Am I supposed to buy out every vending machine I see or something?

[Brilpoetsdoekje]

I’m playing solo and my progression is absolutely zero, all I do is running around looking for food, water and a place to ♥♥♥♥, while I slowly run out of resources and enemies keep respawning every time I dare restart the game. It honestly feels like I am slowly softlocking myself, my leg also got broken and with that I can’t create any more splints, my movement is restricted, I’m stuck in my tiny “base” (a workbench and some cabinets) that just got invaded by like 8 headcrabs that all portal’d in through this purple portal, right after I got chased and nearly killed by one of those dogs.

Tf am I doing wrong? Do I have to restart if this keeps up?

[Buwaro Elexion]

1st, don;t look for a place to ♥♥♥♥, instead have some plastic on you when it happens naturally until you can build your own toilet.
2. you can cut up enemies with a knife for more food if you don;t net stomp them or make a fishing rod for easier food.
3) steal water coolers and fill empty ones up at the source for tainted water boiling(for your farms), lastly make a chopinator to cut up security robots for easy thirst management( and you can trade the rootbear for peas at warrens.
4. "dogs" are weak to blunt, so net them and hit their head with a pipe club
once you make it to silo 3 your problems are solved in terms of resource scarcity, so work on that asap

[Freaklobo]

You can harvest meat from the "headcrabs" using a sharp melee weapon, such as a knife or makeshift spear. The weapon's tooltip will mention if it can harvest corpses, and how effectively it will. Once you've collected the raw meat, you can cook it to make it safe for consumption by using a frying pan on a stove top. There is a singular stove surface that can be used in the starting kitchen, but later you can either make your own makeshift stoves, or find full ranges throughout the facility.

Water is a more fickle affair in the early game, but becomes a non-issue later. For the beginning, keep an eye out for filled sinks or water coolers. Sinks can be drank from directly, or have their water collected in either a bucket or water bottle. Water coolers can be packaged and carried back to your base, and refilled with water found elsewhere. If you find yourself desperate for water and unable to find either sinks or water coolers, dirty water can be boiled in a cooking pot on a stove top to purify it. Dirty water is found in numerous places throughout the facility, but most prominently in the early game is the center fountain of the plaza just beyond the tutorial section.

[Darkseed]

Originally posted by Brilpoetsdoekje:

I’m playing solo and my progression is absolutely zero, all I do is running around looking for food, water and a place to ♥♥♥♥, while I slowly run out of resources and enemies keep respawning every time I dare restart the game. It honestly feels like I am slowly softlocking myself, my leg also got broken and with that I can’t create any more splints, my movement is restricted, I’m stuck in my tiny “base” (a workbench and some cabinets) that just got invaded by like 8 headcrabs that all portal’d in through this purple portal, right after I got chased and nearly killed by one of those dogs.

Tf am I doing wrong? Do I have to restart if this keeps up?

As others have said water coolers are everywhere pick them up(They dont need C skill so they won't break) and take them back to base

Nets are very useful for quickly ending a threat from the pests but stomping prevents you from getting food from them

Pick up a standing lamp from the data farm upstairs, a kitchen knife, a desk phone, and some duct tape and make yourself a useful weapon.

At night some things stop working in the facility maybe check the vents for a room you couldnt get to before? The fan in the second set of vents turns off allowing you access to a room behind the cafeteria there is a pecacry in there you will need to kill, but past that room is a very important anvil you can use to make a repair bench early instead of waiting for a later area like upstairs near the entrance to the elevators upper level.

The data farm also holds another secret if you look for no obvious areas near the executive office on the left side is a way down inside is an early advanced pack so you can skip both the makeshift pack and the regular backpack

Grab the cooking pot from the kitchen near the data farm and the fridge and take them both back to your base the cooking pot either requires trial and error or the wiki but one of the earliest soups just needs water, the can of peas, and some salt, a more advanced version just needs a certain bit of pest meat there are 33 food combos and 3 things that are useful but not food that can be made in the pot so its useful to gather atleast 2 pots(or 30)

The fridge slows food spoilage or stops it depending on world settings but requires a battery to stay on at night which leads me to my next bit of advice Never chain more then 2 batteries in a row batteries drain into each other so the more in a sequence the more power it takes to charge the next battery in the sequence. you only need 2 make shift batteries per bench/fridge/other powered device to make it through the night or 1 of a more advanced battery, yes it sounds like alot of batteries but it makes power management better and you can run a massive base off of 1 outlet with enough power strips.

Go find and kill another carbuncle and make a vacuum if you have not already it is one of the most useful items in the early and mid game as it can break things like computers and crates to easily gather those items or be useful in recovering arrows or grinder disks and it has no durability only power charge. The carbuncle from the early room respawns and there are several others.

Finally some items in the facility will respawn slowly(depending on settings) to prevent a true softlock but beyond that if you get to the 2nd portal world most items become infinite(more become infinite as you unlock more portal worlds and trading devices), as portal world items reset every few days(but not placed items or structures in there).

[Monokuma]

You are aware this isn't a permadeath game, correct? You'll just respawn.

[Iraneth The Goat]

Originally posted by Monokuma:

You are aware this isn't a permadeath game, correct? You'll just respawn.

Yes but it is a Survival game where dying is you know, not surviving.

I won't add anything else because the other top posts answered it. Get meat, cook eat. Water in coolers will last a long time but not forever so you need to progress

[Darkseed]

Originally posted by Goat (Unwashed Ungulate):

Originally posted by Monokuma:

You are aware this isn't a permadeath game, correct? You'll just respawn.

Yes but it is a Survival game where dying is you know, not surviving.

I won't add anything else because the other top posts answered it. Get meat, cook eat. Water in coolers will last a long time but not forever so you need to progress

I mean you have access to infinite water once you enter the data farms kitchen as that cooking pot could be used to slowly convert tainted water from the fountain or the pool by boiling at a ratio of 4:1 so 1000 tainted water becomes 250 regular water, but coolers are plentiful enough that a solo player can have enough water to hold out till they unlock the water filter, or you could start cooking with Antejuice as soon as you get to Manufacturing

[Monokuma]

Originally posted by Goat (Unwashed Ungulate):

Originally posted by Monokuma:

You are aware this isn't a permadeath game, correct? You'll just respawn.

Yes but it is a Survival game where dying is you know, not surviving.

I'm aware, but given the gameplay behavior of the op and their concern over being softlocked (and worrying about not having any splints for their leg), it feels like they're playing like dying is a game over.

I originally had other things to say but everything of value was pretty much already stated, which would drastically shorten my post to making a comment about how games shouldn't be given negative reviews over user fault.

Edit: I think the OP actually removed their negative review, so yeah all I could have possibly added was my original post.