Isn't this game too hard?

[Expirium]

I can't win on normal difficulty. I run out of resources and keep getting a bunch of negative stats piled up. At day 20 I'm simply about to lose. Wat da faak

[JC]

Normal is hard, Try story mode. It took me 5 months and nearly 150 hours to beat the game on normal.


That said, I found focusing Kari and Moria on fighting + a couple select chores for up grades.

New people added to camp need depression and fatigue reductions and focus on certain tasks.

Use items to take away sickness and disease.

be mindful or what neg stats you take on upgrades, sometimes you should pick something else, even if it isn't a big boost. You can also reroll your picks 4 or 5 times. It can be worth doing. The neg effects last a few days to a week. (-XP, but its not horrible)

You need to explore the island, and use the resources you find.


Again, try story mode, the game is hard even on normal and i've seen people say even story mode is hard so it's not the typical story mode.

Good luck!

[Hasefrexx]

The trick to the early game is to use your limited ressources correctly. The boat and exploration provides food, the boat also comes with lots of ressources to let you build up vital buildings (I build in order stone, bed, tavern or wood and then fish, fruit and cooking). You want fish rather than meat because you won't wound yourself. You want cooking as it will produce enough spoiled food to always fish. You also want to explore enough to get another 2 party members quickly. You do need to recruit said members at the right time (you produce enough food to feed everyone and have enough buildings to keep them productive). You also need to not over harvest; once per day per stone (you will need a lot later on so start early) while wood can be twice a day with the occasional rest.

Then you will want to get things you will only get though exploration that will let you expand your camp (fire stone... you can miss some of them depending on the choices made during interactions). Things like extra productivity when chopping wood, wasting less wood to keep the fire up, require less water for drinkable water,... this will free up time to do other things like healing as you will have decreased productivity from diseases and wounds by that point. You will also need to get production chains to start buildings up ropes,... for the later game.

In beetween you can sneak up a forge to prepare potions and keep alive severely diseased/wounded characters. Try to avoid it as it's quite time consuming.

Also remember to prioritize status: your fisherman or cook needs to be well fed or he will lose productivity, but for exemple characters will gather fruits just fine with high hunger.

If a character produce a lot of something doesn't mean you want him to produce this. Eirik will usually get you the most fish but you will need to have him sit in the tavern constantly to get rid of depression. That works as a temporary fix to feed a large group until you get easier access to food, but on the long run this is counterproductive.

Overuse characters with looter trait, it will get you large amount of random things. In the early game, it will regularly mean things you can not produce and thus will dearly need.

Don't hesitate to say no to the occasional tribute even when you can pay if it would put you too much behind your goals. 50 woods can be worth getting a good beating for exemple; without that you might not be able to afford the next tribute.

Be really weary of the choices you make. Sometimes when you are given choices, there are really bad outcomes if you fail checks. If the odds to succeed are low, it can be better to not pass the check at all.

Lastly don't be affraid of diseases and wounds. There are a handful really bad ones like disentery where you will use consumable to get rid of it ASAP (keep the ones from the boat preciously for situations like these), otherwise just live with it until you have the buildings to cure them.

[Abel]

Good advice, here. I'll give some of mine, as a recent players who's started several times over to get a more optimized start (Survival difficulty).

The early days could be quite difficult indeed, depending on your starting characters' stats and on the type of characters (looters) you could recruit early. Constant bad weather can also doom your party.

You should build accordingly. For example, if Depression is an issue, don't hesitate and build the Tavern quickly. I usually postpone building a Cooking Pot because cooking takes a turn and wastes some food. I mostly rely on raw food. Fishing doesn't require any equipment besides hooks (which are quite easy to produce) so, even though it's a depressing activity, it's a reliable food source as is the Harvesting Camp (though it can only feed a couple characters). Traps are a great and passive source but they're hard to craft in satisfying quantities.

I don't build the Dryer, the Pens or the Garden. I don't think they're worth the price in the early game. Since I tend to produce just the necessary food, I don't need to dry it not risk see it lost in the process. The Pens are useless without sheep and even then, those need expensive feeding. The Garden could be useful for Hemp but it needs watering and that could be tricky to safely ensure without good (bad) weather.

Find an Ancient Knowledge tablet as soon as you can so you can upgrade your Workshop, then your Lumber and Mining Camps (between day 15-20).

Crafting fast is important so any character skilled in it will be very valuable early on.

I suggest training Kira's dog to find more items and leave it doing that endlessly. That's a reliable way to get a steady supply of valuable Ropes and Fabrics.

I go to a 6 characters party by day 10 so you shouldn't fear expanding, as long as you have enough room and activity for everyone. And even then, you can rotate characters and leave some to rest.

Be very wary of resources attrition and make sure that they will go back to 100% or close in the morning so you don't accumulate unnecessary Fatigue, Depression and lose on resources gathered. If attrition rolled low you can consider working a second time for that day on the camp if its regenerative capacity allows it (usually not for the Mining Camp).

If you pay attention to this and optimize your turns, you should get by. Good luck!