I die constantly

[kathleen]

I am new at this game and die constantly. Due to my being disabled, I can only use my left hand to play, so I am slow, cause I constantly have to switch between my mouse and my keyboard.
Yet, I am practically completely immobile, this game is SO much fun and i fill my days playing it.
But, I die very soon after the beginning while my
1. energie drops very quick, how do i keep it up
2. the same with my health
3. my warmth; when i join the hobo’s next to a fire barrel, nothing happens, it continues dropping!
4. Same with my hunger, the very bit of eatables i find in the dumpster only go up by 1, eating this hardly helps
5. i’d like to build my place next to the other hobos, but where do i find the materials to do so? How can I pick them up and place them in the choosen spot?
6. Also, i soon am lost and there is no map under the "M" key?

These are a lot of (silly) questions, but the answers would be SO HELPFULL!

Thanks very much for your answers

[Corce]

Energy, sleep.
Warmth, make a fire in a hobo trash can. *sometimes* it seems to not work at premade trash cans used by other hobos, sometimes it does... I'm wondering if it has to do with your reputation with that faction or is just a bug.
You can buy better food at the stands around the city, just need the cash.
You can only build in specific "hideouts". There is one immediately south of where you start the game.
There is a map when you press M, but it's a hobo map. You can buy a better one at the stands around the city.

[HueftSteak]

if you have a mouse with extra buttons try to remap some of them for walking around. this way you could play the game without using the keyboard very much.

for example you could bind the 2 thumb keys to move forward / backward and mousewheel left / right for strafing.

you could also use programs like voiceattack to open menus or the map etc.

[jynx]

1 & 3. Save trash to burn in barrels (not wood), booze can get you up briefly. You have to put the fuel in the barrel and ignite it.
2. Beg a LOT! Check telephones and drink machines for cash.
4. Skip dumpster early or you'll get too dirty to beg and shop. Beg and buy 2-3 ham sandwiches (a day) at stands. For bathroom, get caught stealing and use the john there. (Drink before this so you can sleep). Buy detox after you get out so you don't get sick. Real hobo's do this all the time if it's really cold and the shelter's full.
5. First place available is southwest of start point, near train station. talk to 1st hobo for several missions that show you how to build.
6. Save $50 and buy map at a stand, then use it. You have to open stuff for it to show on the map. The key isn't useful, characters too small and everything's the same color.

[Noquid]

I agree with getting a multi-button mouse and then mapping certain things to it, great idea. When you start out (and it's warm), take all but one piece of clothing off and dumpster dive until you can't identify shrapnel anymore. Over time (long time) you will be able to identify all the shrapnel and just avoid them all. Ideally, have a 2nd set of clothes to dumpster dive. Begging is very useful, do it all the time even when moving around. When it rains or snows find a good flow of NPC's where you have something over you to protect you from the elements. (awning, roof, bridge, etc.) Coffee will give you energy, you really don't even have to sleep. The burn barrel issue has to be a bug, I've never run into that before. You're going to do a lot of traveling back and forth from a burn barrel, pretty much the whole game.
Don't carry more than 100 crowns on you early on because the Thugs will attack you. If you have less than 100 they let you go. Good luck !!

[Player 1]

Find the charity, walk the dog for 50 cash a day, ask for something free and take the clothing, this helps the first day or so, Often you will get clothes with better charisma that helps in the first few days, however you will soon experience weather that the clothes from the charity won't help with so beg a lot to buy better clothing as soon as possible. Follow the quest lines, there are lots of cash rewards from the npc's that help with buying better clothing. The cold is progressive and one has to constantly upgrade to better clothing.
Low morale will constantly nick away at your health, there are several ways to combat this.
Not going Number Two when urgent will drain your morale.. that drains the health.
Lemons (no food/poop) resolves sickness and poison 5 pts.
apples resolve 3 points sickness / poison (5 food/poop)
keeping negative factors low slows your health depletion.
Using addictive elements to resolve problems is risky, once fully addicted , to abstain causes withdraw which quickly ( i do mean quickly ) drains your health.
My first game plan is to beg enough to get a burger or ham sub. ( a couple if possible ). then a couple med kits, ( 100cr each) a couple good smokes for the thugs. Buy a map and a flashlight from the vendor soon as you can. Check every machine for coin beg as much as possible. Stay clean and odor free as much as possible. Level your dump diving on ashtrays at first, only 2 shrapnels in them and you can find food scraps, alcohol bits an smoke buts, some spectacular finds with items like : laser pointers to sell and good smokes and even small amounts of cash ect.
It seems bad but don't be afraid to steal and pick pockets it is almost the mainstay of survival here , those things in the npc pockets will save your life and make you rich if you play it right.

you said you use one hand, I can play the npc dialogues with only the mouse, Ie. begging, pickpocketing , trading , Using the right click to escape and the left to select and hovering the cursor over the desired reply. Then quickly move cursor to selected item when picking pocket and hold left mouse button until the line goes all the way around to steal an item. Playing single handed will be a challenge. Good luck'
( windows 7 sp1 ... nVidia1050 )

That's all I can get in a ' Getting Started ' advice post. I think once you use some of these
techniques to stay alive you will learn enough on your own to keep going.

Hobo TL is a rather cruel game in the beginning. I just achieved Beggar King after many many restarts and failures. I have come to believe that is a regular thing.

Best of luck and Happy Gaming :)

[natshely]

You can get many useful advices in the guide section. Also watching some vids on YouTube can help alot. Start with begging (good place is near train station). You can quickly get some money to buy coffe, some food, bandages etc in the supermarket. Every day you can get free food or clothes in the charity (to get there go to the church, talk to the father). There're a lot of things you have to learn before game goes well. I started a new game 20 times)) but now I can survive the first 12-15 days without dying. Wishing you good luck.

[Seppukuman]

I'm sorry to hear your condition, but let's see what you can do in terms of gameplay to survive.

First off, if you're already struggling to be alive or die constantly after 3-5 days of playing, restart. The game will become much harder the longer the season goes by and i think its fundamental to understand the basics first. I restarted my 13 days file since i die alot and I'm faring much better now, dont be discouraged to restart. And again, when playing this game, always remember that the game is most difficult at the start, dont be discouraged on a bad start.

I recommend following Maisner's questline at the start, his questline is or at least one of the most important questline in the early game. He is somewhat a tutorial kinda guy that will teach you a couple basic crafting recipes that are essential to your early game.

I wont be spoiling anything on Maisner's questline, but basically hell teach you a way to get food and also how to restore energy and morale.

For your health problem, I would infer that you lose it alot due to ripping off your clothing from the dumpster diving minigame and freezing. My rule of thumb is to always have a spare clothing for dumpster diving, but certainly just avoid the larger dumps for now to preserve your clothes. When your clothes are completely ripped off, you will start taking health damage (the "ouch" pop up) instead of the "ripping" and "smelly" prompt that pops out. Many hobos, including myself are sometimes too overzealous in cleaning up every dumpster that one would dive. But really the important lesson here is to use the caution prompt that pops up (the (!) hazard icon) to avoid ripping your clothes; as you level up your diving skill, youll get more of these hazard icons, making it safer to dumpster dive.

Specifically for your condition, however, I recommend playing as a beggar instead. The prompt to beg someone can be done with only using a keyboard. Do watch youtube guides and videos on begging and charisma, and especially on getting new clothes if you are interested in playing this way, its probably the most effective way to survive in this game due to how money can really solve so many problem in this game (buying real food for hunger, coffees for energy, alcohol for morale, money for using the toilet and laundry, etc).

Hope these tips help, do add me or just mention me in this thread for any questions!

Btw you cant build your base just anywhere on the map, there are designated hiding spots that you can build.

There is a map in this game, but you need to buy them.

TLDR; restart your game, its fine, it will take a while for you to adjust to the game, especially when only playing on a keyboard. Get ahold on the basic way to get food, morale, energy, and money by just replaying the first five days of the season. Then if youre comfortable enough, do a test run and see how far you survived.

Good luck!