Avoiding death at all cost - what are you best tips?

[Adidas]

I play ULTRA cautious because I'm a masochist who likes to simulate permadeath and re-roll on death. Don't laugh, I finished Fallout 3 after thousands of carefully orchestrated play time hours with only ONE life. The rush you get from escaping by a thread is amazing and as an old school gamer (I'm 44), I amuse myself the way I can.

Which bring us to this game. So immediate clover leaf suit, got it, but the issue I have is a) thirst and hunger b) base building. Thirst because I only get dew time to get my needs met, and b) base building because I need a base to collect water and protect myself from nasties.

I opted for the good old baseball as my first base, but that needs clay foundation to work properly, which I did watch a guide and involves MAD running away from spiders around the oak tree (I wish this game had better stealth mechanics).

Is there an easier way to handle that clay requirement?

Furthermore, what tips could you give to prevent death AT ALL COST (time is not an issue, I can spend as much time as I need to stay alive).

Thank you!

[inkbiegel]

Why does a baseball base need clay foundations?
I just built a two story base on stem scaffolding with grass walls/floors, playing on Normal.
Seems to work fine.

[Jaggid Edje]

There's clay in smaller pools of water all over the grasslands, no need to go to the oak tree. There's 2 pools right near the mysterious machine (which is very near the baseball) with some clay, and a few other pools scattered around about the same distance from the baseball.

There's also a metric ton of clay around the swampy pool in the southeast, and as long as you don't go too close to where the mosquitos are, you can gather several full stacks of clay without fighting anything.

As far as your question about tips to prevent death at all costs. Just make yourself the weevil shield and get good at perfect blocking. In my current game, which is at around 150 hours of playtime, my only death has been caused by falling....gravity can't be blocked (unless you have a dandelion equipped).
Also, once you do the pond lab (and you can do it first, before hedge lab if you want), make a habit of farming the muscle sprouts every time they respawn. They are basically the main ingredient for good healing slushies (which is the same as a healing potion in any other game).

P.S. It'd be cool if this game had an ironman mode, so you didn't have to force yourself to restart if you died. I like playing Ironman in most games that have the option, but if it's not enforced by the game I admit to being not-so-good at enforcing the playstyle o myself.

[Nyah]

https://grounded.fandom.com/wiki/Smoothie_Station
make a lot of healing smoothies, these are like heal potions ;)
and bandages for a slow heal on time, to recover.

https://grounded.fandom.com/wiki/Dew_Collector
for your water needs

[ShockedHearts]

well defense and upgrades will do a lot. make sure to save your upgrade materials for a tanky set of tier2+ armor. so you can tank plenty of hits. and if you arent a great fighter, aka parrying spiders etc. might do you well to use any mutations you can to avoid being poisoned badly or to have smoothies etc to balance it out.

preparation is key to survival in the backyard it seems.

also if you see a new bug and arent sure if you can take it dont bother.

something like a firefly can destroy you early on without gear and experience, but easily becomes a cakewalk once you understand its abilities, patterns and general strength so always go into a fight over prepared or with an escape plan.

good luck~

(ps I also have always been the type of person to get turned off by dying in a game, I enjoy the idea of ACTUALLY surviving so dying always feels like failing and I usually restart games if I die a lot or even once depending on the game and Im only 22 hah) might just be some bad OCD or something though who knows.

also sprig spears making for a great ranged option. as they do decent extra dmg and are cheap. throwing other melee isnt worth it for the dmg cost to losing a weapon for the fight.

so if you dont wanna use a bow spears can be very useful and cheap

[Zero1]

beat the game on normal that way you can figure out what will kill you and where to get stuff

[indy-anna]

I use the pebblet foundation. It takes 2 clay and 3 pebblets, it's better than the clay because it's level.

[Godamnzilla]

Hey I do the same thing! I play with only permadeath, and I even planned on rekilling everything with just a pebblet. There's a bunch of advice I can say but the most important advice I can offer you is to get really good at the combat, and the rest will essentially fall into place after that.

Learn the attacks and patterns of each dangerous bug and remember them well. I know that isn't an easy task and you may die and have to reset, I've done it dozens of times myself. You can even look online if you want but I find that to be cheating. I just suit up, grab a shield and many forms of healing, set my hotkeys, and set out to fight. I keep my guard up, run, and heal until I feel I have an understanding of their patterns. Some bugs such as the Stink Bugs and Bombardiers are tough because of the gas and acid AOE attacks respectively. Stink Bugs can be easily cheesed with ranged weapons, there are multiple ways you can fight them melee but that takes more risk than necessary. The Bombardier can be cheesed too but not as easily as they can shoot back, and meleeing is decently doable when you learn how to predict their acid attacks, but that's a major risk because they do A LOT of DPS if you're caught. Most higher tier bugs just do a S**T TON of damage with melee attacks so getting good at perfect blocking is key with or without a shield. If offense is more of your style then try rushing Coupe De Grass as criting adds a bunch more damage and staggers enemies for more hits, they can't fight if they're dead.

For armor I had a really weird armor set for just myself, but I can recommend to have atleast one piece of Ladybug armor. Upgrading it gives you a bonus to healing you receive which will definitely save you. Other things to help are using gum to make Stinky Slop smoothies as they also regen your health, eating roasted meat as they heal you for a lot, and saving energy bars for emergencies as they also heal you for a lot. Then keep them all easily accessible or in your hot tabs. The molar infusions for health, healing, stamina, and more active mutations are key for survival, pretty self explanatory for why. Then there are the new badges that are wild in their effects, you gotta look that one up yourself.

Well all in all you said you had time and I hope you meant that as with the addition of the upper yard, new bosses, and just stronger bugs this task is going to be one hell of a time. But if you keep to it and learn well then armor and healing is more for just in case you do get hit. Best of luck friend.