indicated you to stand still by the gates - or had you already been doing so, all of three seconds motionless would have produced the same result.

You are playing as an animal, yes, but even animals improve their chances of survival by observation and by learning. You will get very frustrated with the game if you do not slow down and leave the squirrel hyperactivity to times of escape.

[Serafine]

Originally posted by Sailor Paladin:

Just what it says in the title.
What am I doing in this game?
Is it as simple as "get 4 food, get back to the shelter, repeat"?
Is that the goal?
Because currently I'm very confused.

The game has a story. You just need to find it.

[☼Arkonev☼]

go right, once can't go right anymore, go top, go left all the way, go down

[notsosure76]

Feels like people have already told you how to play, guess I'll put some tips here.
-Your Overseer (the little yellow fella following you around) will guide you in some way, for example: enemy nearby, food this way, shelter this way, main objective this way. But sometimes it feels like they take WAY too long to help out if you just wait for them to tell you where to go. Explore, go on your own, if you want to follow the main path but you're not going the right way, your Overseer will eventually correct you.

-Whenever going through pipes, they will flash a certain color if a creature is at the opposite end of said pipe. The color can clue you in on what is on the other side.

-You can kill things with spears (cool sticks) but eventually a system called "lineage" will begin to make changes. These changes are only affect the creatures that spawn. For example, if you kill some lizards, eventually a stronger lizard will begin spawning.

-While wandering around, keep this in mind, the game doesn't load creatures when you enter a room, EVERYTHING is doing THEIR own thing, no matter where you are, every creature will be moving and, again, doing their thing. You may be running from a centipede, but somewhere else, two blue lizards are fighting each other for no reason, or maybe a vulture just carries off an eggbug, anything and everything can happen, even if you're not there.

-You can do advanced movements with certain input combinations.
Backflip: While walking in one direction, press opposite direction + jump and you shall backflip, this let's you gain a little more height and the ability to throw things upwards or downwards while still in the air.
Roll: When falling from a greater height (this includes backflip height) hold down and when you hit the ground you shall tumble. You can jump while doing this to jump forward. Pounce: while crouched, hold jump until your slugcat raises its back, then let go to jump forward with greater distance.
Slide: while moving, press jump + down to slide, just like roll you can jump forward during this. I'll let you figure out the rest.

-You need to understand a certain creature that you will most likely hate. Introducing the scavengers! They can be incredibly annoying and appear in almost every region. They may throw spears at you (yes they can use spears and other items) just because you're there. However, they LOVE pearls, and will not only drop all their items when given one, but it also increases your reputation with scavengers. Speaking of such, there's two reputation systems for scavs. One reputation system is for that scav specifically and the other is for ALL the scavengers. High reputation means your less likely to be stabbed on sight and you're more respected by the scavengers as a whole. This can be increased by helping them fend off creatures or giving them items: pearls, spears, bombs, ect. Though remember that even if they sometimes don't try to attack you, they may kill you by accident when they tried hitting something else. There's even scavenger tolls that you must pay. A single pearl will work just fine unless your reputation is a little "bad". Some will gesture if you can pass or not: hand extending shaking up and down = scram (can't pass) hand moving up and over the scav and then behind it = come on in (can pass). Upon passing a toll without paying, heavily reduces your global reputation and causes every scavenger at the toll to become hostile (remember, one spear can kill you, so either be good at fighting or just pay the toll). High reputation can cause some scavengers to help you out in situations. If your reputation is VERY low, scavs will begin to send kill squads solely to seek you out and kill you, and it's only just the beginning. So remember, scavengers will act towards you depending on how you treat them, or not, they can just stab you for no reason.

This is all I'm going to tell you because this is just a lot of words, hope you get how the game works and enjoy it :D

[scrimblo]

You have to explore this world and find something interesting and find out yourself what u should do. Your overseer (yellow piss drop) will guide your way through. But i will give you one tip: go up to top of chimneys and then to the right