Wayward Newbie Guide

[KogasaGaSagasa]

Wayward Newbie Guide
- The other side of the Starter Quest

Welcome to Wayward. In this survival-roguelike game, you play as an indescript person on an indescript quest involving something about treasures. With the seafaring vessel that you were on gone, you are dumped onto an island with only a pocketful of shoddy items, some skills, and the clothing behind your back.

Each start is randomized, with a randomly generated map, and your starting inventory and skills changing each playthrough. Ultimately, it doesn't change much until you get used to the game, and know how to best exploit your starting set of skills and items.

I am writing this guide with regard to a typical, fresh start as to accomodate newbies. Your experience through the islands will accumulate - milestones (Default "Z" key) will affect your starting items and grant more starting skill level, so the game will only get easier the more you play it.

There are minor spoilers in terms of basic crafting recipes. It doesn't even include the infamous wooden door recipe, though, so I doubt you need to worry about it!

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Before you start, you should tweak the options a bit.

Go to the gameplay section and turn off "Auto Gather". This disables auto gathering, which disallow you to bump into trees and try to hack at it with a lit torch. You may turn on Protected Crafting Items, which would stop you from using whatever's in your quickslot or equipped item as crafting material.

You may, of course, read through the options and tweak whatever you'd like, but Auto Gather is the big thing.


To start the game, click on new game. You should play the game in Hardcore Mode - but if you don't like dying and losing all your progress, you may pick Casual Mode instead. Daily Challenge does not allow saving, and isn't very newbie-friendly.

You may play in Manual Turns or Real-Time Turns. For newbies, manual turns will allow you a lot more time to think about your actions and options, and is strongly recommended.

The character generation is only for cosmetics, and isn't very important.

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Basics

After you finish generating the map and character, it's time to start playing.

First, before you move or check the Starter Quest, check your starting inventory and gear up. You can do this by pressing "i", "e", and you might as well as press "c" to open the crafting menu. You should have some basics items, including:
- Clothing (Tattered shirt, tattered pants)
- Leaf Bedroll
- A stone tool (such as stone hoe, stone axe, and the like)
- A liquid container with water inside (Purified or unpurified)
- Some plant matters, as well as seeds, if you are lucky.
- Assorted rocks and branches

Take a quick look around you. If there aren't any immediate threats (Spiders, snakes, or the infamous newbie-slayer, goats), find the Left Hand and Right Hand option and click one of the box away. This enables you to only use that hand when you fight. There are no active dual-wielding in Wayward at this time of writing, and using a weaker weapon isn't optimal.

For your protection, move your tool to your active hand - Held it. If you have a spare branch, or a torch of some sort, held it on your off hand. This let you "Parry" with both weapons. While the bonus is extremely low at start (1 defense), it's something.

Also for your protection - this is the strange part - disassemble your starting clothing. They offer no pluses at armor of 1, and vulnerability of 1 to everything but fire, at 2. This means that wearing them doesn't negate damage, and even amplify any accidental fire damage. Disassembling both should net you two pieces of "Cotton Fabric"s.

You should be able to make bandages with those - move to your crafting screen (Press "C" if you haven't yet to open it up), and find Bandage, and craft the two of them. Bandage is a life-saver early game, as they heal for a good amount of health and stops bleeding.

Walk around with WASD key. You can "Harvest" from nearby trees and plants if they are ripened (Though things like mushroom or cotton can only be "Gathered") - this trains your gardening skills. Get at least some maple seeds if possible, and gather whatever non-tree plants that are ripened. If they aren't ripe, you can keep mental note of them and come back to them later. Keep note of things like outcrops with mineral or coal - you can figure out what the terrain is by shift+right click on them. Pick up rocks and the like when possible.

[KogasaGaSagasa]

Starting Strategy

Ignore the Starter Quest, and explore quickly. Avoid combat if possible. Avoid sharks. Avoid stairs going down to the caves. Avoid anything that seem dangerous.

Pick up things, interact with "doodads" such as pile of rocks (Press Q -> Collect object with hand).

If you are in forest, you might be able to find swamp area or just pools of normal, non-seawater. Those are valuable at start, and can be gathered with an empty container (Right click on the container while facing the water, and gather). The unpurified water can be drank at a chance of causing poison, or be boiled for safety as part of crafting. If you are in a pinch and can't find any vegetables, that's a way to survive for now. Forested areas are plentiful, and apples are extremely good for anyone starting out.

If you are in a desert, coconut and prickly pears are extremely important for survival. Harvest them when you see ripen ones, note down location of ones that aren't, and try to find the forest.

If you dig up claw worms: Run, or smack them and hope you kill them. Run from them if you need. If you keep going in a straight line, or try shaking them off in the trees, you'll eventually lose them, just like any other threat in the game.

Run, explore, harvest, and avoid fights. If you are bleeding from harvest plants, you have bandages.

If it's just giant rats or spiders, you should be able to dispatch them in one or two hit. Never be afraid to run away if things get dangerous. If you kill any creatures, and have a sharpened tool, you can Q -> Carve to gather from the corpse.

You might come across houses when you explore. Those are good for some basic loots, but may contain skeletal remains - stay away from skeletal remains, close door, and leave them for later. However, if there aren't any threats, they are a good place to rest in.

As you run around gathering apples and coconuts, your gardening should increase. As you gather piles of rocks, you should start getting naturally sharpened rocks. Your goal is to survive, shake off enemies, and gather as much food - especially fruits - as possible. Once your hunger and thirst hit a low level, eat them.

Try to keep your benignity/malignity in the positive. It can be located to the right of your health bar in the UI.

In Wayward, every action you make gain you malignity or benignity. Generally, if your actions are industrious or harms animals and plants, it gains you malignity. If your actions help the island and coexists with the native lives, it gain you benignity. For newbies just starting out, it's very, very important to keep it positive, as this affects nighttime spawn and game difficulty. If you keep it positive, nighttime will become a lot less dangerous.

Your goal is to:
1. Get sharpened rocks or shales.

2. Make a stone knife. Drag the stone knife to the top-left corner to ensure that tasks that take sharpened will use the stone knife first.

3. Get cordage. The primary source of early cordage is stripped barks and plant roots.
- Dismantle (Via dismantle menu) "Branches" into stripped barks, poles, and the like.
- Dismantle "Tree barks" for stripped barks.
- Dismantle "Log" for tree barks, which can be dismantled for stripped barks.
- If you are in the desert, coconut trees can be Gathered from to gain palm leaves, which are viable cordage. [Not recommended]

4. Make strings from cordage. They are used in a lot of recipes, including virtually all major tools.

5. Craft tools. Note that tools generate malignity to craft. If your alignment is getting close to the negatives, harvest more seeds from nearby trees with your hands. Your goals are the following items, in no particular order:
- Stone Hoe. 2 Strings, 1 Sharpened Rock, 1 Pole*.
- Stone Hammer. 1 String, 1 Rock, 1 Pole.
- Stone Shovel. 2 Strings, 1 Sharpened Rock, 1 Pole.
- Stone Axe. 1 String, 2 Sharpened Rocks, 1 Pole.
- Stone Pickaxe. 1 String, 2 Sharpened Rocks, 1 Pole.

Stone Hoe let you till dirt, as well as harvest/gather without using your hand. If you tilt grass, you can get grass seeds or plant roots until you reveal the soil underneath. Tilled dirt let you plant things in it. This is important for any sort of survival.

Stone Hammer let you craft rocks into sharpened rocks, as well as repair your other tools. Stonecrafting (Which sharpened rock falls under), however, can quickly raise your strength and push you into negative alignment very, very fast. Do it if you need to. You can use stone hammers to gather from rocks - it beats using your fist.

Stone Shovel let you dig and gather. This doesn't sound impressive, but if you dig gravels you have a chance of finding shales. Gravel can be disassembled into stones (pebbles) and sands. Stone can be crafted into Cobblestone Flooring, which can be laid for aesthetics and small amount of benignity. You can use shovels to gather from trees and rocks - it beats using your fist. Shovels can be used on grass to get the same benefit as if tilting with a hoe.

Stone Axe let you cut down trees. Stone Pickaxe let you mine rocks. Both of them are very efficient in what they do. Stone axe, notably, have 3 slashing attack.

* Poles, when unspecified, means any sort of item that have the "Pole" Grouping. You can use normal wooden poles, or bone poles. Some items might specify that it needs wooden poles instead. This goes for anything else in Wayward.

You might optionally want the following items:
- A Small Bag. 1 Tanned Leather, 1 String, 1 Needle.
- Hand Drill. 2 Wooden Poles.
- Wooden Spear. 1 Wooden Pole, 1 Sharpened. The Sharpened item is a tool, and not consumed.

Bags and any other containers let you put things in them. If you wear bags, quivers, or backpacks, items within are considered to be 1/2 in weight. This let you carry more things. Things that might decay also decay slower in container, including the bag.

Hand Drill let you start fires with kindling and tinder.
- Twigs are kindling and plentiful. They also have no other uses.
- Leaves are tinder and fairly plentiful, or you can dismantle twigs for wodden shavings, which are also tinders.
You can start open fires, but those have chances to spread. Generally, they don't spread too badly. You can consider a fireplace, but those aren't essential. An open flame on the beach works fine for most things, including lighting torches or branches.

Wooden Spears are better than a pole, and is a skewer - which means they can be used to cook meats with. They can be used to gather plants as well.

6. Survive. Just by surviving, eating and drinking, you'll slowly get stronger. Crafting, mining, planting, etc. all contribute to your eventual strength. By having the basic sets of tools, you can harvest plants and plant more seeds, entering a healthy loop.

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Starter Goals

1. Foods and Drinks.

In roguelike, there's a concept called "Permafood" - or foods that won't decay. In Wayward (2.5.7 Development), the current permafoods include:

1. Water in containers. Potable waters from some source, preferably purified.
2. Milk Thistles. Medicinal plant. Positive hunger and thirst, and have no decay.
3. Beggarticks. Medicinal plant like milk thistle, but causes thirst instead of alleviating it.
4. Pemmicans. Crafted from 2 meat items. Can be made into prepared pemmicans with some animal fat, but that cause them to start decay.
5. Seeds and plant roots. Those are similar to pemmicans, usually causing thirst while alleviating hunger. Some seeds can be poisonous, notably apple seeds.
6. Goat Milk. Strangely enough, there are no pasturization in Wayward, and milks do not decay. This require a tamed goat and a liquid container, though.
7. Plants. If you leave fruits hanging on trees or bushes, they won't decay. You can harvest them later. There are talks of making plants die after a while, though.

Get to a point where you don't have to worry about food, whether by planting a grove of apple trees or stocking up when you adventure. I usually do this by gardening: This is where all those seeds you gathered at the start of the game really matter.

Shovel -> Dig up soil.
2 Leaves -> Compost
Compost + Soil -> Fertile Soil

Lay down fertile soil, tilt it, and plant. Those plants will grow faster, and once ripen will have chances to "spread" to nearby tiles. You can, of course, plant without fertile soils. The important thing is to start replicating plants, and get to a point where you have more foods and drinks than you can consume.

2. Medicines.

There are three major conditions in wayward: Bleeding, Poison, and Burn.

Bleeding can be cured by bandages, sutures, or tourniquets.
Poison can be cured by medicinal drinks.
Burn can be cured by pouring liquid over self, or jumping into deep enough water. This is described as the "burning sensation", rather than the actual fire itself.

The most reliable source of health is bandages or sutures. You probably want some medicinal drinks, though.

Bandages can be mass produced if you have enough stripped barks or any cordage, but can be heavy. If you have a source of cotton, however, you can make badnages with cotton fabric instead, which are generally lighter. Bandages can be upgraded with charcoals, which is created by partially burning wooden objects, usually twigs. Set a fire on a pile of 12 twigs, and use tongs to extract them (Or use your hands and jump into the ocean after. I am not judging!), and the resultant bandage heals for slightly more.

Sutures can be used to heal yourself, and is easily created if you have prickly pears. When prickly pears are gathered instead of harvested, the cactus needles can be crafted into needles, which can be used with strings to make sutures. They are light and cures bleeding, and are passable healing items.

Medicinal drinks can be made with any purified water + 2 medicinal plants. Usually, you can just use plant roots for those. You can use beggarticks or milk thistles if you have too many of them just fine, though. Note that when drinking the cure: If you are full in hunger AND thirst, it WILL deal stamina damage to you as if you are overeating and overdrinking. This can cripple you, especially in middle of a fight.

3. Gears and Combat

Bark. Bark shield + a lit torch deals with most things early game, and bark shirt and leggings are enough until later.

Skip copper. Copper need similar items as Iron, while being weaker.

Gather iron ores, make wrought iron, but don't make any wrought iron gears unless you absolutely feel like you need them.

Iron recipe is difficult - making iron ingots requires sand casting, flux and the like. It's similar to steel crafting in Dwarf Fortress. It's late-game, however, and requires a good amount of blacksmithing. For the time being, gather wrought irons, and stock up.

You can get really far into the game with just bark gears, lit torches, and a good sense for round-based combat. Throwing things at enemies help, and spare wooden spears are good for that. Bows are very, very good if you can spend the time and energy to train them up, with late-game bows and arrows easily outperform most melee weapons.

Traps, such as snares, are vital even early-game. Snare is just string + 2 poles, and if monsters trigger them, they take damage and is delayed for a few turns. During this time, you can run... Or lay down more snares. Even if monsters don't trigger them by chance, you can dance around the snares until they do set them off. Flying enemies, obviously, don't trigger traps well...

4. Goats

For newbies, there's just one word of advice:

Don't fight them. Tame them.

Feeding them maple seeds (Right click while facing most plant-eating animals -> Offer) will turn them friendly. You can milk them, and they won't kill you. Win-win for everybody. Just by having seeds, you can turn this early game ender into a friend. As your taming increase, the duration that they stay tamed last longer.

You can tame virtually anything in Wayward, though monsters prefer different items. For example, spiders prefer insects. Experiment and tame!

5. Treasures.

Remember why you came to the islands?

Treasures require you to explore, open chests, even leaving your island behind for new lands in order to find more types of treasures. There are elusive treasures that can only be found when the land sends you strong foes from you having a low alignment, as well. They are required for you to eventually sail home, and end the game.

If you survive long enough, you'll come across different ways to obtain the treasures.

[Drathy]

Good job! Have you thought about publishing a Steam guide on this?

[Hollianne1979]

Thanks for this guide... I read this game was hard and I usually laugh at that. Was 15 minutes in, following the starting tutorial... and was literally killed by a rabbit while trying to gather meat. That was my cue to go figure out what I was doing xD

[KogasaGaSagasa]

Steam guide? I'll look into it, I never thought about it to be honest.
And thanks for reading, Hollianne. There are more than one strategy, this is just what I tend to do. ;)

[stupid sexy flanders]

Thanks for taking the time to write this.

[Hollianne1979]

No problem Umbrella, thanks for taking the time to post! I am now surviving nicely and enjoying the game quite a bit! Rabbits don't stand a chance against me now, mwahaha.

[Fangthane]

I'd also mention that rabbits and rats (giant or otherwise) are an excellent source of drinking vessels.

[Zemecon]

I found this recipe off of the developer's old wiki archive on how to make a stone sill:

Waterskin (x1)
Large rocks (x3)
Wood pole (x1)
String (x1)
Sharpened rock (x1)
Some sort of fuel

You then place/build it and use your bow saw or whatever tool you have while facing it to light it (make sure you have kindling).

Now if only I can figure out how to desalinate the seawater before my character dies of dehydration...

EDIT: Nope. Scratch that. My character died of starvation. This Reddit page here said you were supposed to pour the seawater on the stone sill but whenever I did that the fire went out. This game is remarkably unintuitive.

[Drathy]

Have you tried the Starter Quest? It will teach you how to set up desalination.

[Zemecon]

I haven't tried the starter quest yet. Probably my fault for being so clueless - I figured I would just jump in and start playing like I do with every other survival game. But I did figure it out eventually (I never thought to pour the waterskin before lighting the still) so I think I'm getting there. And videos like the one posted in the forum earlier today really help.